Developing Gear, Advice Please

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Andysnap

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Andy Grant
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After an interesting day with Rob Hooley in the darkroom I've decided its probablly time I dabbled a toe in self development (not in a hippy way). So my questions are these.
What do I need to begin with at a basic level? I know I need a Paterson tank or equivalent, a changing bag, something to open the film canister and some pegs.
Is there anything else? And what would be the best developer, fixer and stopper to use to begin with, something of an allrounder would probably be best?

Cheers

Andy
 
A tricky question. D76 is a good all rounder but needs to be mixed at 55 degrees C. Otherwise it is supposedly very easy to use and quite cheap (I have a sachet at home I haven't got near yet!). I mainly like rodinal, especially with acros. Any old fix and stop is fine. I use ilford rapid fixer and ilfostop. Both last a while. Get a couple of 500ml bottles to store the mixed fix and stop in between developments. Get a patterson tank, I think personally that the reels are the easiest to load in both 35mm and 120. Also, do use photoflo or some other such surfactant in the final wash- your negs will be much cleaner.

As for fetching the 35mm out of the casettes, I don't open them I use one of the things that grabs the leader and pulls it out. I have not had any problems with scratches at that stage.
 
If you go to the bay for a Paterson tank, make sure you get a Super System 4 version (the latest) as the previous ones had a tendency to leak during inversion. The universal one is useful as you will be able to process 120 as well as 35mm.

Also :
Thermometer,
maybe a washing up bowl to 'temper' the chemicals.
I always used a cheap bottle opener to prise open the film canister.
The largest changing bag you can find / afford.
Scissors to trim the film.

A spare (duff) film to practise on is a good idea.
 
Paterson Universal tank - Super System 4 is probably best. 2 rolls of 35mm, 1 roll of 120 capacity. Changing bag, unless you have a place that you can black out to put the film onto the reel.

Opening the film canister - a bottle opener works just fine, no need to buy a bespoke film canister opener. Most of the time I don't bother with that, instead I rewind the film so the leader sticks out so I can just load it from the cassette straight onto the reel.

Some measuring jugs would also be handy, just ones you can pick up in your local supermarket. A thermometer would also be good if you want some consistency.

I'd suggest going for a liquid concentrate developer, they are easier and less headache. I use T-Max Developer for its excellent characteristics, but Ilford DD-X and Kodak HC-110 are also very popular. Rodinal is popular, but tends to favour slower film so it isn't as useful as an all-rounder. If you do want to go down the powder route, D76 is the classic film developer.

Stop and fix - Ilford, Tetenal and Fotospeed all do their own versions of them. They all work the same, so just pick whatever one will suit your throughput and value for money per use really.

A stopwatch on a digital watch/mobile phone will also come in handy to accurately time the process.

Regarding the Photo Flo suggestion, if your water is soft enough you can probably get away without using it...
 
Excellent advice all round, thanks gentlemen. As to the water softness I'm from oop North our water is hard, just like us.....

Andy
 
I think everyone has just about covered it. The only thing left would be some sleeves to store the negs in after processing.
 
White cotton gloves for handling dry negs. can't recommend enough!
And if you have a smartphone, the digitaltruth massive dev chart app. I love it! Or if you don't have a smartphone. Just the chart and a timer
 
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from my recent experience, I found the film squeegee is very useful to get rid of the excessive water on the film. So far I think it's easier than I thought and at least a messy person like me can do it.

at first i was worried to use the power developer but it turned out it was very easy to mix and definitely not a issue at all. Kodak D76 is cheap enough to try.
 
Ilford do a film opener for about £4 which are available at Jessops & various other places. Handy!
 
IamAshlyRose said:
Ilford do a film opener for about £4 which are available at Jessops & various other places. Handy!
Click to expand...

:lol: or use an old fashioned beer-bottle opener... which I'm fairly sure Andy will probably already have...

:thinking: Actually, I usually just push my thumb into the film slot, deform the metal a bit and tear the canister apart inside the darkbag, if I've been a dimmock and wound the leader all the way into the can. Then again, I'm also a northerner - might not work for southern shandy-drinking jessies. :lol:
 
@TheBigYin Hahaha. I'm far too clumsy to be breaking into my canisters manually! I've had my little canister opener since my college darkroom days :')
 
Bottle opener is definitely the best budget way - although rewinding the film so the leader stays out is still the most efficient IMO.
 
how many of you have used a film picker ? any good ?

I was thinking of getting a bulk roll of 35 and reloading the canisters taping onto the last bit of the old film.

Some electric rewinders dont let you leave the leader out.
 
In days of yore when I loaded from bulk film (not sure how cost effective it is now) I used to tape directly onto the film spool.

I never left my 'tail out' (so to speak) as I didn't want to pull the film through again in case of scratching, a small risk, but it is possible to get grit in the cannister light traps.
 
Tricky69 said:
how many of you have used a film picker ? any good ?
Click to expand...

I got one in a batch of dev gear from eBay. It's jessops brand and I like it - you can trim the film in daylight to run smoothly on the reel and then get it started before putting it in the bag. That said, I wouldn't pay more than a fiver for one on its own.
 
I recently sold a full kit. It contained:

Patterson tank
Changing bag
Film picker
Scissors
Extra reel for tank
Measuring jugs x3 (stop, dev, fix)
Funnels
Film clips
De-ionised water for rinse
ID11 developer
Ilfostop
Wetting agent (didn't use much)
Mini thermometer with suction cup
Digital timer

After a bit of practice I was able to soup and hang my negs in about 30 mins. I always mixed my ID11 to stock concentration (i.e no watering down) and I re-used it loads of times.

I think I'll get back to it now I have a bigger room to work in.

I used to hang my negs from a piece of string going across my downstairs cupboard and pour de-ionised water down them as they hung up. They came out crystal clear every time. I was having some problems with water marks before I tried this, even using wetting agent.

Cheers
 
Tricky69 said:
how many of you have used a film picker ? any good ?
Click to expand...

They're pretty easy to use once you've got the hang of it practising on a dummy film. You need to listen for the sound of the film end clicking over the lip of the first tongue, then you just push the second one in and it grabs the end and you pull the whole thing out. I hardly ever need mine now since the T90 packed up, but they are useful things to have in case you over-rewind. I always load the reels from an intact cassette, so that if you get a jam that you can't clear, then you have a back out route.
 
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