Film question, processing at home

Gaz81

Gaz81

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,676
Name
Gary
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi folks,

What would i need to process 35mm film? I don't want to do the full developing, i just want the processed negs so i can scan them.

Seems a bit daft to be paying for the full developing when i just want the negs!

thanks for your help!

Gary
 
you'll need
- developing tank
- a (completely) dark place to transfer the film to the developing tank
- bottles of processing chemicals
- accurate thermometer
- accurate timer


or just ask Boots (or whoever), just to develop - no prints

develop = make negatives
print = make prints
 
no, probably not even close unless you do dozens at a time.
 
oh well, thought it might have been cost effective.

I'll look into gettin just the negs processed.

Thanks for your help folks
 
Anytime I shoot film I always just get the negatives processed and dont ask for any prints. Then I usually either get them scanned or if im not looking to print and just want for the web I take macro photographs of the negatives on a lightbox.
 
A changing bag is designed to allow you to change film in a normal room. It's a black bag with t-shirt like arms that you put everything in. Then you can open the film and load it onto the tank spool.

Other things you would probably need:

1. A film retriever to get the end of the film out of the cannister (I was taught to use scissors to open the cannister when at school but, in complete darkness, I cannot recommend it)
2. Practice
3. Patience

It is cheaper to process at home than send away for decent processing. This is especially so for colour slide and black and white. Just checked with my girlfriend who does this a lot and it's about £1 per film for colour neg, £1.60 per film for colour slide and less than £1 for black and white.

Paul
 
I process my own B&W. If you are shooting true B&W (as opposed to C41 which is processed as color film) then I'm guessing Boots doesn't do that. That's at least true in the US -- you can't get true B&W processed anywhere but a pro or prosumer lab.

Once you've spent the money on the initial items you need to process B&W, it's extremely cost effective to process your own, whether you process in volume or not. It costs me right around $1.50 US per batch (five rolls of 35mm or three rolls of 220) to process B&W.

Coffee and vitamin C tablets are fun to play with, but nothing I'd generally do if I wanted a quality negative that would be stable over the years.

If you're shooting color, by all means take it to Boots.

- CJ
 
Boots over here do proper B&W but they dont do it instore so it takes a few days.
 
and everyone will know you're a real photographer as you'll smell of fix and have chemical burns on your clothes...lol
 
I was always a big Agfa fan in the film days and I know they have a B&W film that can be processed in c41 (colour lab) chemicals.

When the film runs through the lab machine the negs are scanned anyway (afaik) and it was always cheaper and much quicker simply to have the spool developed only and get the negs on cd.

In theory you could also print B&W prints on the colour lab but your operator must be sharp or you will have colour casts.

Even down here B&W film is very small and I preferred Ilford FP-4, but then I had all the stuff at work.

Go for it and process your own at home - very rewarding!
 
I process my own B/W, its easy, cheap once you have assembled the kit and as has already been said, you can't beat the smell of the Hypo, its well worth a go processing the negs. you will only need a daylight changing bag (or a dark cupboard) a dev tank and the chemicals, you will be able to get them all from Ebay.

As for colour, its probably not worth it, I had a theory about moving gradually into digital, processing my own slide film, scanning and printing via Photoshop. The smallest reversal kits do about 12 films and once mixed does not last long at all, so you've either got to take loads of film in a short period of time or save up your films and then process them all at once. Temperature is also a lot more critical than B/W.

Needless to say after a couple of reversal processing / scanning sessions I have bought a DSLR, but I have to go back and smell the Hypo every now and again :naughty:
 
Ally said:
One of the ilford films I can't remember which one is a B&W film but can be prossesed in a c41 prossese. Can't remeber which one tho!! :bang::bang:
Click to expand...

Ilford XP2 is c41 process, HP5 is 'proper' b&w film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top