Long term travel advice

[lifevicarious]

Hey everyone,

As many of you may have read, I leave for a 448 day trip around the world at the end of this month. I will be taking a Leica M (as soon as I get one).

I am curious what this group does when it comes to developing, processing and storage of film and negs when on the road. Do you use local developers? Develop the negs in your hotel? Wait till you get home? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

- Christian

 

[Kyle]

If you can drag chemicals around, then I'd imagine that souping your own film in the hotel would be your best bet. Trying to find local developers could be a crapshoot as the good ones seem to be few and far between. Then I'd just keep the negatives in sleeves in some sort of binder. The other option would be to just wait till you get home, but that wouldn't be as much fun.

Good luck and have fun on your trip, that sounds amazing. What exactly is on the itinerary for the next year and a half?

 

[lifevicarious]

I am in Austin, TX for the weekend (A friend's 30th birthday) and then to Ecuador. I will be in South America from October 1st to January 18th when I fly to South Africa. From there, I don't have a set itinerary. Up Eastern Africa to the middle east, eastern Europe, probably across Russia, India, China, Japan, SE Asia, Australia, NZ (but not quite in that order).

If you have any can't miss places, let me know!

 

[mervynyan]

For a long trip like that, travel light is a must, if you like the place at all, you won't miss the checking up the photos. ship films home once you have few dozon rolls. wait until you go home, then spend another year to develop them, in effect you double your trip. Always recommend a digital camcorder, but you have to bring along battery charges, etc.

 

[dshfoto]

Travel Processing

Travel Processing

Try to find a local photo club. For example, Buenos Aires has a great photo club.
I spend a lot of time in Buenos Aires. The other day, when I got back some slides, they had scratches. So, you might want to shoot a couple of test rolls, and try to find a local pro lab, and see how the results come out.
I tried four local photo shops in the last week, and none of them had any Kodak transparency film in stock (35 or 120 mm's)
Have a great trip.

 

[kully]

Lucky beggar!

I travelled overland to India in 1999 and being ignorant at the time kept all my film in my backpack and processed when I got to India. I never knew any better until this year when I started scanning in the film - the stuff that was carried through 50C+ has noticebly more grain than the film I bought and processed in India within a few weeks.

I'd recommend posting the film back to yourself or getting it processed out there (but then you need to keep it safe and I cannot see that happening in a backpack).

Don't listen to people who disparage processing outside the your home country - I've been to small shops in the middle of tiny towns and found the blokes who own them know there stuff because that is there job - unlike the robots in Costco/Supa Snaps &c.

 

[FrankS]

Use the internet at hotels or libraries along the way. Search for photo clubs that may have members to help you out with processing. Great way to meet people, I'd think. You could just mail the exposed film hame, but you'd have no feedback, unless you had someone there to develop, scan, and email you pics.

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

If I was going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world with a camera that I'd owned for less than a month I certainly wouldn't wait until the end of the trip to develop all my film. You might get an unpleasant surprise.

If you're using a common film like Tri-X I'm sure you could find a capable lab in pretty much any major city.

 

[rvaubel]

If I was going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world with a camera that I'd owned for less than a month I certainly wouldn't wait until the end of the trip to develop all my film. You might get an unpleasant surprise.

Your dilema reminds me of how difficult the world of film is becoming. With all the restrictions of security, film is reaching a dead end faster than it deserves. Nothing that I can think of solves the problem particularly well.

For me, the best solution would be developing on the road. A bottle of one of the many concentrated on shot developers would do the job. That one bottle, a small 2 reel tank, and a changing bag, and you'd be set. Fixer would be nice but you can find that as you go.

Actually, I changed my mind. It could be kinda fun. Using locally available film, and chemicals could be an adventure in itself. The tank and changing bag should arouse no hostility. I would try to keep my hands on the developer however. Making or procuring your own while traveling might be a little much.

Good Luck,

Rex

 

[back alley]

i would mail it home but process one out of every 24 locally to ensure the camera is still working ok.

 

[mad_boy]

I have been on some long trips myself and faced the same dilemma.

I chose not to ship the unprocessed films out of fear of them getting lost.
Especially in the world's poorer countries quite some parcels disappear.
If you would ship use a reliable (expensive) one likd DHL, not the standard post office. But even then, if you see some of the local DHL offices.....

I choose to have the rolls developed and printed at one of the many one-hour shops. These are not highly recommended generally in this forum, but have the advantage that you can see what they are doing. Check the following:
- Do the machine operators wear gloves?
- Is the machine from a renowned make?
- Check some of the prints that just came from the machine.
- Are colours right (indication of quality of chemicals)
- negs not scratched?
- Use of good quality paper (Fuji or Kodak)?
(if you tell them you have 10 rolls they will let you do these things).
If all these points are OK you have a fair chance of them doing a good job.
This is much cheaper by the way than having them printed at home.

Then I mail the prints home and keep the negs at least till I have confirmation that the prints have arrived. That way you can always recover your images by scanning the prints.

Mad_boy (a.k.a. Experienced_boy).

 

[lifevicarious]

Kully - you waited years to process some of your film from your India trip? How can you wait that long? I can barely wait to open gifts on Christmas morning! 🙂

dshfoto - do you know of any other clubs anywhere else in SA? I wil lbe 2 or 2.5 months before I gt to Buenos Aires.

Andrew - yes, I will run a few rolls through first and don't think I want to wait that long to get any pictures back. I have used RF's before so I am not comletely in the dark on these but point well taken! 🙂

 

[lifevicarious]

Madboy - those are great ideas! I have to imagine there are competent developers across this globe. I can't imagine the only place to get good negs is in the US or Europe. I'm guessing many of them are probably better then they are here! 🙂

Has anyone ever developed the negs in their hotel room? Any ideas on availability of chemicals in other countries?

 

[egpj]

If you are shooting color then no worries. Process that C-41 stuff where ever you are. The black and white stuff can be shipped back via a reliable carrier. You can choose to break up the shipments as well so not everything from each shoot is in the same shipment.

 

[lifevicarious]

It will be mostly BW, with some occasional color thrown in.

 

[Socke]

My long trips, three to six month, where all while I was in the navy. We could develope B/W on board but I mostly shot C41 then. I found a 24h lab almost everywhere but I have to admit that most of my negs I had developed in the US in 1984 are gone now, they literally fell apart. Worst was the one at Disney World :-(

 

[dreamsandart]

What types of film are you planning on using?

Have you got a place you can mail the film back to with a dependable Lab?

Have you used a Leica M before? And what are you thinking about for equipment?

A few questions that can help with answers.

 

[Trius]

If you are going to take along developer for doing your own conventional B&W, then I recommend something you know how to use of course... but also a liquid concentrate such as HC-110, Rodinal, FG-7, etc. Depending on dilution, one or two bottles should suffice for most if not all of the trip. Due to current restricitons, it would normally have to be in checked luggage, of course. To insure against leakage, put the bottle in a ziplock bag, then that in a Lock-and-Lock container. Lock-and-Lock are well sealed unless they explode/implode from pressure variations, will insure against leakage all over clothing and other gear.

Obviously take along negative storage sleeves as well, and a sturdy archival box in which to protect the sleeved negatives.

 

[FrankS]

I really can't see travelling around the world schlepping a developing tank, chemicals, and sleeved negatives.

 

[Avotius]

carry a lot of film, and some ziplock bags, keep all your film in the bags, when you finish shooting it use a black permanant marker to mark the canister somehow to signify that its been shot or just throw it in your "used" bag and go on to the next roll. Travel light, you got to, there is no better trip killer then having to lug around extra weight