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
I just started learning how to develop films. It's great fun doing it.

Max
 
When I got my first SLR and kinda got more serious about photography I bought a basic LPL enlarger and enough gear to soup my own films, back then I'd buy HP5 & FP4 by the 10 pack and waste a lot of paper to get passable 8x10's but I had a lot of fun trying. Now I'm shooting only XP2 and a few rolls of Delta 3200 a year (lab processed at great cost). As time goes on I intend to get a good neg scanner that can do a reasonable job on true B&W negs so I can shoot a lot more real silver based film, soup my own and then scan and print them digitally on something like a high end Epson or at my local Fuji Frontier lab. I do agree there is nothing like a good hand printed B&W but I don’t have the skills myself.

PS: I still have my old enlarger and gear and only a couple of months ago I was almost tempted by all the low cost/high quality used enlarger lenses at my local camera store, if anything will return me to B&W D&P shooting RF's will 🙂
 
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laika,
printing at a master level takes time and lots of work, but being a good printer isn't really that hard.
after a bit of practice you will be better than most of the labs around you.
believe me, i'm no great printer but i ain't so bad and all it takes is patience, a good editor and evening full of good kharma.

joe
 
Just noted the interest shown in this thread. Sharing my compact darkroom setup in the spare bedroom. For film processing I usually use a changing bag and process it in the bathroom next to this room.

The nova print processor is mounted on a roller tray that can be rolled out when in use and roll back for storage.
 
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I've developed about 7 rolls of Efke KB100 in the past year and a half or so, and still have 3 rolls unexposed lying about. Developing the film by myself is nice but I'm not addicted to it. I actually rather shoot colour neg film and use PSP to turn the shots into B&W (or better, Monochrome).
 
I do mostly B&W stuff - color is only used with my Nikon F80 during family gatherings, birthdays, etc...

I've NEVER had any B&W developed by a lab!
My first lab work must have been some time in primary school - in the late seventies 🙂

I seriously started photography with my first serious camera - a Yashica FR (which I still have, though it's inoperable) in 1982, I think. I did quite some shooting for 3-4 years, but then other things intervened (it's a long story).

A few years ago, when moving into a new house, I reserved a small space under the stairs (actually, a toilet 🙂) for myself, which has become my permanent darkroom. It's so tiny that I had to use fisheye to get a shot of it 😀

I use mostly Efke films (no wonder, since I'm in Croatia), and develop in Rodinal at 1:50 - mostly in a small tank, but I recently also got a used Jobo processor (CPE) with lift - for medium format stuff, when I have more than 2 films to do.
Lately, since I bought a Leica, I've been shooting like mad 🙂 I already had to buy two new bulk cans of Efke KB100 and two cans of TMax 400 😀

Attached is a shot of my darkroom:
 
I have always done my own B&W film and printing. With my next batch of film I am going to take it to my local lab after processing and have them scan the film for me, before I cut the strips. They will scan for a very reasonable fee and the convenience of this may be worthwhile. If nothing else, it will be a "digitized" contact sheet to work from. I have read with great interest the comments regarding the Epson 2200 -- although it's hard to imagine replacing conventional printing I must keep an open mind.

D2
 
In the last year i started to seriously consider developing my own. Alas, this is the period when i don't have time for it, so might be something for the future... Used darkroom equipment is very cheap, in some cases even free, if i take care of the transport 🙂

Anyway, a question bugs me. How good is the result if you develop your B&W neg, scan it and let a lab print it? And, first of all, do they print it specially as black and white? Or just like anything C-41?

The reason for asking it is, here it's very expensive to get traditional black and white processed and printed...and the quality, especially for speeds above 400iso, sucks. If i'd develop the film myself, would get a scanner as I plan to do, and follow the hybrid route, the quality problem would be solvable (said with some self-confidence, ha ha ha) - but if the prints still cost me triple of c-41 (and even more for large prints), then it's not a big help.
 
One day...

One day...

I keep thinking I should get around to developing at B+W, now I'm having fun with the MF gear. At the moment, I'm fortunate in that the shop I go to in Amsterdam does a pretty good job, or has done so far, in developing both slide and B+W.

As for printing, I scan the 120 negs on a Epson 3170, and print them on an HP 7660 inkjet - quite satisfactory for A4. The HP has a special "photo gray" cartridge, and does very good B+W prints. Since the print head is in the cartridge, there is no need to set a printer aside for B+W printing. Plus, unlike Epsons, it doesn't clog its nozzles, even after not printing for a couple of months.

As I get more into the B+W side of things, I may just have to get a daylight developing kit, and give things a try (I've done it before, but that was over 20 years ago back in NZ. I do have a little darkroom spot too, setup by the previous occupants).
 
Pherdinand said:

Anyway, a question bugs me. How good is the result if you develop your B&W neg, scan it and let a lab print it? And, first of all, do they print it specially as black and white? Or just like anything C-41?

The reason for asking it is, here it's very expensive to get traditional black and white processed and printed...and the quality, especially for speeds above 400iso, sucks.
Click to expand...

I've tried that, just for the hell of it - thought the quality wold be waaay below traditional darkroom print.

Surprisingly, the results came out relatively fine. Anyway, I brought them a JPG file of approx. 1600x1200 pix. size, 300 DPI, and the result was printed on the usual Fuji paper they have.
Well, not the *ordinary* one, since they told me I'll have to wait a day or two, since they had to order the paper for this.
As I said, the results are acceptable. The paper was Fujicolor Crystal Archive. The photos *are* a bit different than my darkroom prints, but not bad at all.
The print sizes were 13x18 cm, and the sharpness was quite OK. Not something you'd like to do for an exhibition, but OK.
As for the price, it was the same as for the "ordinary" color print (from color negative film) of the same size.

So, if you REALLY can't do your own B&W, and want B&W prints that won't cost a fortune, this might be a temporary (!) solution.
In the meantime, get the equipment needed (it's cheap these days!), and try doing the B&W stuff yourself. Otherwise, you're missing half the fun!
I mean, shooting a Leica or Bessa (or whatever RF you use), and never having a REAL B&W print done, it's just... unthinkable 😉

Denis
 
I was surprised to experience how friends, relatives and other people in my neighbourhood - with very fine own digital cameras and so on - got completly overenthusiastic and keen on when thew saw some rather simple B&W homemade (in my bathroom)photos I had of them and other people. And they all asked for copies and more copies.
I thought that my B&W way of taking and making pictures was out of time and onmodern, so their interest of B&W photos of old-fashioned kind astonished me.
So, if You want to get "popular" and cared about, show friends and other people some homemade B&W photos and You´ll be surprised the how high status that old craftsmanship has.
And if You haven´t tried start develop Your own B&W film. It is so easy and cheep. And as a member of a photoclub or so, You can make Your own B&W enlarged copys. It is a thrill to see the picture develop in the developer.
Svante in old Sweden
 
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I've been doing my own b&w for about a year now. Being a cheap way of shooting was my reason. APX400 & Ilfosol to start, a $5- flea market tank and splurged $35- for a change bag. Since then, I've picked up a few more tanks, bulk rolling HP5 & FP4 and souping in HC110, ID11 & Rodinal. Going to try pushing HP5 in Microphen as well.

I scan most of my negs with a Minolta Dual Scan, and sometimes print with my "suitcase" enlarger when I have a late evening free, and have the bathroom to myself for a couple of hours 🙂. This should get easier in the winter months as it gets dark a lot earlier as my bathroom/darkroom isn't dark enough during the day.

Shooting b&w is also the closest I get to "instant" gratification with the RF's (I have the Dreb for the wildlife), since I'll usually finish the roll, and I can have results quickly and cheaply. 1hr labs are either good or cheap, but not both.
 
thanks Denis - i might try it after all, sounds better than I thought. One detail: from 1600x1200 pixels and 300 dpi, how did you end up with 13x18?? Shouldn't that be more like 10x15?

I think i need that darn scanner😀 Point is, i'd like to use it for 6x6 negs too - which means one of the epson flatbeds. But i constantly hear people complaining about it when used for 35mm negs... I certainly can';t afford a MF film scanner, neither a 35mm film AND flatbed for 6x6.
 
Pherdinand said:
thanks Denis - i might try it after all, sounds better than I thought. One detail: from 1600x1200 pixels and 300 dpi, how did you end up with 13x18?? Shouldn't that be more like 10x15?
Click to expand...

Don't ask me - the guy said the size isn't that important, the important thing is that the JPG is 300 DPI.


I think i need that darn scanner😀 Point is, i'd like to use it for 6x6 negs too - which means one of the epson flatbeds. But i constantly hear people complaining about it when used for 35mm negs... I certainly can';t afford a MF film scanner, neither a 35mm film AND flatbed for 6x6.
Click to expand...

The one I use is Microtek ScanMaker 6100 - since you're in Netherlands, I guess it shouldn't be difficult to get it there. I like it - 35mm negs are great, and MF negs are *perfect*! (It's a flatbed, BTW.)
The only thing I did was to make my own MF adapter - the original one allows you only 1 (ONE!) negative (frame) at a time..
So, with some cardboard, glue and xacto knife (scalpel), I made another adapter in about half an hour, and now I can scan 2 negs up to 6x7 size at once. 6x9 size is a little too big to scan two of those at once....
Anyway, check out reviews of Microtek 6100, and see if you can get it in Netherlands - the price should be lower than Epson, and the quality even better - max. scan resolution is 6400!
All photos in my gallery were scanned on Microtek, if that's any help. Everything was shot on Efke KB100, souped in Rodinal 1:50, and scanned on Microtek ScanMaker 6100.

Regards,
Denis
 
In the last year I finally got around to building a permanent darkroom. SO cool after years of makeshift bathroom set ups. One of the great things for those of us doing this is that prices on the used market for equipment have gotten so low. Safelights, enlargers, timers, easels, etc have gotten laughably cheap.
 
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