XA2inmypocket
Suspended / Banned
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- 774
- Name
- Paul
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Offering my relatively meagre experiences as a return-to-film hybrid photographer over the past few years.
Keep a developing log book. Log every effort for a while, including films, developers times, and especially any screw ups. For example, mine were legion. Some were quite funny. Not pouring in enough developer mix, dropping wet films, films coming off spools, etc
Black and white film can be really simple. I agree that bags are fiddly, and sweaty (grubby sweaty fingers can make some films unspoolable). However, I'm pressed for space so I'm a bag fidgeter. B/W optimum is 20C - I didn't realise just how easy that is until I tried C-41. Twenty C plus or minus a few degrees is room temperature. At this time of the year, my tap water comes out in that range. Unless you are trying to produce fine prints, B/W film is pretty rugged and tolerant. C-41 is a relative intolerant critical process. I'll hold my hands up - I've even developed B/W film without a thermometer. Let the experts shoot me down.
As stated, you can replace stop chems with a good rinse (personally, I do a bit of both), and you can save money by replacing wetting agent with washing up liquid. Developer - ID11 and Microphen needs to be mixed up as a stock with a shelf life. You can find powders to make 5 litres of stock a much better value (around eleven quid) online than the 1 litre offers. ID11 stock can also be diluted further up to 1:3 with water for some films with extended developing times. I've also used a squeezy pack of R09 (Rodinal clone) from FirstCall recently. It's particularly easy. Small measures make a lot of developer. Distilled water? Too fussy for me, even though I live in a hard water area. Before I developed my own, I used a photo lab for a while. His watermarks were really awful. He blamed the hard water. I now think that in reality he was using either or both a poor fixer and a poor rinse. Home b/w film developing is much cheaper than photolab prices. Depending on how you do it, but once you have the equipment and a bit of experience, it really is cheap. Certainly less than a quid per film I'd guess. I use Ilford Rapid Fixer, I look after the diluted mix, and reuse it to fix 5 - 7 film. Same with my Stop chem (Ilford). Film Squeezy or not to film squeezy? I've seen tramlines and they're not pretty. I went off for a while - but drying watermarks increased, even with wetting agent. I squeezy at the moment - carefully with an Ilford squeezy dipped in the wetting agent rinse.
I'm glad you went Paterson over the AP. I recently bought an AP and I'm not impressed. It is useless for inversion agitation, and the lid can be a biatch to remove. The AP spools (with thumbwheels) aren't bad though, and fit the Paterson - although one quirk is that you can push the halves together in the wrong position and they lock.
Personally I've no interest in dark room, as I'm quite happy as a hybrid photographer - using film cameras, but sharing digitally rather than at a club. Horses for courses though.
Keep a developing log book. Log every effort for a while, including films, developers times, and especially any screw ups. For example, mine were legion. Some were quite funny. Not pouring in enough developer mix, dropping wet films, films coming off spools, etc
Black and white film can be really simple. I agree that bags are fiddly, and sweaty (grubby sweaty fingers can make some films unspoolable). However, I'm pressed for space so I'm a bag fidgeter. B/W optimum is 20C - I didn't realise just how easy that is until I tried C-41. Twenty C plus or minus a few degrees is room temperature. At this time of the year, my tap water comes out in that range. Unless you are trying to produce fine prints, B/W film is pretty rugged and tolerant. C-41 is a relative intolerant critical process. I'll hold my hands up - I've even developed B/W film without a thermometer. Let the experts shoot me down.
As stated, you can replace stop chems with a good rinse (personally, I do a bit of both), and you can save money by replacing wetting agent with washing up liquid. Developer - ID11 and Microphen needs to be mixed up as a stock with a shelf life. You can find powders to make 5 litres of stock a much better value (around eleven quid) online than the 1 litre offers. ID11 stock can also be diluted further up to 1:3 with water for some films with extended developing times. I've also used a squeezy pack of R09 (Rodinal clone) from FirstCall recently. It's particularly easy. Small measures make a lot of developer. Distilled water? Too fussy for me, even though I live in a hard water area. Before I developed my own, I used a photo lab for a while. His watermarks were really awful. He blamed the hard water. I now think that in reality he was using either or both a poor fixer and a poor rinse. Home b/w film developing is much cheaper than photolab prices. Depending on how you do it, but once you have the equipment and a bit of experience, it really is cheap. Certainly less than a quid per film I'd guess. I use Ilford Rapid Fixer, I look after the diluted mix, and reuse it to fix 5 - 7 film. Same with my Stop chem (Ilford). Film Squeezy or not to film squeezy? I've seen tramlines and they're not pretty. I went off for a while - but drying watermarks increased, even with wetting agent. I squeezy at the moment - carefully with an Ilford squeezy dipped in the wetting agent rinse.
I'm glad you went Paterson over the AP. I recently bought an AP and I'm not impressed. It is useless for inversion agitation, and the lid can be a biatch to remove. The AP spools (with thumbwheels) aren't bad though, and fit the Paterson - although one quirk is that you can push the halves together in the wrong position and they lock.
Personally I've no interest in dark room, as I'm quite happy as a hybrid photographer - using film cameras, but sharing digitally rather than at a club. Horses for courses though.
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