-doomed-
film is exciting
Today I developed my first roll of black and white film, after reading about how satisfying it is to see your negatives firsthand after processing them. I never thought it would be this satisfying or liberating. I spent a few days really reading the process and hunted down used darkroom gear to try it myself.
With the reading I had done I bought myself a stainless tank with a cheap stainless reel(which is getting round filed asap, while practicing the damn thing was just impossible
), replaced it with a hewes reel i found on the bay for$9.00. I then purchased some D76 and some fixer, which i mixed as fast as i could, waited for it to fully dissolve overnight, then shot a roll of HP5. Fast forwarding to the present day i souped the roll at the rec'd temp and time , stopped with water, fixed for 5 mins ,rinsed for 10, and at the moment the negs are hanging to dry. ( the massive dev chart app for iphone/ipod touch is fantastic as a resource/timer as well) I also substituted some dish soap (one drop) during my final rinse to keep the water spots to a minimum which seemed to work pretty well.Though i suppose i should buy a proper wetting agent as i run more rolls through
I did misload the reel and lost two frames , which im sure were not of any importance. I will post the scanned negs once they dry.
I must admit , this gives me every reason to not shoot color again , though i do have something like 15 rolls of various C41 color film to shoot, though I am confident that i could process my own color as well. This forum has me doing things that if you asked me last year would i shoot and develop my own film , i probably would've said no way, but then again i didnt know what the hell a rangefinder was either. I guess when and if film dies ill have to save for something like an M8, but at the moment im in love with film.
With the reading I had done I bought myself a stainless tank with a cheap stainless reel(which is getting round filed asap, while practicing the damn thing was just impossible
), replaced it with a hewes reel i found on the bay for$9.00. I then purchased some D76 and some fixer, which i mixed as fast as i could, waited for it to fully dissolve overnight, then shot a roll of HP5. Fast forwarding to the present day i souped the roll at the rec'd temp and time , stopped with water, fixed for 5 mins ,rinsed for 10, and at the moment the negs are hanging to dry. ( the massive dev chart app for iphone/ipod touch is fantastic as a resource/timer as well) I also substituted some dish soap (one drop) during my final rinse to keep the water spots to a minimum which seemed to work pretty well.Though i suppose i should buy a proper wetting agent as i run more rolls through
I did misload the reel and lost two frames , which im sure were not of any importance. I will post the scanned negs once they dry.
I must admit , this gives me every reason to not shoot color again , though i do have something like 15 rolls of various C41 color film to shoot, though I am confident that i could process my own color as well. This forum has me doing things that if you asked me last year would i shoot and develop my own film , i probably would've said no way, but then again i didnt know what the hell a rangefinder was either. I guess when and if film dies ill have to save for something like an M8, but at the moment im in love with film.
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