Photographers will no longer have to pay twice for processing their Agfachrome CT precisa colour slide films after a deal was struck between Agfaphoto?s administrator and UK lab Standard Photographic.

Until yesterday the Warwickshire-based lab was asking customers to pay again for processing because it feared not being paid for the work by AgfaPhoto UK, which went into administration at the end of last year. Standard Photographic is the UK lab contracted by AgfaPhoto UK to process the film.

Declan Mellett, commercial director of Standard Photographic, said: ?We have come to an agreement with the administrator which will enable Agfachrome process-paid film customers to have their films processed in the normal manner if received by the lab before 31 December 2006.?

Previously customers faced spending about £6 extra for the film to be processed and returned to them, instead of the normal £7 or £8 fee for a process-paid film.

However, the new agreement only applies to films sent to the lab after 3 January 2006 and the administrator will not refund customers who have already paid extra for processing, according to Mellett.

He added: ?The agreement is also limited by a maximum volume – which remains undisclosed – but we do not anticipate that this will result in the service closing before the end of 2006.?

Standard Photographic halted its process-paid service for AgfaPhoto customers after the scale of the crisis at AgfaPhoto became apparent. At the time it was estimated that there were 30,000-40,000 process-paid films in the UK market, either in shops, being used by photographers or waiting to be processed.

However, the situation with Agfa Scala process-paid b&w slide film remains unchanged because Primary Colour ? the east London lab contracted to process Agfa Scala ? has not reached a similar agreement with AgfaPhoto?s administrator. This means that photographers still face more than £12 extra for processing a roll of 35mm Agfa Scala film, on top of the £14-15 they have already forked out for the ?process-paid? film.

Standard Photographic can be contacted on 01926 463100. Primary Colour can be contacted on 020 7729 7140.