Dev Your Own Film - B+W | C41

[Liquid Fusion]

Hi. Starting a thread on developing your own 35mm film: both B+W and C41 color. New to dev / scanning film at home.

Preparing home developing - So far, bought from Ebay - Glass 1000 ml and glass 250 ml graduate cylinders; 5 1/2" wide glass funnel; 6 apothecary 1000 ml glass bottles refit with size 6.5 rubber stoppers; Scientific 18" thermometer (0 - 100C); 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flask w/ stopper; Nikkor dev tank (1 roll size); stainless steel dev tank + Kraft cap (2 roll cap) with 1 Hewes reel; stainless steel dev tank + Kraft cap (2 roll cap) with 2 Hewes reels; 2 reg steel reel holders; 21" black cloth changing bag.


Film I'm shooting : B+W = TRi-X 400 - 36 exp. Color Film = Kodak Porta 400 - 36 exp.

Thinking of using D76 as B+W developer. Some say use Rodinal. Color: looking at using Tetenal C-41 Press Kit for Color Negative Film (Powder) T109306.

Interested in what people here have to say.


References: B+W

How to develop your B and W films at home: A beginners guide by David Bromley

Film: How to develop, scan, and print with no darkroom required! By Max Marinucci



References: C41

How to Process C-41 Color Negative Film at Home, From Start to Finish

Color film developing at home- Easy!

How to Develop Color Film - 17 Easy Steps (with Pictures)

Google Search : A Beginner’s Guide to C-41 Developing at Home (It’s a Lot Easier Than you Think!) - Part Two of Two

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

I like HC-110 for TriX; I don't dev enough to get through a batch of D76 before it goes bad. Rodinal is also nice for one-shot. The Tetenal kit worked great for me when I did C41!

 

[bmattock]

I never did C41, I'm colorblind. I did (and will do again) my own B&W. I have my methods, they work for me.

I use Kodacraft tanks and aprons instead of reels. Diafine developer, so no need for thermometers or timers. Fixer, rinse, dry. I scan my negs with VueScan in Linux. Use The GIMP to post-process. Exiftool to insert metadata.

That's about it. A changing bag and the above, and I'm good to go.

 

[Liquid Fusion]

Thanks!! Posting these for further reference:

Rodinal : HOW TO DEVELOP BLACK AND WHITE FILM THE LAZY WAY

Rodinal : Black and white film development for lazy people

Rodinal : Massive Dev Chart Search Results

I like HC-110 for TriX; I don't dev enough to get through a batch of D76 before it goes bad. Rodinal is also nice for one-shot. The Tetenal kit worked great for me when I did C41!

TriX and HC110

rangefinderforum - Tri-X & HC-110

Kodak HC-110 Developer

I never did C41, I'm colorblind. I did (and will do again) my own B&W. I have my methods, they work for me.
I use Kodacraft tanks and aprons instead of reels. Diafine developer, so no need for thermometers or timers. Fixer, rinse, dry. I scan my negs with VueScan in Linux. Use The GIMP to post-process. Exiftool to insert metadata.
That's about it. A changing bag and the above, and I'm good to go.

Diafine – A Black and White Film Developer

Developing with Diafine

How to Develop BW Film in Diafine

 

[Liquid Fusion]

Group: Diafine - Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Group: Kodak D76 developer group - Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Group: HC110 - Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Group: Tri-X ❤ Rodinal - Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Rodinal and D-76 are from yesterday. HC-110 is for today.
Telenal, Jobo 1L kit is way to go for C-41.

 

[Alpsman]

Very wise to develope by yourself.
I'm using Promicrol for Ilford, Kodak & Agfa, but have to change the developer, because Promicrol will not be longer available here in the mountains. Thinking about to change to Tetenal.
Clour Negative will be developed in Tetenal Colortec at 30 °Celsius.

 

[Sid836]

D-23 is a simple developer, very forgiving, that always delivers great results especially with grainy films.
If you are to mix your own chemicals, give it a try.

 

[:: Mark]

I will definitely second Ko.Fe. on the HC110 for black and white. Works very well with both normal and push/pull processing, is cost effective and does not spoil quickly.

For colour, Tetenal is just about the only thing that you an find here. It works fine, but it has a comparatively short storage life - so avoid buying/mixing the larger sizes unless you shoot a lot. If you scan, small errors in development or problems from aged developer calibrate out...

Both the concentrated HC110 and the Tetenal developer are particularly nasty, so take appropriate safety precautions (ventilation, gloves etc).

IMO, developing is easy - but what is really painful is the scanning. I have two scanners, an aging PlusTek 7600i and an Epson v850. The PlusTek give great results but only does 35mm and is impossibly slow and tedious as for each frame you have to advance the film and manually start the scan. The Epson is faster, but the film holders are junk - the perspex backing guarantees liberal coatings of dust and fluff on every image, and the 120 holders don't.

IR dust reduction is near useless. It does not work at all on most B&W film, and on colour most of the software just replaces the dust with ugly smears that are even harder to correct manually in PS.

Developing is easy - it is what you do next that is hard...

 

[John Bragg]

+1 for HC-110. Like D76 but keeps forever and a better bet for occasional use.

 

[Sid836]

For occasional use Tetenal Ultrafin is the best. Economical, with great keeping characteristics and far better quality than HC110.
HC110 is like Rodinal. If you mix your own stuff then D-76 is far better especially with films that are already grainy.

Btw, why worrying about keeping a developer forever? This imposes first the risk of suddenly going bad for one reason or another, second after using it "forever" is is as if eating the same thing every single day. It becomes tasteless.

 

[:: Mark]

Btw, why worrying about keeping a developer forever? This imposes first the risk of suddenly going bad for one reason or another, second after using it "forever" is is as if eating the same thing every single day. It becomes tasteless.

I quite like Ilfosol, but it oxidises so quickly in the temperatures here that I end up throwing half of it away each time ((I do not have a dedicated chemical fridge!).

With some developers, it is not a question of keeping it forever, as keeping it long enough to be able to make full use of it...

 

[Sid836]

I quite like Ilfosol, but it oxidises so quickly in the temperatures here that I end up throwing half of it away each time ((I do not have a dedicated chemical fridge!).

With some developers, it is not a question of keeping it forever, as keeping it long enough to be able to make full use of it...

This is why you keep these developers in smaller full filled bottles instead the original half emptied one. Also there are means of other means of keeping the oxidizing air out of the bottle. You can get accordion bottles, or add marbles in the bottle to make the airspace as small possible.
Ilfosol 3 might not have the long keeping properties of HC-110 or Rodinal, but it delivers far better results as a fine grain developer. I have kept a half filled bottle of it in cold storage and lasted for almost a year until I consumed all of it.

 

[ABrosig]

HC-110 and Tetenal/Jobo kits are my go-to developers. I mix the HC110 one-shot at dilution H (1:63) and get great results. But, I don't shoot much Tri-X any more. I, personally, don't like the new Tri-X compared to what I was shooting three decades ago. I've switched almost exclusively to Ilford B&W films (HP5, Delta 400 and FP4) along with Eastman Double-X, a film I'm really coming to like and appreciate for its depth and resolution.

The Jobo kits will last longer than what the instructions say. I've got as many as 30 rolls (about double the projected life) from a 1 liter kit. It all depends on how you intend to further process your images. Someone said slightly less than perfect negatives can be adjusted in post if scanned and I agree. But with color, I mostly shoot outdate, expired film or E6 I've had in the freezer for years (decades) to process to negatives, usually in vintage cameras or Holga. I'm not necessarily shooting the color for a particular look, so the vagaries of the results I get really fit to what I'm doing right now.

 

[Fotohuis]

If you want a fine grain Ascorbic Acid type developer like Ilfosol-3/Xtol/Fomadon Excel W27/FX-50, but with better keeping quality (2 years!), I can recommend Patrick Gainer PC-TEA. The Ascorbic Acid is dissolved in Tri- Ethanol Amine. If the TEA is a problem you can use Glycol instead but it gives slightly more grain. Unfortunately Patrick Gainer died a few weeks ago on the age of 88. R.I.P.

 

[bmattock]

I used to not understand why people didn't like Diafine. It's cheap, super easy to use, lasts forever, gives good results.

Now I realize that's why some hate it. They like fiddly, difficult, esoteric, expensive developers that sometimes give great results and sometimes fail miserably. Part of the need great art has to suffer or something. I stick with easy.

 

[Fotohuis]

You can not control the logD curve with Diafine. The only parameter you can change is the E.I. of the film. Further Diafine is rediculous expensive in Europe, over Eur. 45,00 for a Gallon/3,8ltr. and the Quart/950ml is even not available, last price was around Eur. 30,00.

The 2 bath type developer is also not suitable with a lot of films, especially not Tgrain type. The best films which it was working with are even not in production anymore, Fuji Neopan 400/1600, Agfa APX-100 (Leverkusen), old Tri-X 400 emulsion.

So I can recommend Diafine for the next actual production films: Acros 100 4+4 minutes (ISO 160), Tri-X 400 ISO 800-1000, Kodak Double-X ISO 640, Fomapan 100 ISO 160, Fomapan 200 ISO 200. Regular developing time 3+3 minutes. Temperature: 21C-28C range.

Maybe somebody else has other recommendations for Diafine. 🙂

 

[bmattock]

As I said. Diafine just works, and it doesn't have enough knobs and switches for those who have a need to make things complicated. 😉

 

[Fotohuis]

I have my own TRD-Z densitometer with exchangeable apertures. Further I am developing films since 1967 so for me it is not difficult at all to do some "research" on film-developer combinations. I know from my own experience the best combinations, see also above recommendations for Diafine. The other 2-bath commercial type developer, Emofin (Tetenal) is out of production now so the choice in 2-bath is limited now. 🙂 (Moersch has some but further unknown).

 

[bmattock]

You keep making my point. 😉