Does anyone here develope B&W film at home without toxic chemicals?

[spystyle]

Hello from Maine 🙂

I'm approaching photography backwards, staring with digital and now messing with film.

Now I have a lot of film cameras I'd like to try and I might like to try developing my own B&W.

But going from digital to film is like going from non-toxic to toxic chemicals. I see some companies make non-toxic developing chemicals and I wonder if any of you guys use that?

I wonder if there is a huge cost difference between toxic and non-toxic?

Thank you,
Craig

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Crag,

The difference is basically marketing. Remember: Oxygen dihydride can be fatal in sufficient quantities.

Very few 'toxic' B+W dev + fix brews would kill you if you drank them, not least because you'd throw up immediately.

And you'd throw up and feel ill after drinking most 'non-toxic' dev or fix brews, too...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Ducky]

I wonder how the environment feels about home processing?

 

[spystyle]

Are the minilabs at the drug stores more environmentally sound than home processing ? I just assumed they used the same chemicals in some automatic way.

🙂
Thanks,
Craig

 

[dfoo]

I wonder how the environment feels about home processing?

Indifferent. Home cleaning supplies are far more harmful to the environment than the amount of chemicals used in home processing of B&W film.

 

[Morca007]

Are the minilabs at the drug stores more environmentally sound than home processing ? I just assumed they used the same chemicals in some automatic way.

🙂
Thanks,
Craig

Those stores get their chemistry properly disposed of by waste services, rather than pouring them down the drain.