Do you develop your own B&W film?

Do you develop your own B&W film?

  • Yes - I'm still addicted

    Votes: 727 89.3%

  • No - I opt for convenience

    Votes: 87 10.7%
  • Total voters
    814
Hah, four years after this poll was started I finally can vote.

Yes, I develop my own B&W now :)

120, 35mm, haven't tried 4x5 yet, still mulling the methods.

Developer? go Clayton, they are cheap, last long, and very nice (both film and paper).
 
aarathi:

Hi, and welcome to RFF. I get that you develop your own film, but I'm not sure I understand the second sentence.

Do you mean that when you develop your own film that the negatives turn out OK?
 
After starting of with film, and spending a small fortune on developing and ****ty prints at a local lab (20+ euro for one roll and prints!!), I've finally developed my first two rolls of Delta 400 - magical feeling. And just as Bob Michaels said before, why waste so much time/money when you can do it faster and probably better than your local lab.
But I still don't have neither a scanner nor an enlarger.... D'OH
 
These holidays I will get back into it for the first time in 30 years for the reason Bob Michaels mentions above: convenience. I only have Saturday to crawl across town to drop off and collect. That time is easily longer than developing myself. The lab scans are not high res (available but too expensive) and the last Rollei Retro 100 roll they butchered with unnecessarily high contrast in the scans anyway.
 
jsut started this week. I remember Boy Scouts 30+ years ago and how I missed ut "darkroom" class. I have always wanted to do it and was given the opportunity through frustration when my local B+W guy got sick.

Well worth the time and minor expense.....best of all I made it work! it is sort of like magic :)
 
OK, now here's a really stupid one: I plan (new yrs resolution) to start developing B&W film this year. My local lab (160 mile drive one way, so not really so "local") has raised prices on B&W "hand" processing although they're still reasonable for C-41. I've never done this before, so I plan to stay with basic chemicals and processes (like D-76 or ID-11), one film (Ilford FP4+) and begin with 120 size, maybe 35mm later on. Will scan negatives on an Epson V700.

I've been "cruising" this forum as well as APUG to get ideas, and "sort of" have an idea where this is going,.. actually this has been very helpful... but I need something to tie it all together. Something that would be a "Film Developing for Dummies" book that begins with "OK, dummy, this is how you... select your equipment, load film into the reel, mix and store chemicals.. and so on." Afaik, no local classes are available and my local photo club is hooked on digital with no film interest at all. So it looks as if it will be a complete do-it-myself process.

You folks are very helpful, so I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good basic textbook to guide me through the process and get me started, without hurting myself or damaging the kitchen to begin with, and then progressing toward getting some decent results.
 
Developing B&W isn't hard. Search "develop film" on youtube and you'll see plenty of videos explaining the process.

Having gotten a IIIf for Christmas, I've bought a changing bag, chemicals and tanks/reels. Haven't developed in 26 years... Will try digitizing negs first. If that doesn't work out, I'll just get back into printing.

- Charlie
 
JFH said:
<snip>... but I need something to tie it all together. Something that would be a "Film Developing for Dummies" book that begins with "OK, dummy, this is how you... select your equipment, load film into the reel, mix and store chemicals.. and so on." Afaik, no local classes are available and my local photo club is hooked on digital with no film interest at all. So it looks as if it will be a complete do-it-myself process.

You folks are very helpful, so I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good basic textbook to guide me through the process and get me started, without hurting myself or damaging the kitchen to begin with, and then progressing toward getting some decent results.
Click to expand...

What you need is the Iflord 11 page pamphlet entitled "processing your first black and white film" which is available at http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf
 
There are only a couple of labs that develops B&W films here in the Philippines
and quality is an issue. Home DO is the best way to go for film photographers here. Usual soups used are D76 and Parodinal.
 
Bob's link to Ilford is a very good one. Also, any college-level textbook for first semester black&white film classes will have step-by-step stuff.

For film developing you really only need four chemicals: D-76, stop bath, fixer, and a small bottle of photoflo.
You will also need a thermometer, a two reel stainless steel developing tank, two stainless steel reels, a light-tight change bag, and a couple of clips from which to hang film strips to dry.

Some people prefer other developers. Rodinal comes to mind, and it's very good. I stuck to D-76 because I've lived in places in the US where you couldn't get Rodinal.

Then, if you bulk load your own film, you're definitely saving money.
 
Thanks, Bob and Ted. I downloaded the Ilford pamphlet. It should be about perfect for what I need. What a great forum!!
 
developing, printing, and framing your own prints is very rewarding. convenience and proper photography simply don't go together. imho, if you want convenience then shoot digital, if you want something more, then it must be silver halide.
 
just hung my first roll out to dry in more than 25 years.

4327323160_5a0b34c958.jpg


Tremendously satisfying. Much more so than I remember. Neopan 1600 (rated 800) one hour stand in Rodinal.

4327322990_bcfc4ef48b_b.jpg
 
epson v700 scanner arrives tomorrow. did four rolls in three days this week. can't believe how long it's been since I did this and how much fun I'm having with it.
 
I love Rodinal for the convenience, but don't like the grain I get with HP5+ with normal development. Going to try 1:100 stand developing for an hour or so.
 
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