Mayfield Photo Lab offers 35mm / 110 / Minox (8×11) development and scanning/digitization services in Palo Alto for the communities of Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Altos, Redwood City, San Mateo, San Carlos, and Belmont.

“Film isn’t dead” was something to say when it was actually pretty much dead. Film has been back for a while, but the labs aren’t. So here we are.

What’s so special about film and film cameras? Why am I trying to support something so anachronistic and obsolete?

The most refreshing aspect of analog photography is the ability to sidestep irritations associated with digital photography and consumer tech in general. Obtuse menu systems, power-on delay, digital noise, the anxiety-inducing time limit imposed by rechargeable batteries, that infernal Silicon Valley obsession with shoving Wi-Fi and monthly subscriptions into everything, all of it can be ignored to enter a more intuitive and uninhibited shooting cadence with minimal barrier to entry. Oh, and beautiful colors right out of the box. You don’t even need to know how to use a computer.

Most flea market SLR’s will open access to a library of several decades’ worth of professional grade lenses and accessories from countless manufacturers, produced in such quantities that they still impact the price of modern equipment. Rangefinders, despite their somewhat unjustified cost and derision as metrosexual fashion accessories, train the user to think about compositional depth and predictive focusing in a compact package that also just so happens to look very stylish. Those less averse to the idea of carefree automatic snapshots can explore paths of technological development that were abandoned due to poor compatibility with early digital cameras, or only reached maturity as film cameras fell out of favor in the 2000s’.

It seems like many photographers still remember and miss these advantages, or are just starting to become aware of them. It might be the reason for the recent surge in new film cameras being designed and produced in a range of formats. Between LiDAR-powered remakes of classic cameras, plastic Chinese “reloadables” re-badged by Ilford and Kodak as stopgap products, the revival of 110 film, and old out-of-touch Pentax of all companies coming out of left field with a 72 shot half-frame camera, film is so back.

My goal is to make and keep this available for you, the discerning Bay Area snapper.