Please help me with my home lab shopping list!

[ocean7]

Hello everyone,

I haven't processed BW film since I was at university - that's 20 years ago - and I recently re-discovered the joy of shooting film.

I want to setup a small lab at home to process my rolls, I will use a film scanner and my inkjet for the final prints.

So as my memory is fading could you please help me with my shopping list? I have nothing, what do I need? Is the list below complete?

I will be using HP5+ in small volumes - probably one roll at a time - and I also want to know what would be your choice for chemicals...

Gear :
- Reel film tank
- Thermometer
- Film washer hose
- Bottles to hold chemicals?
- Graduates? Which ones?
- Film wiper

Chemicals :
- Developper
- Stop bath
- Fixer
- Hypoclear?

Thanks very much for your help!

 

[nikola]

Hi Philippe,

when I was starting I was suggested to get two reel tank (or even bigger 🙂 ), you still can develop one reel in (with a little more chemicals than in one reel tank)... I tend to collect film and than develop everything at once, cause it's really boring to develop roll at the time...

I don't have a washer hose but use Ilford recommended washing: 3 baths with agitating... 5 times, than 10, than 20 agitations per each bath.

...for last bath I use distilled watter... this step eliminates need for film wiper.

For everything else try searching through Photoshop - Darkroom - Film part of this forum, everything I learn I learn it there 🙂

 

[ibrando]

Hey Philippe,

I just developed my first roll ever this weekend. Here is what I used...

- A paterson two reel tank (only used one reel)
- changing bag (cause I cannot make any room light tight in my house)
- scissors for film loading (in the bag) and for cutting the negs after drying
- thermometer
- small washing bin with 21deg water to keep the chemicals at 20deg.
- 4 1250ml black bottles for the mixed chems, one for each step (developer, stop, fix, wash)
- measuring cups (one small 250ml and one large 1000ml) purchased at a local dollar store, they work great and much cheaper than a graduate.
- notepad to keep track of what I do.

I'm using all Ilford chemicals, Ilfordsol developer, IlfordStop stop bath, and Ilford rapid fixer. All are liquid and mix nice and easy.

I have not used a film squeegee yet, but may invest in one. So far no water marks.

The results, I think, are great and can be seen either on my photoblog or my Flickr links in my sig... They are the latest additions...

Cheers,
Brandon.

 

[ltketch]

Having also just started to develop film I have discovered the need for a decent timer/clock (with a bit of RFF help I solved my problem HERE). And like ibrando im sticking with the same film/chemical family, for me its FP4/HP5 with the various Ilford chemicals!

 

[ibrando]

crap, I forgot to mention I use my stopwatch as a countdown timer. Thx Itketch for the reminder...

Cheers,
Brandon.