One Roll — Atlanta Film Co. Hand Rolled 250D (NRJ) at Avalon Beach

I am writing this in October about a roll I shot in August at Avalon Beach. The film sat in the Minolta XD-11 from Saturday 11 July 2026. I exposed all of it on Wednesday 12 August, in a single visit, and mailed it to the lab the same week.

It came back on Saturday 10 October. Fifty-nine days.

The lab was Andrew’s Analog Service Center. The lab’s portal logged my order (#3573) on Saturday 22 August, ten days after I mailed the roll, with a status of Pending. It never said what Pending meant. The public order tracker stopped at order #3116, dated March 2026, and was still being filled in by hand in mid-September. My order was not in it.

On or around 15 September I emailed Andrew directly. He replied personally the same day. He said he would check and get back to me. He did not give a date. He also mentioned a new self-serve order tracker that had just begun to populate.

My experience with Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D developed at Atlanta Film Co. was better but not what I expected either.

For contrast, Boutique Film Lab returned a roll I mailed on Wednesday 9 September in twelve days. It was shipped back to me on Wednesday 16 September, and delivered on Monday 21 September. I won’t be using Andrew’s Analog Service Center in the future.

I used my typical scan (VueScan), import (Adobe Lightroom Classic), and process (Negative Lab Pro) workflow with these images. I scanned them on my Epson V600 at 3200 DPI, 48-bit RGB. In Adobe Lightroom Classic, I did the NLP conversion with the Frontier colour model, linear tone profile, Cine-D white balance with HSL set to “Lab”. This seemed to work really well as a default. I didn’t do any tweaking in NLP or Lightroom. Or maybe I got lucky.

I like how these beach images came out. They have a soft muted look. Light skin tones look good. But darker skin tones, like on Bhavna, look a bit muddied. I have two rolls of CineStill 400D. I think I want to shoot this type of film again, but it would have to be under similar bright, sunny day conditions.

I don’t think this film does well when processed in C-41. You really have to process it as ECN-2, and find a lab that can do it properly. In the past, I have developed some Vision3 50D at Boutique Film Lab using a C-41 process that just did not produce good results.

I poked around the web and discovered that I had a semi-local lab that I could have used all along. I had dismissed it outright because some of the labs I have been to in my area do not actually develop on-site: they send it out to New York City. Of course, they are then charging you a premium because you are paying them, plus the shipping fee and the lab in New York.

My frustration with Andrew’s Analog Service Center led me to look a little bit closer at my local market, and I found a place called Black Lab Imaging that I am going to try with my next few rolls: C-41, black and white, the CineStill 400D, and anything else I have in the drawer. I am going to see how they do.

One cool thing about Black Lab Imaging is that that lab is a few minutes’ drive from one of my favourite breweries, Conclave Brewing. I have no problem taking the 45-minute drive to pick up a roll of film and stopping at the brewery for a pint before I head home.

Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Bhavna takes a nap, Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 Avalon Beach, Avalon · August 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 250D NRJ
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 200
MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2

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One Roll is a monthly film photography series. Each month I load a single roll of 35mm film into the Minolta XD-11, shoot it across whatever presents itself, and mail the exposed cartridge for developing. The best frames from the negatives end up here.

During the pandemic I bought considerably more film than I could shoot. Most of the stockpile has since expired. A few cartridges remain usable through 2026 and 2027, and One Roll is how I am working through them — one roll per month, one lens per roll, whatever I happen to find in front of the camera. It is also a reminder to expose at least one roll of 35mm film each month, even after the existing 35mm film is gone.

Shooting Notes

Film	Atlanta Film Co. Hand Rolled 250D (NRJ)
Rated ISO	250
Exposed ISO	200
Lab	Andrew’s Analog Service Center
Processed At	250
Developer	ECN-2
Camera	Minolta XD-11
Lens	Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2
Notes	39 frames logged on Wednesday 12 August 2026, 14:44–15:39, at Avalon Beach, Cape May County, New Jersey (GPS 39.092° N, 74.718° W). Film loaded Saturday 11 July 2026. Aperture-priority (A) throughout: f/8 for frames 1–19, then wider, with f/4 and f/3.4 (frames 31–39). Sunny day. Mailed Wednesday 13 August 2026; returned Saturday 10 October 2026.
Scanner	Epson Perfection V600 Photo
Scanning Software	VueScan
Scan Format	DNG output, 48-bit RGB, 3200 DPI
Processing	Negative Lab Pro
EXIF Editor	Exif Editor by Martin Novak