CatLABS - Boston, Massachusetts

George H (George)

Online shopping with sellers and businesses you're not familiar with can be scary, but I recently found a business that delivers the goods as promised.

I had been searching for a specific vintage Nikon SLR film camera and lens. While I did find quite a few sellers advertising these items, I also found that many of these sellers were misleading or flat out untruthful in their ads.

After reviewing the CatLABS website I found they had exactly what I was looking for. I gave them a call, they answered all of my questions and provided a thorough description of the items. Many sellers were advertising that they had "Restored" the items, when in fact all they had done was at best cleaned the items. CatLABS did actually test all of the camera's functions, replaced the foam light seals and mirror bumper and thoroughly clean the camera inside and out. They also have enough faith in their used tested cameras to offer a six month warranty.

I purchased the camera and lens for a fair price and two days later I had the camera and lens in my hands. The items were extremely well packaged to protect them while in transit. The items were exactly as described and all functions operate as promised.

If you're in the market for used photography equipment I highly recommend CatLABS. They're straight-shooters, competitively priced and deliver the goods as promised. Thanks CatLABS!!

step shao

I dropped off a half dozen rolls of color film in mid-October for development and scanning, and was told that the lab was closed for cleaning so processing time would take longer than usual, about two weeks, which was totally fine.
But the scans that were emailed back are full of dust and fiber filaments. For some reason, the full frame scans were significantly cleaner, but the half frame scans are unbelievably bad (see photos). There are dozens of large, obvious fibers all over them. And this is AFTER the lab was cleaned?! I'll have to re-scan a majority of these again myself; what a waste of time.

Priscilla Yu

So amazing to have an store dedicated to analogue. Their staff is so friendly and knowledgeable and a great variety of cameras. I would definitely come back!

Michael J Thomas III

Been going to CatLABS for years now and it’s where I have purchased some of my favorite camera’s I’ve ever used. Always pleased with their camera & film inventory

Boston Film Lab, operated by CatLABS, offers reliable and quality lab-work for all your film needs: develop, scan & print with reasonable turn-around and pricing. Staff is always helpful with any questions.

Support local, support analog!

William Nguyen

Catlabs is honestly the best photography film development lab in Boston. I am super appreciative that they are located outside of the downtown area serving in the middle of disenfranchised neighborhood’s & communities.
Makes me proud to support this small business.

Understanding it is a small business, turnover time is not as competitive as big chains but the customer service is personable and straight to the point. I don't feel like they cater to sucking up & upselling to customers. They get straight to the point.
I have frequent them only for the past 2 months and my photography journey has exponentially gotten more satisfying.

Jarvis Chen

Incredibly fast development and scanning, fair pricing, and helpful staff. They also have an extensive selection of film and cameras for sale; from SLRs, to compacts, and some rangefinders! Great place to develop film in Boston! Highly recommended!

Rebecca Long

I've been developing film with CatLABS for years, and I had never had a bad experience until recently. The lab lost a roll of film that happened to have my engagement photos on it.

When I hadn't heard anything from CatLABS for two weeks about the roll, which I dropped off *in person,* I went to the store to inquire. The owner first suggested that the roll I shot was blank (It wasn’t, but even if my roll were blank, shouldn't I have been notified?). Then he asked if I had shot on a disposable camera (I hadn’t). And then he suggested something might be wrong with my camera (There isn’t). I felt like assumptions were being made about my proficiency and know-how in order to somehow blame the missing film on me. I then followed up numerous times via email before the lab finally admitted they didn't know what happened to my roll.

I had to ask for a refund — it was not offered, nor were any other steps taken to compensate me for the lost roll (which contained truly priceless images). Mistakes happen, but the owner's dismissiveness made an already heartbreaking experience even more painful. Take from this what you will!

Mina Ha

I got film developed and printed. One print had a scratch on it (confirmed it was not on negative) and all of them were cut a little off so there was a white edge in all the corners. They offered to reprint them. I went back to pick them up a few days later. They said there was nothing they could do about the prints being off cut and I noticed that the print still had the same scratch so they didn't even try to reprint which I was very disappointed by.

I reeeally wanted to like this place but I'm going back to Hunts next time. Can't be charging people for scratched and off cut prints.