North Coast Photo Imaging & Frame

I cannot say enough good things about the folks at NCPS. The turnaround time is amazing; they know what they’re doing. I won’t send my film anywhere else.
One time when I picked up an order, I was invited into the back for a tour by one of the owners. It was obvious they are passionate about their work and take pride in what they send back to customers.

Happy to support these guys! I needed 70 prints to include in my wedding invitations and they were incredibly helpful from the moment I called until I came to pick them up. They provided same day turnaround the Friday before a holiday weekend and even called to remind me of pickup before they closed. Prices were higher than the local competition but I was happy to pay after I got such rude service from a place in Encinitas. I believe they were 40 cents each for 4x6s… so definitely more than what you pay at the large chain photo centers but it’s nice to not have to wait on shipping for matte prints. Photos looked great and they even took the number indexing off the back of the prints for a cleaner finish. Thanks a bunch!

I’ve had my first roll of Slide film developed from them and troubled Bonnie and staff with a lot of questions being new to Film photography but they were all very nice and made a really wonderful job in getting the best out of my first roll of film.
They’ve no idea how much it meant to me now that I’ve started shooting film all the time and my DSLR has started to see very little light!
Even though they might be a ‘little’ expensive compared to other cheap places out there, I am very glad I chose them! I just sent my second roll of film to them and will continue to send more.
Cannot recommend enough even though this is not a fair comparison since I haven’t tried any other labs; I don’t think I would either. :)

These guys are just the best. I’ve only recently started dealing with them, but I’ve already seen for myself that their quality is top notch, their turnaround time is amazing, and their prices are exceptional. I live in Northern California and have to mail them my film for processing, but my local lab sends out 120 roll film themselves, so it takes just as long if I drop it off there — but ncps is way less expensive, and the quality of their processing and scanning is much better. So now I’m having them do a custom print job for me, and Bonnie has gone way out of her way to make sure I’m getting what I want and when I need it by. I’m just blown away by them.

I sent negatives to North Coast that a local pro processing/​camera shop told me could only be done well in giclee. Bonnie worked so hard and the results show it! She stayed in contact with me when she realized there were a few problems and in the end I got much better results than I got from the other source. I won’t hesitate to use them again, and from what I’ve read it sounds like Bonnie isn’t alone in her determination to get the best results! But thank you Bonnie for working so hard for me!

great professional film services in San Diego for reasonable prices. friendly and fast too and just all around a good experience. when I picked up my negatives they even offered me their light box and scope to have a look at the frames before i left. will definitely recommend to all my friends who still shoot film.

I paid $ 150 for a film scanning service that was not delivered as promised. In addition, I have never been treated with such unprofessional hostility and disrespect by a business owner.
I came in with my cut negatives and asked if it was possible to get them scanned without any cropping. I made it very clear that I wanted to scan the entire frame of the photo. The manager assured me that the only cropping involved would be «maybe a hairline on the top or bottom» (exact words from the manager), and that I would have to pay extra to mount the film into slide holders. A hairline I could live with. Excited, I proceeded forward and forked over my precious old film photography and $ 150 for a total of 51 scans (2 were slides).
I am a professional graphic designer and I work with «hairlines» all the time, and was generous with my assumptions. After reviewing my scans at home, I started noticing a large, significant crop in every image, on all sides of the photo (as you can see in the attached images I posted). My images have missing hats, hands, feet, wheels, shoulders, etc … important stuff!
Calmly working with the lab to resolve this, they compared the original scan from their fancy machine with an uncropped scan made on their flatbed (of the same negative). The employees present, including the manager, were indeed surprised at the degree of cropping. They offered to rescan on the flatbed scanner, but the quality is not even remotely comparable to their fancy scanning which I paid for. For $ 150, I’ll buy my own flatbed scanner. They referred me to the owner.
I called the owner, Richard, and introduced myself, but before I had a chance to speak, he aggressively berated me, without stopping. I still don’t understand why he is so angry at a customer he has never met or spoken with. When I tried to speak, he would hung up on me. Shocked and confused, I tried a third time to talk to him. Once he finally let me speak after his irrelevant rant, I explained calmly what happened. He then told me that this job «should have never been accepted» (some acknowledgement of responsibility?). Next, he offered me, with great disdain, to use a «credit» of the $ 150 I had already paid + another $ 150 out of my pocket, to redo the scans (CORRECTLY THIS TIME) on a different, fancier machine (some acknowledgement of responsibility?), at approx. $ 5/​scan, that’s double the cost, at my expense. The only «credit» I was offered was for me to pay ANOTHER $ 150 for new scans.
I would never sign up for $ 5/​scan, and as I began to speak, he hung up on me AGAIN (that’s 3x). Truly appalling behavior, with no accountability, no fair compromise, unreasonable rude bullying, and now I’m out of $ 150 and left with useless scans. I wonder if Ken Rockwell would get this treatment?
STAY CLASSY SAN DIEGO!

If I could give this place 7 stars, I would. It’s that good. Yes, it isn’t «bargain bin» cheap, but you can’t get quality like this elsewhere. I’m an amateur photographer at best and this place makes my shots look like a million bucks. The quality of the scans are top notch and the customer service is as good as it gets. Just today, they stayed open for an extra few minutes so I could hand my film over to em. I can tell you right now no other spot would do that. As I said to the lady who helped me, I won’t take my film anywhere else.
Bottom line, if you want quality you have to pay for it, but with that price comes customer service that is unparalleled. There’s handfuls of places that can provide the service they do, but not at their level. I’m moving halfway across the country in a few months and I’ll be sticking with NCPS for as long as I’m shooting film. Thanks NCPS!

I have been getting my film developed here for years. They hold themselves to highest of standards. As a working photographer I need high quality with fast turnaround and north coast has always delivered.

4×5 SHOOTERS:
Lemme start off by saying, I’m a busy douchey L.A. photographer who asks, NO… scratch that… DEMANDS nothing but the best. «Excellence» is a a two letter word «M-​E.»
Meanwhile, the truth is I scan in my sweat stained underwear, shirtless. Flatbed scan no less. BUT… mofo, I still shoot film. Not only shoot film, I shoot the largest format my scant bank account can afford: 4×5. So I read a few reviews here and decided to give them a try. Since I’m in merry ol’ small town of Los Angeles, I had to mail this to them. So I got me a model and took some images of her.
Funny that Nikkor 210mm-​W doesn’t have a binocular adapter. I mean… my sexy next door neighbor’s window aside, I packaged them up with a self-​addressed stamp envelope. Young folk won’t remember that this is how we use to get our amazing growing dinosaurs back from our UPC symbols.
Four days later, packed, wrapped and back into my box. Three 4×5 slides. $ 9.50 (this is tax included since I live in Kah-​li-​fo-​nia).
Atop of the mailers, stamps/​return stamp and other misc. packaging, it was $ 13.25 all together. A fine deal. My usual lab here in L.A. would’ve been $ 14. But, no matter, the convenience of dropping off into mailbox and having it come to your house is worth the 75 cents. It will make more cents (get it) when I shoot a LOT more. S/​H was the difference maker. I filled out my paperwork in detail. What bugs me about creative types (sometimes) is how often this is overlooked. To me, this detail reflects how some people who don’t know your stupid face will treat you and your neg.
Anyways, HIGHLY recommend this place. Class act all the way. In fact, they had a real classy sticker on an envelope with my negatives. I kept wondering if they didn’t accidentally send me someone else’s, ’cause it was museum-​like classy. Nope. Mine.
Love that they accommodated my workflow.
Wonderful find. And thanks to Unilocal reviewers for the recommendation.

I love this place! Great turnaround, very fair pricing and great people. I used to use some pro labs in LA, but it is so much easier to use North Coast Photographic for my 120 film developing/​scanning/​printing. Their quality has always been top notch, for color or B&W. I had them do some retouching on a portrait and they did a great job at very reasonable cost as well. If I could give them six stars I would.

Only problem are the lack of hours on weekends… since thesis part time I usually do photo stuff Saturdays when they are not open or have to spend lunch in their shop

Why do I ship my film from the deep south? It is because they do an amazing job and have the best value in development and scanning I have come across so far. I love their scans. They keep me content with my film cameras. And when the scans are printed they look amazing without a single ounce of work in photoshop. And I’m talking their cheap-​o budget scans. I have never even tried the enhanced scans. I’m sure they are glorious. Thank you for your service!

These guys are great. I live in NorCal and FedX my film batches down to them. Yep I bypass all the SF labs for these guys. The turnaround is quick and the results are excellent and consistent. Their service is always friendly and cheerful too!

I hate my commute for work but I found the one thing to love about it and that is this place! I just pulled out my medium format camera after 16 years so I wanted to see if this 16 year old film would still make images. I drop the film off when I get off the freeway then go pick it up on my lunch hour at 2pm. They are busy! They got film coming in from all over the country. It is so nice to find someone who still develops 120 film and it starts at 5.75 a roll for developing. You can’t beat that. I do have to give them only 4 stars because I’ve only sent two rolls of 16 year old film so I haven’t had any really big jobs go through there. Nice staff and I like the way the owner says he’s not giving up on film. I can’t say anything about the fact they are only open through the week because I live in SD and commute to Carlsbad for work so I wouldn’t be driving up there on my off day. I guess it would help those in the area if they were open on Satursday at least but then again, the employees are probably photographers and they want to get out and shoot also.

Pricewise for film scanning and developing, this place seriously cannot be beat.
I shoot a lot of 120 mm and it costs an arm and a leg at some places to develop it. I was charged $ 31 at one place for ONE roll. WHAT?! I can get three rolls developed and scanned (budget really, don’t need high quality because the budget is excellent anyway) for a good price. Developing starts around $ 5 – 6.
Really quick turnaround time as well. I send off my film and get it within the week. My most recent package though didn’t get sent until two weeks later and that was because there was confusion on whether I was going to pick it up or not in store. No worries because they packaged my film and sent it to me asap. Got to me the next day! I actually got an email confirmation less than five minutes after my phone call to them saying my package has been sent. Score.
Now I would of picked it up in store but there is a problem… and the reason this place isn’t five stars. They’re open only Mon-​Fri 9−5pm… I work a full-​time job Mon-​Fri 9−5pm. Now if they were open on saturdays (even only for a few hours!!) my rating would automatically jump up to five.
soooo sooo close to being perfect!

Needed a print and anything I could find online wouldn’t work for that particular item or if it did the cost was stupid. Tried Walmart etc Instore and they look like their head will explode unless you hand them a memory card of some standard sized snaps. Need a specialist place.
These guys would print my photo any size I wanted and the price was realistic. I also had the confidence of explaining exactly what I wanted and getting it too, without any hassle.
Glad I found this place.

I’ve only had film developed and scanned here. I haven’t tried giving them any of my print business to date, but my assessment so far is that North Coast Photo is a well run business. Pricing is competitive for film scanning, and the quality is very good, if not excellent. Customer service is excellent. They run a clean, productive shop, and everyone that works there seems professional and happy (very good signs of a well managed, healthy business). Turn around time is reasonable. I have nothing but good things to say about NCPS. I just wish they were closer to where I live (UTC/​La Jolla area). To me it’s worth the drive, or worth shipping cost + shipping time.

now open fridays = upgrade to 5 stars :)

The customer service is awesome! One of the ladies here really makes my day because she’s always in a good mood and is just super friendly. Their work is just as great!