Where to buy film in Toronto / Where to develop film in Toronto?
Many of dollars I’ve spent. Recommendations I have.
Where to develop film in Toronto?
Memento Film Lab - 216 Ossington Ave, Toronto, ON M6J 2Z9 (My updated recommendation for 2023!)
These guys are passionate about film photography, and it feels good to support an independent business. They have top notch equipment that they have imported and fixed up personally. The scans I have gotten done are incredible. I love the whole experience of going to this lab. They have a sitting area in the front, where you can chill and look through their collection of photo books, as well as a gallery wall. One of the largest perks though is the community. You come across lots of other local photographers which is something I had not experienced at other film labs. A photography community is something that seemed to be lacking for a long time in the city and we finally have it at Memento. They also do printing. In my opinion - it is the best print quality in the city.
Downtown Camera - 89 Queen St E
Film can be purchased and processed in store. They do C41 in house and if you have any E6 rolls you can drop it off with them and they forward it to E6it (Toronto based). They also have an excellent selection for film. It’s a great one stop shop.
At the moment, they are offering a discount if you use their online portal in-store when dropping off your film.
They also offer memberships:
Regular price: $25/year
Student/Teacher price: $15/year
Purchase over $175 (before taxes) in analog products and/or services
The perks to being a member:
25% off all Kodak film*
25% off Film Chemistry
25% off all one-time use battery*
25% Downtown Camera hand rolled film*
10% off all other film*
10% Dark room chemicals and supplies*
5% off In-House Photo finishing orders*
And exclusive deals
They also have a rewards card. For every roll of film you get developed, you get a stamp. After ten stamps, you get a free roll of film.
Aden Camera - 382 Yonge St Unit 2
Film is processed in store and can be purchased in store or online.
West Camera - 514 Queen St. W (Bathurst and Queen)
Film can be purchased and processed in store. A limited selection for film.
Image Foundry - 1581 Dupont St
This place has come as a recommendation to me. I can’t personally vouch for them but they look amazing and I’ll probably use them soon. They do in-house E6 processing.
Lomography
You can buy film online here. They carry lots of experimental film.
The first three places have a large selection of film. There is also Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, Shoppers Drugmart (which only carries Fujifilm), and some convenience stores that stock film.
What kind of film to buy?
If you are looking for color film that is flexible, a good place to start is with Kodak.
They are flexible in terms of range. Meaning if you accidentally overexpose or underexpose the film buy a few stops it will still turn out.
I personally always shoot Kodak Gold 200. It has never let me down, and even though it is ISO 200, the range is fantastic. You can shoot a faster shutter in very low light while still getting enough light in, which you can see an example in the photo on the left:
There is also Kodak Ultramax 400, which is sometimes more readily accessibly than Kodak Gold. I found the colors to be slightly colder, and a bit more contrast to the images.
Then there is Kodak Color Plus. Maybe I am crazy but I found it to be comparable to Kodak Gold 200, just slightly more saturated in the coloring.
There is also Kodak Portra. I always find Portra overexposes just slightly. Since I like my images a little bit darker, I underexpose them by a couple of stops. Portra is the professional portrait film.
Portra film has a fine grain and is actually cut from movie film so the colors are extremely pleasing. This is also the only color film you can push and pull.
While Kodak tends to have warmer tones to its pictures, Fujifilm leans towards colder colors like blues and greens.
What to mention when dropping off your film?
The easy answer : Ask to have it developed and scanned at 4x6 resolution (a 4base scan which is good for online use) and have the photographs emailed to you. You have the choice of prints or no prints.
Now we can get into sub-details.
Would you like your negatives digitally scanned? (Digitized for online use)
Specify which resolution you would like your photographs scanned at. The lowest is 4x6” which is good for online use, decent 4x6 prints and is the least expensive. I personally prefer a 5x7 scan. 4x6 is ever so slightly grainy (although almost unnoticeable) but it doesn’t allow any room for cropping. When editing my photos, I might prefer a tighter crop so having a 5x7 scan allows room for that. Some places will use the terms “4base” (1024 x 1038px @ 72 dpi. Good for online use and printing 4x6) or “16base”(2048 x 2076px @ 72 dpi. Good for online use and printing 8×12″).*
Do you want prints of your photographs? I might not want prints of all of the photographs on the roll. Sometimes I don’t even remember what is on there. So I will get them scanned to disc and then print afterwards.
Do you want your negatives cut? *This isn’t a popular thing to mention when dropping off film, but it’s something to consider if you plan on doing larger printing in the future. Say you went on a trip, got all of your film developed at a low resolution scan (4x6/5x7) but you actually really love all of the photographs on the roll. So much so that you want to make a photo book and include all of the photos from that roll but your negatives were cut at the initial drop-off. To re-scan a cut roll is costly because they have to scan in multiple sleeves of negatives as oppose to a non-cut roll which can be re-scanned in one piece. So if you have a feeling that the roll you are dropping off is going to have multiple photographs you love that you will wanted printed huge in the future, then you can opt to have your negatives uncut so you have that option in the future. Maybe you are thinking, “Why not have the images scanned at a high resolution when you first drop off your film?” You could, but you would be paying large amounts of money for photos you have not seen the results of yet. You may not like most of them. An example of cost is West Camera. It is $5.50 to scan a roll of uncut film while scanning a roll of cut film it is $18.00.*
If you have “pushed” or “pulled” your film don’t forget to mention what ISO you would like your film developed! *If this doesn’t make sense, you don’t have to worry about it.
Did you shoot slide film? Don’t forget to mention whether you want E6 processing or C41 processing! E6 processing will allow accurate coloring while C41 will cross process the slide film. As mentioned before, Image Foundry does in-house E6 processing. Places like Toronto Image Works may outsource it. *If this doesn’t make sense, you don’t have to worry about it.
Color correcting. Another thing you don’t need to mention but if you are particular, and perhaps you’ve dropped off your film enough you’ve realized that some places color correct in a way that takes the magic of the imperfect out of the film! For example, I shot with an expired roll of film and when I dropped it off at the photo lab they corrected all of the colors in the scan so what should have been trippy colored photos turned out looking realistic. They were trying to “fix” the expired colors.
When to drop off your film
This is a big one in my opinion. If you don’t have a car, it’s a pain to transit all the way to a print lab only to find out that you have to come back the next day to pick up the film because you’ve missed the cut-off time for developing that day. Also, you might be anxious to see your roll of film and then you realize you have to wait a whole extra day or week because you didn’t drop if off early enough!
Memento Film Lab
They are open from Sunday/Monday: 12-5, Tuesday-Saturday: 12-7pm. If you drop off your film a couple of hours before closing, they have managed to develop some of my rolls within the hour. Otherwise, it’s been next day. The turn around time is extremely quick. I recommend giving them a follow on their IG to keep posted with their hours and services.
West Camera
Cut off time of 4:00pm for their one hour developing service.
Aden Camera
Cut off time of 2:00pm. One of the things I love about dropping my film off at Aden Camera, is that by the time I get home, the film photographs have already arrived in my inbox. They have a really good turn around time, and do not charge extra for it.
If timing is an issue for you then find out what the lab’s timing is for developing film before you head over. Also, some labs are not always able to develop black and white rolls within a day.
Need me to clarify any details? Have a question? Was this helpful? Let me know!
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