New Yorkers: Lab or Home processing?

[morback]

Don't be put-off if you're not from New York, it's just to emphasize the tiny space available to us. All input welcome!

I am about to loose my lab who processes my B&W with contact for $6 (employee pricing).
I just got back from another place that overcharged me and managed to squash my film. Processing + cd: $14

Now I am considering processing at home. It's not that hard, I used to do it 4-5 years ago (and enjoyed it, zen moment!), and I think I still have my tank, somewhere. But, I don't know anything about the chemicals!

It seems that for my average productivity (1 roll per 1/2 week), I need to get the powder stuff and then mix for what I need every time I process my films.

Here's what I figured out quickly on Freestyle. Too many brands, so I stuck with yellow (I will be using their rebranded Tri-X as soon as my APX runs out):

So, my questions:
1) do you think it's worth it for me to do it at home? (Time is not a factor, I don't have a TV 😀)
2) what chemicals do you recommend? I like my film with grain, and I don't think my environment will be very well controlled (temperature)
3) how many rolls can I do with this setup?
4) am I missing something?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Roger Hicks]

B+W -- do it at home. No competition, anywhere, including NYC, except XP2.

Use a water bath (a bucket of water at 68F/20C) to control dev temperature; the rest need only be pretty close. You might care to look at:

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps howdoi.html

E6 in NYC -- lab. Again, no competition.

C-41 (XP2) in NYC -- I'd go for lab, though I'd prefer one that used a water wash.

Tashi delek,

Roger

 

[Borghesia]

NY city housing is maybe comparable with the tiny 50-60 m2 Amsterdam apartments.
If you like grain, then use Rodinal. Easy to use, only 10ml of Rodinal and the rest tap water.
Only the 500ml. substance has to be 20c/68f. No need for a tempering bath. Worked well for me.
For >400 ASA I use D76. Bit more of a hassle 'cause there's more work to control the temperature. The results are great though.
The most relaxed method is stand development with Rodinal 1:100.
Film on the reel, inverse for 30 seconds, and let it stand for an hour.

 

[dfoo]

In my experience, you don't need to be that careful with the temperature as long as your room temp is not significantly different than the developer temperature. You only develop for 10 or so minutes, so the developer won't temp won't change that much. Here in Newfoundland, I use 20 degrees, as that is the closest to my room temp. In China, I used 24 in the summer, and 20 in the winter.

 

[nightfly]

I live in New York (if that matters) and do my own developing. If you like grain, get some Rodinal. I really like grain so I use it 1:25 but you can try 1:50 or 1:100 even. I hate powdered anything too much of a hassle. You can get everything at B and H no need to order away to Freestyle. I would recommend steel tanks and Hewes reels (they are called something else at B and H but look for ones that are British made).

I generally use distilled water for my developer and for my final Photoflow which I keep in jugs at room temperature. I've had some issues with stuff in the water marking up my negs but those went away since I started using distilled water. Everything else I do from the sink and guesstimate temperature. Really if you don't mind grain, the only thing temperature variation does is increase it so I don't worry much. If you get the bigger size tanks you can do 4 reels at at time. I generally do 2 at a time.

I think developing it yourself, for black and white at least, is the only way to really get what you want. For color I shoot slides and get them processed at L and I labs and they do a good job. I've been disappointed with the results from color negative film primarily due to bad processing so I've stopped shooting it.

 

[morback]

Good thinking about the tap water vs distilled...I forgot about our awesomely pure NYC water (no calories).
I was going for powdered because of the shelf life, but I don't know what the shelf life of either is?
I guess I'll need to poke around B&H and check their pricing.
Oh, what about chemical disposal? Is there anyone in town processing waste chemicals? I know some companies pull the silver back out of the fixer, or at least that's how it was done in college...I'm not feeling too good about spilling that stuff down the drain...

I'm thinking of going B&W all the way. Right now I shoot color on my T3 and B&W on the ZI, but it seems I'm more of a B&W state of mind. I guess it would make even more sense to process at home then.

 

[morback]

I am now the proud owner of my first 250ml Rodinal developing solution and Sprint stop & fixing agents (that's what I used in college).
Now I'm realizing, I need containers to reuse fix & stop bath...

Also, apparently someone bought the Agfa name and the Rodinal solution? That's great news! Too bad nobody took over for APX.

p.s: What's the shelf life of opened Rodinal? The sales person at B&H said it was quite long (a year or more?).

 

[dshfoto]

If you take an occasional course at the ICP, you can use the lab facilities to develop, wash and dry film at no extra charge. The ICP has D-76 on tap.
Also, the Jewish Community Center on the upperwestside has darkroom facilities.
The darkroom is available to JCC members and nonmembers. 5- and 10-hour cards can be purchased at the lobby box office: $10 per hour for members; $12 per hour for nonmembers. Students receive a 3-hour Open Studio card when enrolled in darkroom classes. Reservations not required. Experienced monitors are always present.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1026&pID=2308

 

[Jack Ketch]

I forgot the name for the moment, but there is a place on 25th Street near 7th Ave that does very cheap B/W

$2.95 per roll for develop-only 120 C-41 too.

 

[jke]

I do my own black & white processing and shoot Fuji B&W films (Acros and Neopan) developed in HC110. I find the grain produced by this combination to be extremely lovely, especially if you are careful with temperature and use minimal/gentle agitation. I also think HC110's syrup is easy to control, mix and frugal, while as a developer its toxicity is reasonable. I searched for silver reclamation services when I first moved to NYC, and everyone told me that Duggal did it, but Duggal told me that was never something they did. I have yet to find a place that will take used silver-laden chemistry.

All my equipment fits into a small plastic tub. Two tanks for 4 reels of 35mm each. 8 35mm reels, 4 120mm reels. Thermometer. I have an old analog track stopwatch for timing that records splits. A dark bag. Thermometer. I've found that Photoflo works better than other things as a final wash in NYC which is otherwise very clean, though I know others in NYC who have problems with ferrous particles from old iron pipes in their wash water. I use a dark bag for loading tanks, and I develop my film in my bathroom. Kodak fixer. Hewes reels. Kindermann tanks.

For color work, I take everything to Manhattan Color Lab on 20th between 5th and 6th (closest to 5th.) Great service, nice people, and I have gone there often enough now that they give me a slight discount. 🙂

 

[Ronald M]

Now I'm realizing, I need containers to reuse fix & stop bath...

I would strongly advise you not to. SS is cheap and I don`t recommend it anyway.
I don`t even use water.

Silver precipitates from used fix and sticks to the next film. You can see the little black flecks at the bottom of the bottle. They stick to the next film and can only be abraded off when the emulsion is still wet, a dangerous practice. I would suppose commercial finishers have so filtration process to control this. I have not found a perfect home filtration process.

I recommend water and air filters and a clean room to dry the film. Also dedicated glass bottles to the individual chems.

I use scratch mix D76 stored in 4 oz bottles and TF4 alkaline fix. I use up the fix on test prints after one film.

 

[Sanders McNew]

Easily done. Melanie and I process
all of our own film at home, and we
converted a closet into a darkroom
for printing. Here's a photo of it for
you disbelievers -- a D-series Omega
cohabiting with shirts and suits from
the dry cleaners. No running water,
but it works.