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Comparing Film Stocks
Use this when: you're not costing out one specific roll — you want to browse or rank everything you've saved. This is the Dev Cost tab.
It has its own Process filter (C41 / B&W / E6 / ECN-2 / All) at the top — separate from each film's own Process — plus the same Format control every tab shares. Both narrow every view below.
There are four sub-tabs. Pick based on the question you're actually asking:
"I have one film stock in mind — which lab is cheapest for it?"
Pick a stock from the dropdown; every saved lab is ranked cheapest-first for that film at box speed (film + dev, no push/pull). If you've set a home lab, it's pinned to the top of the list regardless of price, so "my usual place" is never buried below something a few cents cheaper.
Tap 📌 on any row to pin it — unlike everything else on this tab, a pin freezes the actual numbers for that specific film+lab combo, so it stays exactly as it was even after you switch the dropdown to a different film. Pinned rows collect in their own 📌 Pinned for Comparison block above the ranked list, so you can pin a few different rolls — even across different films — and line them all up side by side. Unpin with the ✕ on the pinned row.
"Across everything I own, which film stock gives the best value?"
Every saved film's cheapest lab pairing at box speed, ranked film-first, cheapest overall at the top. Good for "what should I actually be buying more of?" This is the one view where ♥ favouriting a film (tap the heart on any row, or set it up from Personalizing FilmCalc) pins it to the top regardless of price — since rows here are grouped by film, not by lab.
"Which of my labs is the best value, regardless of film?"
The mirror image of Per Photo: every saved lab's cheapest film pairing, ranked lab-first. Good for "is it worth switching labs?"
"I'm shooting at a specific ISO today — what are ALL my options?"
Enter the ISO you're shooting at. This is the only view that accounts for push/pull — it splits results into three buckets:
- Native — films rated exactly at that ISO.
- Pushed — slower films pushed up to it.
- Pulled — faster films pulled down to it.
Each entry pairs a film with its cheapest matching lab tier at that specific push/pull distance. Anything beyond a film's own Max Push/Pull limit (set per-stock in the Library) is still shown, but flagged red rather than hidden — it's a valid option, just an inadvisable one.
Sort the results by Price, Turnaround, or Scan using the pills above the list — the ⭐ "cheapest" marker always reflects true price rank regardless of which sort is active, so switching to "Turnaround" to find the fastest option doesn't make the price comparison misleading.
- ★ Favourite a lab by tapping the star on any row — favourited labs are pinned to the top of Per Lab and Per ISO (everywhere rows are grouped by lab), while the cheapest-price ⭐ marker stays accurate. Per Photo groups by film instead, so it uses ♥ favourite film the same way, and Per Film uses the true 📌 pin described above rather than a favourite star.
- Tap any row to expand it into a full film + dev + push/pull cost breakdown, with buy and directions links if you saved them. "Expand all" / "Collapse all" toggles every row on the page at once.
- These rankings are box-speed only, except Per ISO. If a film is only worth it once pushed, Per Film/Per Photo/Per Lab won't surface that — use Per ISO for anything involving a push or pull.
- Everything here respects the Process and Format filters at the top of this tab — if a film or lab you expect to see is missing, check those first.