Do you develop your own B & W films

[Becoming]

Yes, finally. I developed my first roll last night ... and now I'm addicted!

I don't have a scanner to see how it turned out yet but I'm just happy there's something on the negs.

 

[Gradskater]

Been doing my own black and white for about a year now. I just scan the negs and post to the web. The surprising thing is how easy it is, especially compared to how hard I thought it would be. Been doing color too and its just as easy.

 

[robklurfield]

a trip to B&H today has stiffened my resolve to return to do souping my own after a 25+ year layoff. I picked up a new tank and reel (somewhere I must still have an ss tank and reels sitting around), bottles, thermometer, some Rodinal, etc., etc.... plus 10 rolls of Neopan 1600 135 and 10 of Neo 400 120. being on RFF has done a lot to motivate me on this.

 

[kossi008]

I do. All of them. Well, I've caved in recently and taken a couple rolls to the local photo store. They added some scratches and dust to help me reinforce my original decision: Hey, I can do better than that!

I should probably not tempt my luck, but here it is: I have NEVER EVER ruined a roll in developing. I did turn out some substandard stuff, and I have screwed up by using spent fixer and such, but no roll ever was completely blank or so.

There, I've done it. Next roll's going to be blank... :bang:

 

[MISH]

I process all my B&W film which gives me great enjoyment, 35mm, 120, 4x5, and 5x7

for the large format a Jobo CPP 2 processor and a expert drum is the greatest thing ever invented

BTW: Rodinal for small negs and Xtol for the large ones

 

[barnwulf]

I developed my film for years. I don’t have a good place to do it now or a dust free place to dry my negatives. I don’t have a scanner. I live in the US and have tried several local labs in Salt Lake City and didn’t like their work. Now I send all my film to NCPS in Carlsbad, California and they have done a very nice consistent job of processing my film and scanning a 36 exp roll for a very very low price and return the scans as 48mb jpg scans. The scans are very sharp and have nearly all been good quality scans. That’s probably how I will keep on doing it. I would like to do my own sometimes but it’s not likely that I will.

 

[mathomas]

I did my own first roll this weekend. Scanned them, too. Will continue to do so.

I'd been taking film to a local shop for dev for the last couple months I've been back into film, but it's obvious they've beens scratching the negs to a greater or lesser extent (though their Imacon scanner tends to hide that -- it's when I used my new scanner to rescan that I see the problems), and my last two rolls of scans came back with a thick light line through every shot. The negs appear OK, so most likely a scanner issue, but that was the last straw. So, I bought the development equipment (and a film scanner), and got to work. My first roll came out OK (there are winners and losers like on every roll), and my scans of the good negs are better than the lab scans. Way fewer scratches.

 

[Cec]

Yes to all, both 35mm and 120 format.
Also use a wet darkroom for enlarging and printing silver gelatin prints, as I have done for the last 50 plus years.
I work in monochrome only and have never lost my love and enthusiasm for the wet darkroom.

 

[lorenzo1910]

Recently (uhm...2 months...) I started developing my own B&W and I'm really satisfied by the results....Microphen,Rodinal and D76 are my "weapons"...

Mind this:a pro lab asked me to develop their B&W rolls (they make only C41 stuff....)
(Where is the "proud" emoticon?)

 

[Arvay]

Yes.
Last combination I tried and liked the best - Pyrocat and Acros.
I have choice when I do it myself.

 

[flip]

Just started again recently. Xtol, pyrocat. Imperfect, but enjoyable. Finding a reasonable, used 5000ED sealed the deal.

 

[bevels]

It's a huge part of the reason I love shooting black and white film. I get excited on my way home from an afternoon shooting in the street with a pocket full of Tri-X. Nothing beats throwing on some good tunes, popping the top on a cool dark beverage and processing film! It's especially great if you scan, because two hours later you're looking at the images you shot that day! Not so exciting now that digital came along and ruined the excitement of instantanousness 😉 but still pretty cool!