Film Development Options For Busy People?

[mfogiel]

You can develop up to 8 rolls of 35mm in a steel tank (possibly with Hewes reels for quick loading). If you show how to do it to someone else ( friend or relative), you might do away with using your own time. Assuming to do it twice a week, you can develop up to 832 reels in a year. Use HC110 one shot, no stop or rinse, straight into the fixer one shot, wash and hung dry. The whole processing could only take 15 minutes.

 

[Godfrey]

All these estimates of being able get a roll of film processed with hand-manipulated means in 15 minutes or so do not map to my experience processing film for the past 50+ years at all.

I might get ONE load of film through the develop-fix cycle in 15-20 minutes, sans wash, but there's still time involved in cleaning/drying the equipment for the next load, and there's work to do to move the processed film from wash to drying ... never mind space to dry eight rolls of film simultaneously (and without damaging it) if you're using an 8 reel tank system, plus time to take it down after it is dry and put it somewhere safe, etc etc. Oh yes, and there's loading tanks, etc, on the front end: it takes a while to load 8 reels no matter what else you do.

The best I've ever gotten done was when I was the chief of the photo staff in my High School. I had three other guys in the staff in a 12x20' sized workspace, partitioned into three small rooms (one an office, middle room for drying/cleaning, back room for printing and tray processing; two latter rooms both capable of going dark). With four of us working the processing in a coordinated way, we processed about forty rolls of film in about six hours time, using 4 and 8 reel tanks. That's a FULL day with four people working their butts off loading, cleaning, drying, preparing chemistry, running the washer, etc etc, in a facility (just barely) big enough to do the job.

I doubt very very much that any single individual is going to process more than ten to fifteen rolls of film in a day no matter what unless they have a continuous flow processing machine at their disposal.

IMO, it's better to think of the problem from the practical realities of getting the job done effectively and estimate the time to do it conservatively. With my current setup using four reel tanks, I have time and space to process about four rolls of film in an evening, dry to dry. With a fully automated scanner, that's about 35-40 minutes per roll of 36 to scan ... You can set that up to run while you're processing film and maybe just keep up after the first night's work (doing the previous night's developed film). If I have 300 rolls to process, that's 75 evenings worth of developing time; if I could get eight rolls done per evening, that's still 38-40 evenings' work, and you'd be behind on the scanning at the end.

For me, that's just too much time. My time is valuable too, at least as valuable as my money. Send the stuff out to a good lab and pay to get it done!
🙂

G

 

[kxl]

The logistics of doing this is just truly daunting. Other than chipping away at my backlog for a long, long time and shooting digital in the meantime, it's really beginning to seem like the only other logistically feasible way to get through this would be to pay a lab. 🙁

 

[Uncle Bill]

Three hundred rolls is not a back log, that's on the way to Vivian Maier and Garry Winograd territory, I get worked up if I have even three or four rolls sitting waiting to process. I would start sending batches of 50 out to to be processed by a decent lab as funds permit if you're time crunched with other commitments.

 

[Bingley]

I were you, I would take two days vacations, and do the development myself; use HC110 for speed....

This ^^^. If you can find time to scan and photoshop your negs, you can find time to develop the film in the first place. It's a matter of adjusting your expectations to how quickly you'll get the backlog done. I follow exactly the same workflow as you and also have to fit in film processing with a busy schedule. Oftentimes, there's a significant gap in time between when I develop the negs and when I scan and post-process the images. 300 rolls is a pretty daunting backlog, but I'd chip away at it rather than have a lab do the developing (and, as Godfrey suggests, shoot digital in the meantime).

Oh, and the 8-roll Patterson tank is a good suggestion too. 🙂

 

[JChrome]

I have a design drawn out on paper for a system made from PVC to fill a tank with wash, then dev, agitate, remove dev, insert stop (I use water), remove stop, insert fix and then dump it.

A raspberry pi would control the whole thing. Sprinkler solenoids and gravity would control the fluid. A cpu fan would control the agitation (this bit would potentially be the most complicated part).

If I had some more tools and more inclination, I'd love to build it. It'd definitely cost less than a Jobo (I estimate around $350).

I picture myself building a light-tight box and inserting the reels into the pvc, attach the head and then it's light tight. Then, after making sure all the fluid tanks are full, just hit a button.

EDIT - If you really wanted to get cool you could have the chem tanks within a larger tank to control the temp. Separate chem tanks for different temps if you want to develop color.

 

[Rob-F]

Would shooting chromogenic film such as Ilford XP-2 be out of the question? It can just go to any C-41 lab for processing, then scan it yourself. I assume XP-2 scans OK; I don't know, I haven't tried it.

 

[Godfrey]

Would shooting chromogenic film such as Ilford XP-2 be out of the question? It can just go to any C-41 lab for processing, then scan it yourself. I assume XP-2 scans OK; I don't know, I haven't tried it.

XP2 Super scans very well, and as you say it's easy to have it processed.

That's one way to keep from having a backlog if you're still shooting film, but it does nothing to solve the current backlog problem.

G

 

[k__43]

I've the same problem as the OP .. I'm a father now since two years and while I'm free in the evening, I'm way too tired to set up the mini dev lab in the bathroom. (you can call that lazy, but only because you haven't had kids yet or you are one of those mysterious super energetic people).
Scanning etc can be done in a few free minutes without looking on a stopwatch (main reason to buy a coolscan 8000 was batch scanning of 12 frames).
I bring unimportant films to a lab now, but I don't trust them with my precious stuff. So that piles up, not 300 films tho .. maybe 40

 

[leicapixie]

300 Rolls!
I would quit there an then..move to digital.
I shoot one roll for a day's outing.
Seldom 2 or more.
If 2 films waiting for processing, i stop using film.
One can make time.
Stop watching TV between the commercials and "pop-ups".
Use that time creatively, develop a few rolls a night.
Lose your smart phone.
4 rolls is easy, then scan a day later.
Using C-41 no longer an option in Toronto, unless one uses one of few remaining labs, Downtown Camera is one.
They scan well.
My experience from way back,40+ years, the only BW that faded were a number of rolls processed in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Color! Ugh! Agfa processing all faded as did my Ektachromes done in Paris..Ferrania, Gaveart and 3M were similar empty slide frames..
BW is simple, keep it that way.

 

[Snapper_uk]

I had a similar situation - love B&W film, but do not enough time for it. I started shooting a lot more Ilford XP2, taking it to a lab and getting 6x4 prints back. It costs a lot more but then there's no need to develop, scan or print, unless you want to do one-off bigger prints.

XP2 scans a lot better too - you can use automated IR spot removal, which speeds the process up if you are having to spot b&w film scans by hand.

I still shoot regular b&w film, but bought a bigger tank so I could develop faster. I also use a v750 scanner to scan digital contact sheets - i.e. put the developed negs into clear neg pages, then scan the whole thing on the flatbed (two scans to get it all) as a contact sheet and print that. I do not scan each individual frame.

 

[Bill Clark]

Use less film. Make each image count. With digital, machine gun approach sometimes works. It doesn't with film. Film takes a lot more time during the process stage plus scanning if viewed on an electronic device.

I became 100% digital when I had my business. It was my workflow because, like you, I was very busy. However, I brought my film mentality to my digital capture; I would take few photographs and make every image count, especially the money shots.

During my senior year of college, I photographed a couple of friends weddings. All of us had little money. I usually used two 36 exposure each roll of Ektachrome X color slide film. From 72 photos I always came up with 15 to 20 that I made into 8 x 10 prints for their wedding album. Prints from slides, wow does that start the old neurons firing in my cranium! I still have the Unicolor drum that I used to make prints! Fondue parties were popular back then and fun to have one with the B & G to review the slides.

Long ago, I was in a fun photo shoot with a few friends and, on our honesty, we could only take one photograph. It was a learning experience, especially, after prints made, we all looked at what we had made.

 

[p.giannakis]

I currently have a backlog of approx 300 rolls to be developed and they've been aging for almost 18 months now. Sending them out at $7-$8 per roll for development is too expensive.

I have to say, I admire you for being so efficient. I haven't managed to shoot more than 3 films per year (and i don't shot digital)....

 

[taemo]

Which part of developing B&W is holding back the OP?
Is it the time required to commit for developing?

I can develop 5 35mm rolls at a time with my current drums and roller with minimal user input and I could actually go up to 15 rolls if I buy more reels.

With a roller, I don't have to continuously baby sit the developing, just pour developer in and depending on the film, come back after 5-8 minutes.
Then I also use a low concentrate fixer (1+9) so that it takes around 15 minutes instead.
While the film is in the roller, I usually do something else

 

[Austerby]

This is industrial/professional volumes, normal retail pricing need not apply. Contact professional labs and state your requirements for developing and basic scanning. State your requirements for turnaround times. Select quality threshold for the service then select the cheapest one at that level.

If necessary to get the best price consider splitting the 300 into batches to enable process efficiencies from the labs - eg 50 per week for seven weeks rather than 300 in one go. All depends on what you can agree/negotiate.

Then, follow the other advice given here.

 

[Rob-F]

Or send out 200 rolls and do 100 at home, five per week for 20 weeks?

 

[zuiko85]

Just happened on this thread. Well, I guess I can finally stop feeling bad about having 10 rolls backed up to develop. Good grief, 300 rolls!!! In 18 months!!!
In 35mm I mostly shoot half frame and if I'm on a real binge might shoot 2 36exp (75 exp) rolls in a week, but that is maybe once a year. Otherwise I go through 15~20 rolls a year total.

I know, why half frame? Well, if you are going to shoot tiny negs, you might as well go all the way. Just wish I could come up to the level of being able to see over the top of Erik van Straten's shoe leather. When I see his half frame work I just want to put my Pen F away in a closet.

 

[giganova]

Scanning takes much longer than developing the films, so I would hire an intern/student, give him/her your scanner to scan all the files.

BTW, most community centers have fully-equipped labs that you can use.

 

[kxl]

Thanks for the responses. For those who asked, my issue is the time required for me to be physically be in the darkroom, i.e., at home to process all of those rolls. I have room to hang up to maybe 20 rolls at a time and am able to scan entire rolls at a time--so I can feed a roll, leave it and come back later to feed the next roll. Applying adjustments vis PS is not an issue because I use my laptop and do that on the road.

We do have a community darkroom and I am looking into negotiating something with the guy who manages the darkroom. I'll have to do some vetting to see if I can trust him with my backlog.

Once I deal with my backlog I'll just have to be more disciplined in processing after every shoot. I do still have a freezer full of B&W film.