Need help with home developing kit

[semrich]

I'm in the process of buying a kit for my first time home developing effort. I've got a changing tent, a hewes student kit with 2 stainless steel reels for 35mm and stainless steel developing tank and a bunch of other little things I've been reading about here like thermometer, timer, etc.

My intention to begin with and maybe stay with to do no more than two rolls at a time. Calumet has a Jobo kit of bottles with both black and white in what appears to be different sizes decreasing in size by half a half again. The two kits are 1000ML and 600ML.

What size storage bottles would be recommended?

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/JB3034/

 

[vicmortelmans]

You mean bottles to store chemicals?

I use Rodinal, which is one-shot, so no need to store developer.

I have two bottles for fixer (one for the 'old' fixer and one for the 'new' fixer; when the 'old' is exhausted, the 'new' becomes the 'old' and the 'new' bottle is filled with fresh fixer)

And I have one bottle for washing fluid.

Note: I use empty wine bottles and corks... servers me fine.

Groeten,
Vic

 

[semrich]

Vic,

Well I hadn't thought about it that way before now, I mean to use for processing and I'm not sure about storing. I'm planning on using HP5 plus as a standard in the beginning and don't know enough yet what developer to use.

 

[Never Satisfied]

Hi Richard, most chemical developers are, as above a single use and they are dumped after the development process. With a jobo, the small tanks holds 260ml and will process 2 x 35mm x 36 exp films. A tank extention will hold a further 3 rolls per extention and takes an extra 330mls so you need containers that will hold 600ml of solution. A jobo is an excellent choice, especially if it has a 'lift' fitted to it.

I hope this helps, Andrew.

 

[ChrisN]

I use Ilford DD-X, which is also promoted as a one-shot developer, but I mix up a litre at a time, and re-use that for up to 10 rolls of film. I've had no problems doing this. So I use one-litre bottles, one each for my developer, stop bath and fixer.

 

[40oz]

Two 1-liter bottles, one white and one black (so you don't confuse what is in each), would serve fine for now. You might want a gallon jug as well. The Jobo bottles are nice and seal really well. Too bad they don't make a gallon version. You will want a 100 ml graduated cylinder and 1000 ml graduated beaker for measuring and mixing if you don't already have them.

Some developers come as either a concentrate or a powder, so you will require a container for the stock solution. You might want a 1 gallon jug for mixing a larger amount of developer, as even if it doesn't keep well, powders like D-76 are still more economical in the gallon size package. A developer like Ilford Ilfosol S is a concentrate, but you mix it for each use in a 1 liter beaker (you don't use 1 liter, but it's much easier to mix in a bigger container), so you wouldn't need a separate storage container.

I re-use fixer, and so use a Jobo 1 liter bottle for this. I do not re-use developer, and can't really recommend it for starting out. A few developers are meant to be re-used, while most others it's merely possible to re-use as long as certain considerations are kept in mind and adjustments made. It's not worth it IMHO when you are beginning. There's enough to worry about without wondering if your developer is exhausted.

I am a fan of using distinct bottles for each of my chemicals so there is no confusion as to what is what. I use a brown gallon jug for D-76, a white Jobo 1 liter for paper developer, and a round brown 1 liter bottle for used fixer. It makes it really hard to accidentally grab the wrong bottle, even in the dark. But since none of the mixing/pouring is performed in the dark, just using visually distinct bottles would be as effective.

 

[mike507]

Richard;

First, check the capacity of your developing tank. For a two reel tank it should be 500 mil. If that is the case the 600 mil. bottles should work fine for you. You can mix your chemicals in 500 mil. batches and use the same bottles for storage and processing.

I agree with ChrisN, Ilford DDX is a very nice developer to get started with. Easy to use and gives constant results. Ii is supposed to be a one shot, but I use it for two runs. I'm not sure about 10, I guess your mileage may vary.

I enjoyed your website BTW, very nice work.

 

[semrich]

Never Satisfied, ChrisN - Thanks for your responses.

One thing about asking a question on a forum is how quickly it becomes apparent to everyone how little I now about this whole thing.

I see this as I have my film loaded in the reels in the developing tank, the jogo bottles I'm inquiring about filled with developer, stop bath, and fixer in a plastic wash basin in water at the same temp. as the chemicals. If this is the case and all I'm planning to do at this moment is two rolls at a time then the 600ML would do the trick.

 

[fidget]

Be cheap, do one roll after the other in the same 300ml dev.

I use those fizzy drink bottles to hold the chemicals. The bottles can easily be squashed to expel the air, so store well. My developer, ID11 is stored as stock in liquid form. This works well, lasting to a year. Just label well.
My darkroom uses the black concertina bottles, these are good, particularly for their wide necks to pour chemical back in from the trays.....

 

[topoxforddoc]

Richard,

I process my HP5 at home using ilfosol. Why? It's easily available (even in jessops!!!), works fine and is cheap. A bottle is £2.50 and I just buy a couple of bottles at a time. You can push your HP5 by a stop without any problmes with ilfosol. I've used DDX, but it's a lot more expensive and bulky.

Charlie

 

[semrich]

figit, - Ha ha, you mean I bought hewes stainless steel reels and tank from reading a thread last week and to be cheap with developer one reel at a time. However you may have a point that would keep me from ruining two rolls of film on my first few goes at this.