You are currently not logged in – Login or register | Current Site:

Photolabs - A New Section
written by lucasjakobsson on February 24th, 2009 , 39 comments (29 votes)

There are several steps to an analogue photograph: a camera, a film, a motive, a click, 35 more clicks and then finally development! In our ongoing mission to save analogue photography from extinction we realized that we needed to help analogue labs survive the digital times (we don’t want our films to be forgotten in a fridge!)

After some long hours thinking about what the best way to go about this is, we decided that we should create the world’s first database of analogue photolabs, complete with services offered, prices charged and contact information! From the corner supermarket to the specialized lab, from New York to Sydney, in the near future you will be able to find labs both near and far, compare services and easily locate them on a world map (like LomoLocations )

But before we can show you this wonderful new function, we need your help! Below you will find a link that leads to a submission page that includes information about labs. Please fill in as much information as possible about your favorite lab(s). Then send the link on to as many people as you know! Then ask them to do the same! And then their friends should contact their friends and then – you get the point :P

Well go on then – the link is here waiting for you to fill out!

http://submit-a-photolab.lomography.com/

Please login or register to use this feature.

39 comments

  • sonjabean
    by sonjabean
    9 months ago

    Awesome idea! One of the best ever! I know about most of the labs around here, but whenever I go anywhere, I'm at a loss. It will be great to have this resource!

  • chaweemek
    by chaweemek
    9 months ago

    what a great idea!!

  • stouf
    by stouf
    9 months ago

    Excellent !

  • liquidpapercut
    by liquidpapercut
    9 months ago

    You guys read my mind!

  • bear1973
    by bear1973
    9 months ago

    What do you do if there is no email for your photolab? I can not submit my lab because of this

  • bear1973
    by bear1973
    9 months ago

    It's fine I just made up an obviously false on to go in.

  • sonjabean
    by sonjabean
    9 months ago

    I just looked at the form, and for me, there's something missing - whether or not the services are one hour, next day, or two or more days. For me, when I'm visiting somewhere unfamiliar, I'd love to know where to find one hour labs because I might not be around long enough to pick up my film days later....

    Another good thing to know is whether or not the lab is a shop where you can go and drop off your film or if it is mail order only.

    For me, this is kind of important information. I know the labs around where I live and what they do. These are the sort of details that would be important when I'm in an unfamiliar locale, which is when I would be most likely to use this database...

  • graefin
    by graefin
    9 months ago

    great idea! I know a lot of other photographers that went from digital to analog and they always ask me for labs! I can only send them to the lab where I have my films developed but for some people, sending films by mail isn't a good choice so they always try to find a lab nearby...with this database they can find a lab!!!

  • graefin
    by graefin
    9 months ago

    I just submitted one lab but I also have some further suggestions:
    as sonjabean just said: would be great to have an information about "1 hour lab" because the lab I submitted does 1-3 hour development.
    I also would like to have an "additional info" box where I can add some information about the lab like: very customer friendly, fast, no mail delivery, professional lab....etc.

  • ukaaa
    by ukaaa
    9 months ago

    Nice one!

  • lo-fi-hi-fi
    by lo-fi-hi-fi
    9 months ago

    just submitted my local favorite. its a lomographic oasis for me. but I don't now if they ship.

  • ukaaa
    by ukaaa
    9 months ago

    Submitted my favorite but I suggest you add the option to enter a price per photo or per roll. The lab I go to just has a price to develop a whole roll, no matter how many photos. But the price for the printing and scanning is per photo.

  • xbalboax
    by xbalboax
    9 months ago

    can we edit our submissions later like once i find the prices for developing film ect?

  • torium
    by torium
    9 months ago

    Niceee ! I missed this :--)

  • lomosexual_manboy
    by lomosexual_manboy
    9 months ago

    It gives an invalid warning when you add prices like 3.99 to 7.99 or 3.99-7.99 in a single slot. I think you should be able to have it written like that to be as specific as possible. At my lab 24 exposure is different than 36 exposure in pricing which is why I did that as well as print sizes from 35mm to various medium format sizes. And having a section to add comments would be very useful to include what sort of films and products they carry and so on.

  • day3hugger
    by day3hugger
    9 months ago

    best idea ever!

  • daredeye
    by daredeye
    9 months ago

    woooow, i want that fridge... but i live in the third world, so i think it won't be possible.
    Great for the labs idea!

  • larslau
    by larslau
    9 months ago

    I love the idea, but my favorite photo lab has variable pricing depending of the number of number of film processing you buy in advance. If you buy 500 film processings the price per film is only 1/4 of the price of a single piece of negatives or slides. It is also a bit expensive, but they are extremely professional, and the results are of course splendid, and if you need top quality or very specific handeling of a film this is definitely the place to go -- I would like to be able to add this kind information

  • eggzakly
    by eggzakly
    9 months ago

    I second larslau - maybe we use the same lab...

    Also, the price fields only take numbers, which makes adding a lab like the one larslau is talking about even more difficult as it operates on a voucher system. You buy between 10 and 500 vouchers, developing negatives costs 1 voucher, negatives + prints or a cd costs 3½ vouchers, and so forth...
    It would be nice to have a "comments" field where you could explain the voucher system & the prices, and then just be able to put "1 voucher", "2 vouchers" in the price fields.

  • blue-dog
    by blue-dog
    9 months ago

    WOW!!! NOW I AM SURE YOU ARE TELEPATHIC. I have just been talking out loud about this for over week. Seems my little mom ad pops are all gone and my inexpensive spots are going digital very soon. Notices were posted last week.

  • u-t-e
    by u-t-e
    9 months ago

    Love the idea!

  • gemma81de
    by gemma81de
    9 months ago

    Great idea, but i completely agree with sonjabean and lomosexual_manboy. And I couldn't submit my lab because although I know they offer certain things (and hence clicked "Yes") I don't know the prices of all of them. But leaving a yellow price field empty or even entering 0,00 isn't accepted.

  • graefin
    by graefin
    9 months ago

    @gemma: I left many yellow boxes empty and it worked!

  • afd_lsi
    by afd_lsi
    9 months ago

    Really nice idea, now when the lomographers are in travelling they can check the nearst lab.

  • lucasjakobsson
    by lucasjakobsson
    9 months ago

    thanks for all your feedback. We do realize that the current sheet does not allow you to enter ALL the information that you can in here but we would also like to ask you to bear in mind that this is meant to give an overview of the lab. For details we encourage you to contact the labs themselves.

    we will add a comment box to each lab when we launch this section and you can enter all the combinations of prizes, services, etc

    but thanks for the feedback, and we have already got a number of entries, thank you for this :)

  • mandashitley
    by mandashitley
    9 months ago

    Hell yes!

  • mephisto19
    by mephisto19
    9 months ago

    maybe you should add a box where you can write someting.... cause my lab does 110 & 126-films, too.
    BUT I CANNOT SUBMIT IT. ERROR- price - has an invalid format

  • kylewis
    by kylewis
    9 months ago

    Fantastic!!!

  • by atelyevich
    9 months ago

    Fantastic idea! BUT: my country (Serbia) isn't in the "Select Country" menu!! And neither is our neighbour Montenegro, for that matter. I have a couple of good labs to contribute, so please try to fix this!

  • lucasjakobsson
    by lucasjakobsson
    9 months ago

    @atelyevich

    the 2 countries have now been added :)

  • mephisto19
    by mephisto19
    9 months ago

    oh... and thanks for using my fridge- shot ;)

  • by philspectrum
    8 months ago

    The Lab-Finder is a great resource, but I have to agree with comments about entering pricing data. Spectrum Imaging bundles C41 and either print or scan or both, and I struggled to enter prices so they appear correct and fair. It's a brilliant concept, and I hope it encourages labs to broaden their service offering.
    Thanks

  • cruzron
    by cruzron
    8 months ago

    thanks for all those who submitted! Please, please submit more! :D

  • he_is_me
    by he_is_me
    8 months ago

    Real good idea, I submitted one a few days back.

  • zeitfenster
    by zeitfenster
    6 months ago

    super!

  • devrimarie
    by devrimarie
    6 months ago

    When will this feature be available? I am moving to Manhattan soon and I would love some help in picking a new lab...

  • d_i_hunter
    by d_i_hunter
    6 months ago

    Any news?

  • mephisto19
    by mephisto19
    6 months ago

    when will lab ection be opend?

  • devrimarie
    by devrimarie
    5 months ago

    will we get piggies for labs submitted?

Opinion is free and discussion is encouraged on lomography.com, however, neither the content nor the ideas expressed in the comments are supported by or representative of the Lomographic Society International.

Most recent galleries in all sections

Most recent user submissions in all sections

Most recent entries in all sections

Ongoing competitions

What events are up next?

Most popular tags in Blog show all tags

2009 24h boredbone boutique button chain of doubles david letterman doodle fiesta flash mob fomapan France Frankfurt fuji 55 fuzztone04 gemma81de holga Instant cameras light painting lightpainting lomo :) Lomographic X-pro Film Lomography Actionsampler Lomography Diana F+ Lomography Supersampler LomoHomes manila move New York palace patterns personality ponte Pop9 retail therapy Russia Russia! sankt-petersburg Shop shout outs South Korea special Splinter Splitzer SPOT ON WIEN submit tracking urban USA zorki 1

All sections