gonna start processing my own

[shaaktiman]

Hey all,

After spending tons of money getting my 120 film processed at pro labs here in NYC, I've decided to start processing by myself. I've taken a bunch of classes over at the International Center for Photography, so I'm pretty up on the procedure (in D76, which is what they use over there.) Anyway, I have 2 questions I hope some people might be able to help me with.

I've decided to start out with Diafine as my developer for sake of convenience. What are some peoples favorite films to use with this? I scan in all of my negs for digital printing, so grain is probably my most serious concern. I've heard that Tri-X can get very grainy in diafine. True? Help me out here.

I also need to buy all of my equipment from scratch. Since I mainly shoot 120 film now, I'm interested in those JOBO reels that can fit 2 120 rolls on a single reel. They have some kind of clip on them to keep the rolls seperate. Has anyone used these? Are they easy or a total pain? Does anyone have hard and fast preferences for rolling 120 film in terms of types or brands of reels/tanks?

I'll be doing this in my kitchen and drying the rolls in my shower. Any other advice from experienced home processors would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

adam

 

[rover]

Sounds like you are way ahead of the game for a "starter".

120 film is a bear to get on the reels. I use Patterson tanks and reels. It takes some doing to get it right.

TriX in diafine, I shoot at 1250 or 1600 depending on my mood. I have liked the results I have gotten with it. I just shot some Plus X and may process it tomorrow. I expect that it will be fine.

 

[Roman]

Don't know whether they are available in the US, but A&P reels are the easiest to load, particularly with 120 films - they also work with Paterson tanks (Pateson reels are not as easy to load).

Roman

 

[T_om]

I have no problem with grain shooting Tri-x and developing in Diafine, not even in 35mm format. 120 should be a piece of cake.

I do not like the double load reels. Single is fine. Just get a larger tank and do one roll per reel. I have two 8-reel tanks and 3 or 4 4-reel tanks. Diafine is not time dependent, so you will not have to worry about pour times in large tanks influencing the film's development.

Tom

 

[plexi]

Personally I wouldn`t limit myself to Diafine, there`s a bunch of other film/developers that works beautifully. Examples: Agfa APX 100/Rodinal, a "magic" combination with fine grain, high sharpness and beautiful tonal range(Cheap too). Tri-X in Rodinal is great too in 120...
Neopan 400 in XTOL ect....

 

[shaaktiman]

I'm interested in trying rodinal also. I was thinking of starting out with diafine for convenience. I know the temps have to be spot on for rodinal and I'm kind of sloppy. I have a question about it actually. Let's say I'm mixing up 1 liter of 50 to 1 strength. Does this mean 49 parts water and 1 part rodinal, or should it just be 1 liter of water and then 20 mL of rodinal? Does my water have to be filtered or distilled? (again, sloppy.) Last one... what are the practcal differences between the rodinal dilutions? Why would I want to do 100 to 1 rather than 50 or even 25 to 1?

thanks a lot for your help, all of you. I really appreciate it.

 

[Grumblepunk]

Totally off the subject (though my ear is bent, because I am going to be starting a similar endevour, soon), but is that you in your icon?

Cracker Mr. T pwns. 😎

 

[shaaktiman]

Yup. That's me. Halloween, 2002.

 

[Seele]

Adam,

The two current sizes of Jobo spirals can take two 120 films on each, as they both have the separator clip. If you are starting out from scratch, you would need to decided on which system to go for.

The "small" system is 1500, with a smaller diameter drum and smaller spirals to suit. Of course it requires less solution too, but it cannot handle "spirals" for sheet film, which the "large" 2500 system can handle.

If you decide to go for the 2500 system, there are two choices regarding spirals. You can use the current "DuoSet" which is hand-loaded, or get an earlier "RoSet" which requires a loader. I use all of them and they are all completely satisfactory.

 

[Roman]

I'm interested in trying rodinal also. I was thinking of starting out with diafine for convenience. I know the temps have to be spot on for rodinal and I'm kind of sloppy. I have a question about it actually. Let's say I'm mixing up 1 liter of 50 to 1 strength. Does this mean 49 parts water and 1 part rodinal, or should it just be 1 liter of water and then 20 mL of rodinal? Does my water have to be filtered or distilled? (again, sloppy.) Last one... what are the practcal differences between the rodinal dilutions? Why would I want to do 100 to 1 rather than 50 or even 25 to 1?

thanks a lot for your help, all of you. I really appreciate it.

About using 1+50 (or 1+49) Rodinal: does not really matter, as long as you use on or the other consistently - 1l water + 20ml of Rodinal, or 980ml water and 20ml Rodinal, whatever is easier for you...
About the water - I use tap water, but here in Vienna, the tap water is better than some bottled waters in other countries (it is alpine spring water that is pipelined to the city), so if yours has all kinds of other stuff in it, I'd use distilled, or at least boiled tap water.
Oh, and don't let your mixed developer sit, too long - bottled Rodinal concentrate keeps forever, but once it is mixed, it will go bad rather fast (in a few hours, I'd guess).
About the various dilutions: higher dilutions will give less contrast, finer grain (contrary to most other developers, where higher dilution gives coarser grain - that's the Rodinal paradox), presumably higher acutance/apparent sharpness - and development times will get much longer. 1+50 is said to be the sweet spot, though, with most films.
Oh, and make sure you have about 10ml Rodinal concentrate per film in your mix (meaning, you'll need at least 500ml of mixed developer per film if using 1+50) - that's what Agfa recommends; they have a saftey margin in that recommendation, I'd guess you could go a bit lower, it depends on the silver content of the film type, and how you exposed it (how much bright parts in the scene - that will be dark on the neg, and will need more developer molecules to work on the silver crystals) - but with the cheap prices of Rodinal, I'd play it safe...

Roman

 

[shaaktiman]

wow. thanks a lot for all of the info everyone!

Roman, I'm a little confused as to the 500mL thing per film. If I'm doing 2 rolls of film (120) in a tank, that means I'll need 1 liter total of developer. Will my tank take a whole liter?

 

[titrisol]

DIAFINE
I think TriX and PlusX are the best film in this soup. However, I've heard (nos tried) that the EFKE films also work real well in Diafine.
The advantage IMHO is that you can shoot in a range of EIs (ISO) and most of the picutres will come with similar contrast

RODINAL
Read the unlbinkingeye.com article on Appreciating Rodinal first.

1. Dilutions:
It doesn't matter if you do 1+49 or 1+50 as long as you do it the same away every time.
Aftet the first test you'l know whether your times are right or not.
I use tap water, it's soft here, in NYC should be fine as well.
Regarding how much concnetrate is needed, well that is up to ebate. I believe that 3-4ml of Rodinal is plenty to develop a roll of film.
However, when I use 1+100 or 1+200 I try to use more solution than the minimum. i.e. In my tank for 120 minimum is 550 so I use 700ml or so.

2. Efffect of dilution
The higher the dilution the smaller the grain and the more compensating effect you can get.
I use 1+50 as my "normal" dilution, 1+100 as my compensation and 1+200 as my Holga dilution.
However, the more you dilute the less you have to agitate... longer periods.... with 1+50 I agitate once/minute; 1+100 once/3 minutes; 1+200 once/15minutes or so.

3. Temperature
Rodinal works best (IMHO) with cold water (65-68 F).

I'm interested in trying rodinal also. I was thinking of starting out with diafine for convenience. I know the temps have to be spot on for rodinal and I'm kind of sloppy. I have a question about it actually. Let's say I'm mixing up 1 liter of 50 to 1 strength. Does this mean 49 parts water and 1 part rodinal, or should it just be 1 liter of water and then 20 mL of rodinal? Does my water have to be filtered or distilled? (again, sloppy.) Last one... what are the practcal differences between the rodinal dilutions? Why would I want to do 100 to 1 rather than 50 or even 25 to 1?


thanks a lot for your help, all of you. I really appreciate it.

 

[Roman]

wow. thanks a lot for all of the info everyone!

Roman, I'm a little confused as to the 500mL thing per film. If I'm doing 2 rolls of film (120) in a tank, that means I'll need 1 liter total of developer. Will my tank take a whole liter?

Theoretically, yes (though I'd say 700 to 800 ml are still safe enough...).
You can test how much your tank takes with out film (but with the reels) with water; but don't fill it up to the rim, there should be some space for air left (without air, the chemicals won't be mixed/re-distributed suffieciently when inversing the tank).

Roman