Palm Film Lab in Coconut Grove: $15 Scans in Two Days

Palm Film Lab develops 35mm color film and sends back digital scans for $15 a roll, and it does the work in its own building at 3021 SW 28 Lane in Miami's 33133 ZIP, on the Coconut Grove side of US-1. The doors open at 11:00 AM Tuesday through Saturday, and color orders come back in about two days. If your film lab near me search starts with a drawer of finished rolls, this is a lab that will treat them properly.

Palm Film Lab spent its first years on SW 57th Avenue out west, and its contact page still listed that storefront as late as March 2026. The current site now gives 3021 SW 28 Lane as the address, so anyone working from an old map pin or a three-year-old blog post will end up at the wrong building. The tagline has not changed through the move: "Memories While You Wait," printed on the site and on the lab's own canvas tote.

The pitch is simple. Palm runs C-41 color and black-and-white chemistry for both 35mm and 120 in house instead of sending rolls out, and it has kept a retail side going alongside the processing. That combination matters in Miami, where a lot of the film developing traffic now goes to mail-in labs in other states. Here you hand the roll over the counter and the negatives stay in the same building until they come back to you.

Color is the cheapest way in. Develop plus standard digital scans costs $15 for 35mm and $17 for 120, and the high-resolution version is $22 and $24. A develop, scan and print package runs $25 for a disposable or $29 for a 36-exposure roll. If you scan at home, develop only is $8 for 35mm and $10 for 120. Disposables follow the 35mm prices, which is good news for anyone holding a stack from a wedding or a beach trip.

Black-and-white costs a little more because it is slower work. Develop plus standard scans is $17 for 35mm and $19 for 120, and hi-res scans push that to $24 and $26. Develop only is $10 and $12. Palm quotes about three days for black-and-white against two for color, so drop the monochrome rolls first if you are bringing both. All digital files go out by WeTransfer, usually one to two days after the negatives are done.

The two scan tiers are not just marketing labels. Standard scans arrive at 2000 by 3000 pixels, roughly a 5 MB JPEG, which Palm rates for prints up to about 6 by 9 inches at 300 dpi. Hi-res scans are 4770 by 6440 pixels, delivered as a 25 MB JPEG or a 175 MB TIFF, good for prints up to 12 by 18 inches. For phone sharing and contact-sheet browsing, standard is plenty, so save the extra $7 for the rolls you plan to enlarge.

A practical approach is to order standard on everything, look through the files, and come back with the best negatives for larger output. Palm also prints on Hahnemühle archival inkjet paper up to 17 by 25 inches, so a single frame can go from a WeTransfer link to a framed print without leaving the lab. The full price list on the site covers those print sizes, along with the lab's video tape archiving service for old family cassettes.

The shelf item worth asking about is Palm's own film. The shop sells Palm 100 Panchromatic and Palm 400 Panchromatic in both 35mm and 120, priced at $9 for the 100-speed rolls and $10 for the 400-speed rolls. These are black-and-white stocks, so pair them with the black-and-white develop prices above. Buying a roll, shooting it around the Grove and bringing it back to the same counter is the whole loop in one place.

Beyond its own film, Palm stocks fresh film from other makers and used cameras across a wide spread of prices, which makes it a reasonable first stop for someone borrowing a parent's old point-and-shoot. Ask the counter what the camera needs before buying a brick of film for it. Skip the urge to buy ten rolls of the 400 on day one, though. Shoot one, see how you like the grain in Miami light, and then commit.

Palm is closed on Mondays, so a Sunday afternoon shoot means waiting until Tuesday to drop off. Sunday hours are short as well, so come early in the day if you are dropping off on the weekend. Label rolls you want pushed or treated differently before you reach the counter, and keep color and black-and-white in separate bags so nothing gets run in the wrong chemistry when the lab is busy.

Not local, or leaving town before your scans are ready? Palm accepts film by post. Print the order form from the lab page, fill it out, and ship it with the rolls. The comments box is where you say whether you want the negatives mailed back, and the lab invoices you through Square once the film arrives. That beats making a second trip if you are visiting Miami for a weekend and flying out before the two-day color window closes.

Two days is too long to wait at the counter, so plan the drop-off as the start of an outing. The Coconut Grove Metrorail station sits on US-1 within walking distance, which makes Palm one of the easier Miami labs to reach without a car. From there, the leafy residential streets between US-1 and Bayshore Drive are classic film territory: banyan roots, coral rock walls and porches that hold the late light well.

Keep going southeast toward the bay and you reach the Grove's commercial core around CocoWalk and Main Highway, then Peacock Park and the marinas on Biscayne Bay. A roll of Palm 400 suits the shaded streets, while a color roll is better for the water and the boats. Drop the finished film on your way back, and the scans should be in your inbox before the weekend is over.

Palm Film Lab, 3021 SW 28 Lane, Miami, FL 33133. Hours from the official contact page: Monday closed, Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Sunday 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Current turnaround is two days for C-41 and three days for black-and-white, with digital files delivered by WeTransfer.

Who it suits: Miami shooters who want color and black-and-white developed locally, people with disposables to clear, and anyone curious about a house-made black-and-white stock. Who should look elsewhere: photographers who need slide film on a published price, since the current lab menu lists only C-41 and black-and-white. Ask the Karpo APP for a Grove coffee stop and a walking loop to fill the afternoon around your drop-off.