Thinking of starting to develop myself...

laptoprob

laptoprob

back to basics
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Hi all!

I am thinking of starting developing BW films myself at home. That should take place in my tiny bathroom. Main reason is that developing in the shop seems to get more and more expensive. More expensive than colour development.
What would be an estimate of cost for developing at home? Larger bottles of developer etc. will ofcourse be cheaper, but let's say for an avarage of 1 roll of film a month.

Makes sense?

Thanks in advance, Rob.
 
Developing film yourself is way cheaper, (and hopefully you'll be doing more than 1 roll per month.) At such a slow rate, be sure to choose a developer that has a long shelf life after it's mixed.
 
Go for it! :)

Use a changing bag (or the space under the stairs under a rug :) ) anything to load the film into the developing tank and don't forget to take the scissors to cut the end off the spool) It all takes less time than it takes for a good bath.

Its way cheaper any way you look at it. Choose either one shot developer thats thrown once used (Rodinal) or other if you develop many films in a short time.

Welcome to the film image creation world, and go for it. It isn't that dificult even I can do it :eek:

I've already been the digital route and still use film for my own stuff, much more to it, digital although very good takes some odd continuity away.

Have fun.
 
I use a changing bag to load my tanks too. Once in the tank, all film processing is done in the light. Are you considering doing your own prints too or will you be scanning your negs?
 
Rob, I use HC110 which has a very long shelf life. A bottle of about 500ml of liquid concentrate costs about $13. The dilution I use requires 4.7ml of concentrate to develop one roll of 35mm film. Quick answer to your question: cents.
 
Thanks for your responses.
I will definitely look into it. I have seen Rodinal mentioned a lot of times.
After developing I will process through scanning. The dry way. Traditional printing is out of the question because of space.

100th post already!
 
Welcome to another addiction :) You will be amazed at how good your pictures are once you start developing the negs yourself and a lab hasn't had the chance to "standardise" them. I'm a Rodinal lover and use it for all films from iso 25 to iso 1600, it's a love or hate look so I won't try to convert anyone ;)
 
Just to explain the Rodinal: The results are very sharp due to hard-edged grain. In faster films (iso400 and up) the grain is very apparent. Definitely a distinctive look, not good or bad, just distinctive.
 
I load my reels in the living room, have the chemicals in the kitchen and dry in the bathroom. It's cheaper than the local labs, IMHO better ( I smoke and have less dust on my negs than the lab!) and I have more controll, say developing with lower contrast for scanning or pulling Delta 3200 to 1250. And I haven't developed any B/W film in a C41 bath as CeWe Color likes to do with my films!
 
marktplaats.nl is a gold mine for darkroom equipment. Apparently most dutch photographers went the digital route.
 
laptoprob said:
Hi all!

I am thinking of starting developing BW films myself at home. That should take place in my tiny bathroom. Main reason is that developing in the shop seems to get more and more expensive. More expensive than colour development.
What would be an estimate of cost for developing at home? Larger bottles of developer etc. will ofcourse be cheaper, but let's say for an avarage of 1 roll of film a month.

Makes sense?

Thanks in advance, Rob.
Click to expand...

When I started developing I first used (and still use sometimes) Agfa Rodinal. It is very cheap, can be diluted many times (I use a dilution of 1+50). I now mostly use Ilford Ilfotec DD-X, because of it's finer grain qualities, but I still like Rodinal for it's distinctive 'look'..
Including developer, stop bath and fixer, I would say cost per film is less than 20p (British pennies) not including the original film purchase price.
Home developing is easy, enjoyable and can be done at the kitchen sink.

And nothing beats the feeling when you see that roll of negs come out of the tank!
 
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I'm an absolute begginer and went this route quite recently, and have a few observations. I enjoy doing it - and it is cheaper than getting B&W processed out. But GET A LIGHT BOX. A scanner makes an absolutely lousy lightbox because its so horrendously slow. If you're a lousy photographer like me it really stinks to see an image you thought was sharp come out blurrry after 2 minutes of scanning. I'm looking for a good deal on a light box now.

I use 110, for the reasons already mentioned. Get 4 4oz glass or plastic jars and divide up the concentrate. It lasts longer and its easier to measure from the little jars. I typically mix up a quart of solutions at a time, though wash agent I just got a gallon rubbermaid container to mix in. If you set it up right, the only solution you'll need to measure (in dilute form) is developer - fixer is reused, so I just fill it up, After fixer, it's no longer light sensistive and you can do the wash agent with the cover off and see how much you're putting in. Wetting agent is cheap enough, but I reuse it anyway because its a pain to mix due to being extremely dilute. I like syringes better than graduates for measuring small amounts of chemical.
 
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XAos said:
. Wetting agent is cheap enough, but I reuse it anyway because its a pain to mix due to being extremely dilute.
Click to expand...

I use a 20ml syringe, bought for 25p in a chemist, for measuring small amounts. Wetting agent is usually 1+500 dilution so it's easy with the syringe to measure 2ml into a litre of water.
 
Good decision to develop, it'll take your photography to new realms!
I use D:76, rodinal, X-tol. The two Kodak developers can be bought in small packages and mixed in water then poured into containers, pretty easy. Rodinal comes in a concentrate and I use something like 1 tablespoon for 250ml of water for one roll (don't quote me) so it is painfully easy to use. Other than that, a bottle of fixer and stop bath (or just plain water), some containers to pour it in and a reel and tank are all you need. I use a large changing bag to spool my film onto the reel, get one that is big enough for the developing tank and reel with some extra room so you can move your hands around. I probably have 60-70 USD wrapped up in my setup total with chemicals, good luck!

Todd
 
laptoprob said:
Hi all!

I am thinking of starting developing BW films myself at home. That should take place in my tiny bathroom. Main reason is that developing in the shop seems to get more and more expensive. More expensive than colour development.
What would be an estimate of cost for developing at home? Larger bottles of developer etc. will ofcourse be cheaper, but let's say for an avarage of 1 roll of film a month.

Makes sense?

Thanks in advance, Rob.
Click to expand...


OK, time for me to put on my "DiafineMan Cape" and point out some benefits of my favorite developer.

Being new to developing film, some of the time/temperature controls can be pretty daunting. Some developers require VERY tight control of both, even to the point of closely controlling the time necessary to pour the developer from the tank.

Diafine does not. It is immune to any reasonable time differentials and room temperature and variations thereof work just fine, having practically no effect at all.

Next, developers have a definite life span sitting in bottles on the shelf. Some are more sensitive to 'aging' out than others.

Diafine is not short lived at all. It lasts a VERY long time, both sitting on the shelf and in constant use. You mix up one batch of Diafine and use it for the next couple of YEARS, not the next couple of hours. This saves mixing time and trouble, not to mention being very economical. Ever had to pour out unused developer because it went bad due to oxidation? Never happen within any reasonable time for Diafine.

Last, being new to developing, you want consistency. This is especially true if you are new to both developing and photography. Did the last roll of film turn out poorly because of the way it was shot or the way it was developed? Was the developer bad from sitting around? Did you not mix it properly? Did you not control the temperature adequately? Did you develop for too long (or too short) a time? None of these things matter with Diafine. Because it is damn near impossible to screw up with Diafine, if the film turns out poorly, it was shot poorly. This takes the developer out of the equation and eliminates one variable.

Over the years I have helped many people get started in developing their own film and none have ever had a problem with Diafine.

Tom
 
Thanks for all your advice. I will get the tank and everything.
My scanner is a dedicated film scanner, no problems there so far, except it makes the contrast a little harder. More reason to stick to 50's glass!
A changing bag, good idea!

More browsing and shopping to do!

Rob.
 
Rob,

If you are getting a tank, get a Jobo UniTank 1520; don't beat about the bush; that's from someone who has been through more types of tanks than he would want to admit :bang:
 
Diafine is not short lived at all. It lasts a VERY long time, both sitting on the shelf and in constant use. You mix up one batch of Diafine and use it for the next couple of YEARS...

tom
how do you know when it's no longer any good?

joe
 
backalley photo said:
Diafine is not short lived at all. It lasts a VERY long time, both sitting on the shelf and in constant use. You mix up one batch of Diafine and use it for the next couple of YEARS...

tom
how do you know when it's no longer any good?

joe
Click to expand...


Ha ha! Joe, to be honest, most people toss out Diafine not because it is no longer good, but because they just FEEL so weird using developer that is two years old!

The way to tell is by examining the negatives. Diafine will 'crash', but it does it fairly slowly... which is good as it give plenty of warning. When you start noticing a lack of density in your normally exposed negatives, it may be time to toss the old developer. This will be after a couple of years and several hundred rolls.

In all the years that I have used Diafine though, I have never let it go that far even though I once kept one batch of the stuff for 3 years (and it was still doing fine) when I was not shooting a lot of B&W.

After about 18 to 24 months, and who knows how many rolls of film, I usually mix up another batch when I start feeling "weird" about it. :D

Tom
 
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