Yet Another Beginners Development Question

[Monstah]

Hi to everyone.

I'd just like to start by saying that this site is 100% responsible for getting me to load up my GSN with film for the first time in ages. It's been interesting and mind altering (in a good way) to have to think before I press.

Anyhow, I came here with a question or two. Firstly I'm lucky enough to have a well equipped darkroom at the school where I work so I intend to start developing my own film. The two films I've shot are Ilford Delta 100 and some Jessops (UK photo store) Pan 100F. Thankfully at this time of year, Australia has an abundance of available light so 100 is OK to start with.

The only chemicals that school has are the following;

Ilford Multigrade Developer 1L
Ilford Hypam Fixer 1L
Fotospeed FX30 Fixer 1L

I'd like to know if this is sufficient to develop my film please. I'm not worried about wet prints at the moment, although that will come in time, just developing the negatives.

Secondly, I'd ideally like to develop at home but like quite a few Australians (though I'm a Brit expat) my family doesn't have mains water supply. We live on catchment water plus a communal bore for outside. Is there any way I can minimise the amount of water used in developing film? Much as I want to develop at home I won't do it to the detriment of the water supply for the rest of us.

Apologies for the long'ish post.

Cheers

Dan

 

[35mmdelux]

why not just dev all at school and save the catchment and communal bore? Best from L.A.

 

[Phantomas]

I just developed my first film 30 mins ago so I'm an expert! 🙂
I think I can answer your questions though.

1) Those chemicals are sufficient, and you only need one fixer at a time. Couple of more items that are not crucial but nice to have are stopbath and wetting agent like photo-flo.
Stopbath especially will reduce your water usage in between developing and fixing.

2) The main water wastage comes in the last washing stage. I know two methods - Paterson (more wasteful) where you powerrun water for 10+ mins; and Ilford method where you invert 5 times, refresh water, invert 10 times. refresh, invert 20 times, done. Or something like that. Developing is not the most environmentally friendly activity anyway. In that respect digital might be cleaner. Haha!

Anyway, I just developed my first film today without a fuss and it turned out good. I followed the instructions and rough times and got the results.
Good luck.

 

[BTMarcais]

The Ilford Multigrade developer is a paper developer... much faster acting than film developers. You're going to have to do some experimenting to come up with a useful developing time / film speed...and you'll definitely need to dilute it so that you can get a long enough time to develop evenly! Expect to get some interesting grain.
You'll need quite a bit of water though. You should do a water rinse between developer and fixer, and a long wash after the fixer to make sure that all the fixer is removed. If you can lay your hands on some hypo-clear, that'll cut your wash time down a LOT.

 

[ChrisN]

Hi Dan

The Multigrade is a paper developer, for printing. Not sure how that will work with film! Try to get some Ilford ID-11 (powder - mix before use) or Ilford LC29 (liquid concentrate - again mix before use). Ted's in Canberra have some stock at the moment. I use the ID-11 for just about all films, and am starting to experiment with the LC29 for the sake of convenience - it's just easier to mix.

On water use, the main thing is that you can limit the water you use in the rinsing step. As recommended by Ilford (http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf), after draining the fixer I near-fill the tank with water, then invert the tank 20 times then dump the water. Repeat twice (three fills total). That way I rinse with less than three litres of water for two rolls of film. I do a final rinse with 10ml of Kodak Photo-Flo in two litres of water, soaking the film on the reels before I remove the film, clip the ends and run the film through the rinse water and hang it up to drain and dry - no squeegee and no scratches, and the Photo-Flo means the water runs off and dries with no marks.

Good luck!

 

[Chris101]

Multigrade developer will be terrible for film. I know, I did it. The film will come out very low contrast, and fogged. Either send away for some real developer (I recommend D-76 or HC110 to start with) or brew up some strong coffee and toss a small hand full of washing soda into a pot of it. Cool it to room temperature and develop your film in it for at least half an hour. Your film will come out brown, but the images will really shine!

 

[Trius]

Dan,

Welcome to the forum. As others noted, don't use the Multigrade for film. If you can't easily find one of the developers others mentioned, give Keith a PM, or other Oz photogs here, maybe they can set you up. I use Rodinal & XTol, both of which are also great choices and should be available there.

 

[Monstah]

I'd like to say a big Thank You to everyone for replying. It's definitely given me things to think about, especially regarding the developer that we already have.

I'm happy to buy the right chemicals as it will benefit me and the school in the long run. They currently send out the film to be developed so when I am more confident I can do it for them and save the cost. As for the water issue you've given me some great information and I like ChrisN's method regarding the 3 fills. This would be pretty water efficient regardless of where I develop.

I'll keep looking and copying the info down so I don't lose it.

Cheers.

 

[ChrisN]

I forgot to add - save some rainwater for the rinse step - I assume you have a tank on the house that catches rainwater off the roof? The bore water will probably have lots of minerals in it, which will usually remain on the film after drying. Your rainwater will be a lot better than what most people get from their taps, for photographic purposes.

 

[Monstah]

Hi again,

I thought I'd add to this rather than start a new thread. I had another look around the schools darkroom and found some more chemicals;

Kodak Pro T-Max Developer
Kodak Rapid Fixer Solution A w\ Hardener (and Solution B)
Kodak Photo Flo 600 Solution
Stop Bath (no brand specified)
Tetenal Superfix

I'm sure this is enough to develop my film. As I stated in the OP I have Ilford Delta 100 and Jessops Pan 100S film. This combination of chemicals may not be the ideal for developing this film but it's practice for me so I'm not too worried.

What I wanted to ask was, could you give me recommendations for concentrations and times for development please? I've looked on here and other sites but admit to being very confused at the moment.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Dan

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Dan,

You might want to take a look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/blackwhite.html and then explore some more of the site from there, including info on how to convert the smallest room to a darkroom and more.

I've been shooting black and white for over 40 years and it's still the best form of photography there is.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[venchka]

Welcome aboard!

Stop Bath: Fill the tank with plain water. Invert. Dump. Repeat. Repeat. Done. No chemicals required.

The Ilford washing plan uses the least amount of water. Search around the Ilford site for the complete developing instructions for Ilford films. I use Kodak Rapid Fix and Ilford film and they work nicely together. Also search the Ilford web pages for a very detailed time and temperature conversion chart. It is very handy for those times when you can't get to 20 degrees C.

A note about temperature: All films & developers come with times based on 20 degrees C. However, the actual temperature of the devloper isn't drictical. What is critical is that you know what the temp. is and consult the time-temp conversion chart. Presto! A new time based on your current developer temp. The other liquids (water for stop, fix & wash water) should be fairly close to the developer temp. Plus or minus a few degrees.

If you find your temps. running high and your times running short, (I try to stay above 7 minutes & my comfort zone is 10 minutes & I go up to 19 mins. sometimes) go to a more dilute developer like Xtol 1:3 or Rodinal 1:100. You really don't want to be dancing about trying to juggle filling, dumping and stopping with 4 or 5 minute developing times. Longer works a lot better.

Cheers!