Citizens Photo

Had a bunch of slides and some VHS to be digitized. Everything was done well and on time at a reasonable price.

I’ve used Citizens for years for E-​6 and C-​41 processing for all film formats. They do an excellent job and push processing is accurate. It’s one of the few film processors left in Portland and deserves any business people can bring them. The used department has a lot of older equipment, and once in a while there is a gem to find. It’s also a great place for spare parts. The staff is knowledgeable, and quirkily Portland. Try paying cash, and you’ll get $ 2 bills and 50-​cent pieces as change. While I don’t shoot as much film as I used to, I couldn’t get by without them.

Citizens Photo has been around since the film era. They just moved into this building, so you can scan their earlier reviews. Their focus now is fine digital printing, especially in large formats. I have not used their printing. They are also one of a handful of chemical developers of rolls of film.
They run E6, C41 and B&W processing. They also do cross-​processing.
I stopped by to give them an opportunity to develop and mount some slides. Those are those image squares that older relatives tortured (or delighted) you of their vacation experiences. Seriously though, only the most expensive professional digital cameras today can equal the image quality of that format. Your phone will never come close.
Citizen’s joins a handful of local outlets have second hand old pro film cameras and the lenses. I think I have reviewed all of them.
The old lenses can sometimes surpass today’s lenses. Some are much faster (F2.8 and below) for the very low price, some are quirkier — in non-​linearities like bokeh, flare and chromatic aberration, and a few are sharper. Most are also much heavier. Heavy metal and heavy glass. But there is a good argument that aluminum lenses will outlast plastic. You have to be able to use older lenses in manual mode or aperture priority on your auto digital camera, with no autofocus. There are websites devoted to using vintage lenses on today’s cameras for still and video if you would like to explore that. There is great rivalry between the long-​established German optical houses and the quality-​obsessed Japanese optical houses.
When I was there, they had a massive collection of filters they were clearing out. Filters are glass rings of different colors and coatings with precise threads and diameters in millimeters which screw onto the front of pro photo lenses.
Polarizing filters and perhaps ND filters are some of the few that have a place in modern digital photography. There is a small argument that specific filters may be useful in B&W photography for contrast control. The counterargument is that there are inexpensive software plugins from the old filter makers for, say, Lightroom. But filters could be essential if you modify your camera for infrared or ultraviolet photography.
But hey, filters could make a great retro Christmas tree ornament on that retro aluminum tree!
Citizens also has a free box of old broken cameras, cables and the like. Those items might be good candidates for things children so inclined might want to take apart, or the parts could be good art and jewelry design components.
I would also say that the shop doesn’t rush anything. So probably not a good spot if you need something developed or printed like right now. «The we run process X on on Friday, picked up the same day» on their website translates to interesting logic like «but that doesn’t include mounting, so better come back Monday since we are closed Sunday.»
But on the other hand you are getting some very experienced eyes on any hands-​on corrections that need to be done.