tight on budget, should i self develop my own film?

[-kk-]

So i just moved back to Auckland after 8 years away, and the very first thing i noticed was that it costs a king's ransom to develop a roll of film here, about 30 dollars a pop (and i had about 10 to get done at that time).

I read in passing that people say its not that hard to fix your own negatives and then scan them into the computer or something. Right now, i only have a cheap all-in-one flatbed scanner.

So Im thinking that I should try my hand at developing the films (i almost always shoot b/w, so will get chemicals to suit), scanning the negatives using cheapo scanner, invert them on the computer and select the images to print at a lab somewhere.

Whilst I would love to go for a small darkroom setup and/or a proper neg scanner, spending large amounts is definitely out of the question.

My difficulty in all of this is that the last time I was in a darkroom was when i was in school about 16 years or so ago, so i'll be ever so grateful to anyone who can guide me a little here as to 1) what i need to get contraption and materials wise and 2) how i should go about doing this (net resources would def help).

thanks in advance.

 

[doitashimash1te]

Developing your own B&W film is really not that difficult. Whether or not you will save money by DIY, depends on how much you shoot. To get some decent digital results you will have to invest in a good scanner, which will cost you a couple 100 US$. The chemical side of the process is cheap. You will have to invest in some chemistry, a dev. tank, plastic bottles, temp. meter, and you must have a (small) place in your house that you can make pitch dark. Once you have all that, developing your film costs next to nothing.

 

[skibeerr]

You even can do it without darkroom. Daylight tanks and a changing tent worked ok for me until I got my darkroom.

 

[Keith]

Not taking the cost of a computer and scanner into consideration processing your own film is pretty cheap ... a couple of dollars per roll I would estimate. Chemical consumption isn't really that expensive and if you used Diafine it could get cheaper still.

I've workd out that with bulk loading I'm probably shooting film for around $5.00 per roll which is very reasonable in today's economy!

As said a decent scanner is a bit of a hit .... here in Oz a V700 Epson cost me over $600.00 but there probably are cheaper scanners available if you look around. In Brisbane a roll of black and white costs about twelve dollars to get processed by a lab ... as for $30.00 ... I'd heard it was expensive in NZ but that's a bad joke! 😱

 

[Rhoyle]

For $30 you can just about set yourself up for home developing. Equipment and chemistry are cheap and doing it yourself makes the whole process much more enjoyable.

 

[-kk-]

The prices here are nothing short of crazy. Even a roll of tri-x is about 10-12 dollars. I'll have a look at the link above (thanks Rene), and see if its something i can do, seem like there's lots of things to buy?

The next thing to consider is where to buy bulk rolls from, but one step at a time...

 

[andersju]

$30 to develop a roll of film is just wrong.

I develop & scan at home. The processing cost is about 0.50 USD per film in chemicals (developer+fixer)... a bottle of HC-110 lasts for ~100 rolls with the most common dilution, or twice that if you dilute more. I buy my film at fotoimpex.de and pay ~3 USD per roll.

 

[Graham Line]

Best thing about developing your own B&W is that you can get better quality and consistency than you can buy in most areas -- there are some exceptions but they usually aren't cheap. Even sticking with one film and one developer gives you more control than you'll ever have using commercial processing.

If you have normal manual dexterity and can follow instructions, you can develop film.

 

[venchka]

Joe beat me to it

Joe beat me to it

Best thing about developing your own B&W is that you can get better quality and consistency than you can buy in most areas -- there are some exceptions but they usually aren't cheap. Even sticking with one film and one developer gives you more control than you'll ever have using commercial processing.

If you have normal manual dexterity and can follow instructions, you can develop film.

Even if DIY processing cost the same as a lab, you're miles ahead in quality control, manipulation, etc., etc. Spread the word. Beat the bushes. I bet you'll find all of the hardware (which isn't much) you need free or cheap. Go for it!

 

[dazedgonebye]

From the recent discussions on film/processing costs in your part of the world, I think DIY is the only way to go.