Question 1

How do I send film in from outside Norwich?

Accepted Answer

Post it to us from anywhere in the UK. Pack your rolls securely and send them by a tracked service, like Royal Mail Tracked 48. Please don’t use Signed For, as it slows down processing your roll. Tracked with a photo on delivery is fine, and our safe place is the black drop box outside the lab. We’ll email you to confirm it’s arrived before work begins.

Question 2

How long does developing take?

Accepted Answer

In-store drop-offs are ready by the end of the next working day, with rush processing available if you need it sooner. For film you post to us, your scans are emailed within 48 hours of it arriving, and your negatives and any prints are posted back by Royal Mail Tracked 48 within 7 days (within 48 hours for develop only). Black & white is the exception, since it’s sent on to our specialist partner lab: turnaround can take up to 14 working days.

Question 3

Is every frame really hand-checked?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every scan is checked by hand and density-corrected for balanced highlights and shadows before delivery, not run through a machine untouched. If a frame needs extra care, it gets it.

Question 4

What formats and film types do you process?

Accepted Answer

35mm and 120 medium format C-41 colour film, plus C-41-process stocks like Ilford XP2, CineStill, Candido and AHU. XP2 is a black & white film, but it’s developed in the colour process, so it’s priced and processed as colour. We don’t process standard E-6 (slide/reversal) or ECN2 film outside of those. We develop black & white film too, for film brought to the lab or left in the Drop Box: it’s sent on to our specialist B&W partner lab. We can’t take black & white by post yet.

Question 5

What happens to my negatives afterwards?

Accepted Answer

You choose how they come back: rolled and cannistered, kept as a continuous uncut sleeve, or cut into strips (either a dedicated shorter sleeve or a full archival sleeve, 35mm only for now), and separately, whether you collect them in person or have them posted back, or let us dispose of them safely once scanning is complete. If you’re collecting in person, we hold your negatives for 30 days from completion; we hate destroying negatives, they’re the raw image of what you captured, but with limited storage space we can’t keep them indefinitely, so please do come and collect within that window. If uncollected after 30 days, they’re safely disposed of in line with GDPR. If you posted your film in and asked for negatives back, we’ll post them out to you as normal, no 30-day window applies.

Question 6

Do you offer push or pull processing?

Accepted Answer

Not for colour (C-41) film. We do offer push or pull processing for black & white, but only for film brought into the store in person, not by post. Postal black & white processing is coming soon.

Question 7

How much does it cost?

Accepted Answer

Develop only starts at £4.99 a roll in the lab and £5.49 by post. Develop and scan a roll of 35mm is £10.99 in the lab or £11.99 by post. Every price is on our prices page, justshootfilm.co.uk/prices.

Question 8

Are you a cheap film lab?

Accepted Answer

Affordable rather than cheap. Develop only is £4.99 a roll in the lab, and develop and scan a roll of 35mm is £10.99 in the lab or £11.99 by post. Low prices shouldn’t mean careless work, so every frame is still checked and corrected by hand.

Question 9

Do you give a discount for lots of rolls?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on postal orders placed through the website. Send 5 or more colour rolls and you get 5% off, and 10% off for 10 or more. It counts rolls across develop & scan and scan negatives, and it applies automatically at checkout. Drop Box orders, black & white, slides and prints don’t get it (slides and prints have their own volume pricing).

Question 10

Do you have a loyalty scheme?

Accepted Answer

Yes, JSF points. You earn 5 points for every £1 you spend with us, online or in the lab (just give us your email at the till), plus 100 bonus points on your first order. Every 500 points is £5 off colour develop & scan, and it comes off automatically, online and at the till. Postage and tips don’t earn points. Points last as long as you order at least once a year, and we’ll email you a month before any expire. Everyone’s in automatically. You can check your points any time at justshootfilm.co.uk/points, and from your points page you can save them up instead of having £5 come off automatically, or opt out.

Question 11

How do I get my scans?

Accepted Answer

When your scans are ready, we email you a link to your own private download page on our website, and we’ll send it on WhatsApp too if we have your number. You can look through your photos there, then download everything in one go or roll by roll. On an iPhone you can save the JPEGs straight to your camera roll. The link works for 30 days, so please download your scans and keep a backup. If your order has colour and black & white film, you’ll get the colour scans first and the black & white ones once they’re back from our partner lab.

Question 12

Can I drop my film off at the lab?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and there’s no need to order online first. Come in when we’re open (Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, see the About page for hours) and pay at the counter, where prices are lower than online. If we’re closed, use the Drop Box outside the lab door: scan the QR code on the box, pay on your phone, then pop your film in with a docket. The Drop Box has the same prices as the counter. Ordering online is for film you’re posting to us.

Question 13

Can I post my film in and collect my negatives in person?

Accepted Answer

Yes. When you order online, you choose how your negatives come back: collected from the lab in Norwich, posted back to you, or disposed of safely if you don’t need them.

Question 14

What if my film comes back blank?

Accepted Answer

It happens occasionally, most often because the film was left somewhere very hot (a hot car is a common cause) or because it was badly expired. If a roll on a develop & scan order comes back with genuinely nothing on it, we give you £5 for that roll as a goodwill gesture, even though it isn’t something that happens during our processing: 500 JSF points, which come off your next colour develop & scan, or £5 back to your card if you’d rather. We can’t refund develop-only orders, because the developing has still been done.

Question 15

My scans came up quite dark with some overlapping frames, what’s happened?

Accepted Answer

Our standard prices assume your film can run through our autofeed scanner, which is how almost every lab prices scanning. Occasionally a roll comes out so dark (usually from being badly expired, overheated, or repeatedly airport-scanned) that the autofeed scanner can’t tell one frame from the next, and frames start merging together. When that happens, it needs to be scanned by hand instead, a slower and fiddlier process, which carries a surcharge of £5 for JPEG scans or £8 for TIFF. We’ll always message you and get your go-ahead before doing this and charging extra, never as a surprise.

Question 16

My scans look rotated or not quite aligned, what happened?

Accepted Answer

Every scan gets checked by hand for orientation and density as standard, so this should be rare. If something still looks off once you receive your files, get in touch and we’ll take another look.

Question 17

What if my film was shot at the wrong ISO?

Accepted Answer

We develop what arrives as standard C-41 processing. An accidental ISO mismatch can shift exposure and colour, and that’s part of the character of shooting film. If it’s severe enough that our scanner struggles to read it, see the question above about dark or expired film, the same hand-scan surcharge may apply.

Question 18

Can you recover a jammed, stuck, or double-exposed roll?

Accepted Answer

Yes, jammed film stuck in the canister can be rescued, we have the facilities for it, and there’s no extra charge. Double exposures aren’t something we can undo, but we’ll still process and scan the roll as normal so you get whatever’s there.

Question 19

What's the difference between the three scan tiers?

Accepted Answer

"Just the negs" is develop-only, no scans. "For sharing" gives you JPEGs (about 2 MB each, sized for a sharp 6x4 print) suited to your phone, Instagram, web and small prints. "For editing" gives you high-resolution TIFFs (about 20 MB each) plus a small browsing JPEG. They print sharply at 8x12 and comfortably up to A3, so they suit editing, exhibition prints and enlargements. High-resolution scans take almost twice as long on the scanner, which is why they cost a bit more. Want a different mix, like a lower resolution TIFF or a higher resolution JPEG? Choose the tier with the size you want and tell us the file type in the Notes for us box when you order.

Question 20

Can I get archival-quality scans for long-term storage or exhibition prints?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but it’s a separate add-on from our three standard tiers, not the same as the "For editing" tier’s high-res TIFF. Archival scans take considerably longer to do, so they carry their own surcharge: £3.49 to £4.99 per frame if you just want select frames done archivally (the more frames, the cheaper each one), or +£10 for the whole roll if you’re already ordering the "For editing" tier and want to upgrade it. For 35mm, an archival scan is the equivalent of an 18"×12" print at high resolution, delivered as an uncompressed TIFF around 60MB per image. 120 format gets the same treatment, with even larger files. These blow up comfortably to around A1. Planning something even bigger? Talk to us first.

Question 21

Can I request a re-scan or just specific frames?

Accepted Answer

Get in touch after your order is complete; we’re happy to talk through re-scanning individual frames if something didn’t come out the way you expected.

Question 22

Do you offer contact sheets?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but only alongside an order for prints, not as a standalone item or as part of the scan tiers on their own. When you order prints from your negs, a 6×4 contact sheet showing every frame at a glance is included free.

Question 23

Do you scan slides or do reprints from old negatives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, both are separate services alongside develop & scan. Slide scanning covers loose 35mm and medium format slides (boxed slides and carousels are quoted individually), and reprints can be made either from uploaded digital files or from physical negatives you post in.

Frequently asked questions

General operation

Problem film & unusual results

Archival scans & less common options