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fatbobsufc

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Hi guys,

I've been using the darkrooms at college for a while but as I leave in May I'm looking for a method to be able to develop B&W in a home darkroom.

I already have photo paper, an enlarger and timer but nothing else as yet.

I am planning to use my garage to do the dev (want to be able to dev B&W films and also do B&W prints) so will have a sink with tap and going to build a little partition to keep the light out. So my question is what equipment do you think I should get as a starter? I was thinking:

Dev trays - x3?
Tongs

Film dev tanks - do I need 3?
Spirals for 35mm and 120

Chemicals - not sure which I need as these have always been provided at college(!) By the way my tutor would shoot me for forgetting the chemistry! Is it C41 same as colour? oops!

Some kind of safelight.

Is there anything I've missed?

Was thinking of trying to get this off eBay. Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
 
Hi there.

Can't help with the darkroom side of things but I recently went through the developing at home thing.

You will need measuring cylinders, changing bag (unless you are sure your partition is 100% light tight). Couple of plastic jugs (cheap from Wilkinsons), a bottle opener, a sharp pair of scissors and an accurate thermometer.

You only need one dev tank for one film. Pour the chemicals in and out of the dev tank.

B&W chemicals are different to colour - i.e. not C41. You will need developer, stop, fix and rinsing aid. Also you will need some warm water supply to get the temperature around 20 deg C. If you get a Paterson Dev Tank the spiral can be changed from 35mm to 120 and vice versa.

There's quite a few threads on here about home developing including one started by me here!

Hopefully someone else will be along to advise on the darkroom / printing side of things.
 
Thanks for the help Freester, the post that you linked is very enlightening - I will be going back to that.

Thanks for the link hellogoodbye, I have a few amazon vouchers (get them from my credit card) going spare so I think I might invest in that book an have a good read before I go out and buy.

:)
 
Timer, don't forget the timer. And an ipod so you have something decent to listen to other than the timer. :)
 
You will probably need some kind of ventialtion system to extract the chemicals.

Also i know that alot of peopel dont do it but you should have a the chemicals removed by a company but no one ever does and jsut tips it down the drain!!
 
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