rvaubel
Well-known
SolaresLarrave said:
A 2 reel stainless tank is nice. The SS reels are harder to learn than the self loading plastic but easier in the long run. On the other hand, I used a plastic tank for years. The reels that have a small spring loaded tab to slide the film leader under are easist to start. Get 2 reels with a 2 reel tank. If you want to develop only one reel, put the loaded reel one the bottom and put the empty reel on the top. Just use enough developer to cover the loaded reel.
I use a concentrated developer like HC 110. This stuff is so cheap per use that it is a false economy to try to use it more than once. You never have to worry about developer going bad or have bottles of half shot chemicals laying around.
Forget stop bath. Water works fine. In fact some film does not take very kindly to stop bath and will wrinkle.
I mix fixer up by the quart because it takes awhile to dissolve. You can use it until it takes about twice as long to clear the film as it did when it was fresh. Or dump it sooner. It's cheap.
A word about temperature and thermometers. Many people obsess about temperture and for good reason. It does make a big difference BUT if you use the same temperture consistently between about 62 and 78, you will get good results. So all I do is use room temperture water to mix my developer. The cabinet where I store my water is always about 68 degrees. So I don't have to screw around with adjusting developer temperature. If your temperture is a little higher or lower, thats OK as long as it is consistent.
The temperture of the stop bath, fixer, and wash water, don't matter much unless the temperture change is to extreme. Then you will know because the film will wrinkle. I have never seen this myself.
Use the recommended development/temperature times but dont be surprised if the times need to be adjusted. Too short of a development will make the negatives look "thin". Too long and they will look too dark. This is not rocket science.
For washing let the smallest trickle of water dribble in the tank for a 1/2 hour.
I use Photoflow using my fingers as a squegee. If your water is fairly soft, this works fine. If you have a lot of minerals in the water, rinse with distilled water as a last step (with Photoflow).
I always dry my film in a shower that has had the dust swept out by turning on the shower long enough to steam it up. That knocks the dust down. Hang the film from the shower head. This works better than most elaborate film drying cabinets.
This is pretty easy stuff. After you do it a few times, you'll wonder why you ever trusted your film to a commercial lab.
If you want to, you can turn the whole film developing thing into a complex and frightening thing. I've enjoyed doing that myself. But you don't have to. Keeping it simply will give you much better and consistent results than you can get at a commercial lab. Plus, in a few years there won't BE any commercial labs
Rex