About to take the plunge into developing...

[thecornflake]

So,

It's bonus month, and having had decent test films back for my 35mm slr and 120 TLR I've decided to invest in the kit to do my own dev and scanning. I've read the sticky about devving BW and a few scanner threads and have a couple of questions -

Is it better to buy an initial darkroom kit or get the bits separately? As in, are all the bits in the kits a bit substandard and would I end up wanting to upgrade them after a while anyway? Also most kits seem to have 35mm tanks with them, I want to dev 35mm and 120.

Any brands to avoid?

I'm planning to mainly shoot HP5+, maybe Delta and Tri-X. Is there a 'best' developer that would work with all these or is it more down to personal taste?

As well as scanning 35mm and 120 negatives I also have a lot of old prints I'd like to scan in (mentioning this in case some scanners do one thing better than the other). I was looking at the V550, or V600 (not sure if it's worth paying the extra £50?). I've read that for scanning medium format negatives third party carriers are better as the ones that come with the scanners aren't great for that size film?

I'm not planning on printing massive prints if that helps.

 

[steveo_mcg]

I got a Patterson tank including a reel and a thermometer used from e-bay for a few quid, some (4x1L) jugs from tesco and thats all I need for film, I use clothes pegs for clips.

As i understand it the V600 is just a slighter new V500 with a facelift, but optically they are the same. Save the 50 and get film or holders. I can't advise on holders but Rob started a thread on them earlier so maybe stick your head in there.

 

[Solo man]

I use a 2 reel Paterson universal tank, it has two reels which are adjustable so can do 2x35mm or 1x120.
The kits are fine, but sometimes it works out cheaper to pick up bits separately.... best to look around.
For all black and white I use Rodinal one shot developer... probably down to personal taste though.

 

[thecornflake]

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out the other thread.

Any idea if water filters are worth using? Makes sense to remove any bits of muck from the tap water but then I generally don't expect my tap water to have any foreign bodies in it

 

[freecom2]

Separately, a graduated jug made by a film company is no better than one from a supermarket!

You may need a bit of rinse aid but a water filter is probably unnecessary; I live in a very hard water area so sometimes I use distilled water for the wash!