The Prolab Where Film Sales Are Up 45% In 6 Months

A Newcastle upon Tyne-based Prolab that has been trading for almost seventy years has seen its sales of film increase by 45% over the past six months.

Digitalab owner Jill Roe, a die-hard champion of the silver halide process said: "Unlike many processing labs we never gave up on film and we continue to provide a high-quality professional specialist film processing service as part of our commercial inventory. We have seen the film processing side of our business increase by 45% in recent months. Many photographers still love the whole process. They feel they are creating something tangible and more thought through with film and high-quality silver halide papers such as Fujifilm Original Photo Paper. The process has real soul- a bit like vinyl records."

The lab has recently supported Scarborough-based York Place Studios with film for an exclusive street photography feature shot in Sri Lanka.

Commenting on the project, Jill said: "Dom and Liam Shaw at York Place Studios are our first brand ambassadors - and in addition to shooting local portraits and weddings they travel the world to capture amazing street photography scenes. The Sri Lanka shoot was their first street project shot on Fujifilm and we will be outputting the images on Fujifilm Original Photo Paper."

Brother/sister combo Dom Thompson and Liam Shaw describe themselves as ‘natural light ninjas’ - shooting local portraits/weddings and street photography across the world.

Dom added: "After seeing the phenomenal work Digitalab do in developing, scanning and printing film we decided it was time to go back to our roots and see what we could produce on this medium as part of our Filmisnotdead theme."

Armed with Fujifilm Superia 200 film they took themselves off to Sri Lanka for a fortnight: "Whilst much of the trip was actually spent shooting digitally, it was very exciting to pick up a film camera again and hear that old familiar click and winding of film- not to mention the absolute joy of receiving the beautiful scans back from the lab. I have a feeling there will be many more film images in our future."

Digitalab also recently picked up the coveted ‘Large Trader of the Year’ award at the 2017 Newborn Photography Show.

Commenting on the award, Jill said: "Winning this Large Trader of the Year award is one of the lab’s proudest moments - and what made it even more special was that it was voted for by photographers who rely on the supreme quality of our products on a day to day basis."