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 a myriad of compact cameras from branching 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’- that fuckass decade when nobody wore t-shirts that fit, everything was lumpy and covered in ugly faux-chrome for NO REASON, not supportin da troops was a felony thought crime, and the prioritization of digital convenience began noticeably eliminating the soulful aspects of daily life.

It seems like many photographers still remember and miss these advantages, or are just starting to become aware of them. Others still just want something real, not a shitty third-order alternative to a replacement to a substitute. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

I think I’m here, maybe. Where’s the lab?

Through the door between Leaf and Petal and Ramen Kowa, and up the stairs.

Payment methods?

Cash, Venmo and Zelle are gratefully accepted, as are paper checks made out to “Mayfield Photo Lab.”

If you are a lunatic who wants to pay in silver, I will accept US government bullion coins at spot value.

I don’t have a CD drive.

I can give you a download link with your negatives if you order a scan. Just let me know when you drop off your film or include it in your order instructions. Files will stay up until the end of the week after pick-up, plus one week.

Won’t you try a CD? Your data won’t get scrambled by an Airpods case like a hard disk, or just slowly fizzle away in a flash chip.

Can you put my scans on my USB drive?

Sorry, I can’t accept customer storage media. For security.

How long do I have to pick up my negatives? How long will my download link be active?

Negatives are stored until the end of the month, plus one month. After that, color will be trashed and monochrome will be shipped off for metal recovery. Download links will remain active until the end of the week, plus one week.

Do you see the pictures as they are scanned?

For speed and privacy, no.*

35mm and 110 scans are aligned and color balanced automatically by software, to a per-frame colorimetric midpoint- nobody sees anything. Negatives without clearly visible frame borders may exhibit edge detection failures and unintended panoramas. I plan to eventually exploit a hungry Stanford student hire a worker to manually align and color balance the scans, which is how most other labs operate. Since hourly workers are regarded as less than human, it will be like nobody ever saw your pictures- meaning your privacy has effectively been maintained.

*Minox microfilm is DSLR-scanned and color-balanced manually, so I will see literally every single frame if you request digitization.

Do you do prints?

Images must be color balanced before printing, regardless of digital or analog workflow- and I need to hire a scanning slave “imaging technician” to do that first.

Privacy Policy

• For now, customers will need to provide a phone number or an email so I can nag you about uncollected orders. The goal is to move to a kind of numbered ticket-and-stub system like at the dry cleaner’s so I can know even less about you.
• I might also forget patrons who visit less frequently. If you come by often, I’ll remember you. You might even get freebies once in a while. This is the extent of my customer relations management.

Why does your bird dislike me?

I don’t know. It’s best not to project your human emotions and thoughts onto animals, particularly undomesticated species. It can lead to mental anguish, and even cause some to become f*rries.

Maybe some undefinable aspect of you just doesn’t cosign with his internal cosmology, and he wants to make that clear to you. Don’t take it personally- he’s a bird. He can’t read, and he doesn’t even pay any taxes.

Stuff on this page and site can and will change whenever I feel like it.

Yes.