Developing situation
Nice Film Club (Williamsburg)
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Analog everything is the new flex, and if you’ve started snapping photos on your Olympus MJU while listening to cassettes on a refurbished Walkman, you’ll probably need a place to develop your 35mm film. Housed in a lofty space in Williamsburg, Nice Film Club makes the process almost as quick and painless as snapping a photo on your phone.
Drop film off in person at the flagship location right off McCarren Park (or its kiosk at the International Center for Photography on the Lower East Side). When your scans are ready, you’ll get a text message with a link to view and download your work and decide whether you want darkroom prints in addition to digital scans.
What sets Nice Film Club apart from other film processing operations is its membership offerings. Prolific hobbyists will benefit from the Very Nice tier, which comes with enough credits to develop 30 rolls of film with rush turnaround and 4K scans. If you’re the kind of person who goes through a roll every few days, its Super Nice plan ($5000 annually) should get you through the year. Super Nice members get 4K scans, next-day turnaround, and free shipping to and from the lab, a serious perk if you shoot film while you travel but don’t want to deal with getting it through TSA.
Besides the convenience and the highly functional digital interface (something many other film processing companies lack), I love the human touch of Nice Film Club. I run into other photographers every time I drop off film or pick up my negatives, which means opportunities to have IRL conversations about the new Kodak film stocks instead of relying on Reddit threads for intel. They also host a monthly Cameras & Coffee meetup at ICP, sell a hyper-curated selection of 35mm film, and rotate through limited runs of collection-worthy darkroom prints on their site.
A Nice Film Club membership is basically a shortcut to making analog photography a part of your everyday life. –Carina Finn Koeppicus
→ Nice Film Club (Williamsburg) • 181 N 11th St Ste 104 • Mon-Thu 830a-8p, Fri 830a-5p, Sat-Sun 830a-8p.