First home dev - the nightmare begins?

srichards

srichards

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So after the first effort ended in disaster ages ago I'm ready to have another crack at home development. This time it will be black and white.

The plan is to use a daylight tank with rodinal at room temperature.

Then rinse with room temperature plain water.

Then fix.

Then rinse with more plain water then final rinse with the flo thingy stuff and hang in the bathroom to dry and attract every dust spec in the local area.

Does that sound like a sensible way of doing things?

Film choice is either rollei 400 or tri-x. Which is harder to ruin?

With a daylight tank is it better to slosh side to side or rotate or just overfill a bit so all of the reel is sat in the developer? Or all 3?
 
20 degrees Celsius for all your liquids including the rinses would be a better start imo

B&W is nothing like as temperature critical as colour, nonethelsss it does have an effect.
 
srichards said:
With a daylight tank is it better to slosh side to side or rotate or just overfill a bit so all of the reel is sat in the developer? Or all 3?
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Your tank should say on it how much you should use to make sure the film is entirely submerged (my Paterson one is 590ml I think). Just fill it up to this amount or slightly more, and then do your agitations every minute. Keep it nice and simple and you can't go wrong :)
 
Asha said:
20 degrees Celsius for all your liquids including the rinses would be a better start imo

B&W is nothing like as temperature critical as colour, nonethelsss it does have an effect.
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20c is my room temperature :thinking:
 
Carl Hall said:
Your tank should say on it how much you should use to make sure the film is entirely submerged (my Paterson one is 590ml I think). Just fill it up to this amount or slightly more, and then do your agitations every minute. Keep it nice and simple and you can't go wrong :)
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You haven't seen how well I can kack things up ;)
 
srichards said:
You haven't seen how well I can kack things up ;)
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I'm not sure that going into it with " the nightmare begins" thought process isn;t going to help tbh
 
I think you'll be surprised how easy it turns out to be, just take it one step at a time and other than the development time, don't worry too much about to-the-second precision timing... if it works then fine, and if it doesn't then just have another go (once you've finished swearing at it). ;) (y)

PS Oh, and let me know if the above suggestion works, then I can have a go! :LOL:
 
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Not sure if you're developing a 35mm or 120 film Suz, but the difficulty can be measuring the tiny amount of rodinal you will need. If you are using it 1:100 in a Paterson tank for 35mm, that'll only be 3ml in 300ml of water, so you'd need a very small syringe or similar to get the volume correct. 1:50 would be easier as you would then need 6ml, and if you are processing 120 then 1:50 would be 10ml in 500 and that's getting pretty easy to measure. Enjoy!
 
I have a syringe fortunately. Bought it at the same time as the rodinal. I'll be doing 35mm in a rondinax that I've not used before.
 
srichards said:
With a daylight tank is it better to slosh side to side or rotate or just overfill a bit so all of the reel is sat in the developer? Or all 3?
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Follow the directions, both for agitation method and for fill level. If your daylight tank is the one with a wheel on the side, rotate that to agitate. If it is a Paterson type tank that needs to be loaded in the dark, agitate by turning over four times every minute.

Overloading with developer can mess with agitation so use close to the recommended amounts.
 
Kevin Allan said:
The actual developing temperature is not critical as you can calculate a corrected time for any temp (a few degrees either way of 20c) using, for example, this web app:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?doc=timetemp
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OK 20 degrees isn't obligatory, however what ever temperature is decided upon has to be consistent throughout the process with all the liquids and of course the developing time adjusted accordingly to suit that said temp
 
These development charts are very useful but to start with it's probably best to stick to the basic 20c temp and get used to the physical element of developing a film (loading it in the tank, ensuring the chemicals are mixed correctly and at the right temp, filling, emptying, flushing, controlling timings accurately, film removal, drying, etc. Once this has been consistently mastered, perhaps then experiment with altering times, dilutions, different developers, etc.? :)
 
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I would agree, Mr Badger, and I wouldn't have mentioned how useful if the link were not already there. But the OP certainly needs to know about it if he going to continue in the dark arts.
 
When you say "daylight tank" do you mean a Rondinax? Because if so, instructions are generally rather different than for Paterson type ones.

So this is how I do it with my Rondinax...

First, and critical, and I often forget, do NOT load the film into the tank in bright light! It seems that light can reflect up through the guillotine slot and cause light leaks where the film pauses while you wind it in. If you could wind it in without pauses this would less of a problem. I just move into the loo under the stairs which does not have any direct light, and it's fine.

Once the film is wound in, guillotined and wound in again, my tank takes 200 ml of chemicals. This only goes half way up the reel. If you increase much above that you will likely have developer leak out at the spool axle/winder joint.

Don't forget to reduce times by 15% as you will need almost continuous winding, because of half the film being out of the solution. I use a timer on my phone. Part wind, one second, another part wind, wait two seconds and repeat. I don't know where I came up with that but it works for me. Just try an approach that means the film gets moved into and out of the developer, is not continuously moving, with some opportunity to sit.

Pour out, stop bath in, 30 seconds or so of winding (possibly overkill).

Pour out, fixer in, fix in the same way for 5 minutes (also overkill).

Pour out, coupla hundred mils of water, wind and wash for a minute or so. Pour out. At this point I take the top off and thereafter do washes in the tank for 5 minutes each, no winding, filling it to the very brim, but not letting water into the guillotine area (the Rondinax manual suggests taking the reel out but that involves dismantling and I can't be faffed). Three of these washes, then the last one has been de-ionised water with a drop of washing up liquid, however I now have a bottle of the Kodak Flo thingy to try.

I have been taking the film out of the tank downstairs and carrying it up to the bathroom to hang. I have resolved now to take the tank to the bathroom before taking the film out to hang up. D'oh!

Good luck.
 
I don't have any stop bath. I was going to use plain water. It's a rondinax 35U. Think I might use a stronger mix of rodinal then as 20 odd minutes of winding is going to be a bit irritating. I was thinking it could be filled to over the spool so you'd do the one wind per minute or so.
 
srichards said:
I don't have any stop bath. I was going to use plain water. It's a rondinax 35U. Think I might use a stronger mix of rodinal then as 20 odd minutes of winding is going to be a bit irritating. I was thinking it could be filled to over the spool so you'd do the one wind per minute or so.
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Water as a stop bath will work ok.

As for increasing the strength of the developer solution.......I've never used a rondinax tank but nonetheless if you don't follow close to the developer strengths, temperature and duration as proposed by the film manufacturer, your revived attempt at home deving is probably going go t##s up and become the nightmare that you anticipate.

If you find part of the process irritating or simply don't have the patience to let the process take its course in the way it is designed to do, then I would suggest paying a lab as against potentially stuffing your shots.

Bottom line, it's your film, your shots, your money ( to possibly waste) and your choice......I'm simply trying to hlp you avoid a complete c##k up
 
There are options on the rollei film box with different strengths of rodinal. I'm not going to deviate from those proposed on there.
 
Don't forget to tap tank on counter etc. after agitation.

It gets rid of any air bubbles stuck to the film.

I ruined my first film in the 80's through trying to cut corners.
 
Think he was the one suggesting 250ml but I haven't seen that video in ages. Mine drips out the spindle with 250. 200 is ok.
 
Talking of cutting corners, don't forget to trim the corners and bend them down before loading. My first film went a bit pear-shaped part way through the load because I didn't do that. It jammed, I had to cut it and do the rest of the roll later!
 
Hopefully the video above has how to do it. I'll check the rondinax website again before I start.

Just waiting for not raining weather so I can actually use the roll :rolleyes:
 
Have you considered stand processing it (ie: 1:100 rodinal for an hour with 15 inversions at the start, then put telly on)?
Or is that not an option with the rodinax? I've never used on so I'm curious.
 
schpleep said:
Have you considered stand processing it (ie: 1:100 rodinal for an hour with 15 inversions at the start, then put telly on)?
Or is that not an option with the rodinax? I've never used on so I'm curious.
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You can't do that with the rondinax unfortunately. Developer only comes half way up the spool so you have to keep it turning. It leaks a little if you over fill it too.
 
Today was going to be the day but numb nuts here managed to wind the film right back on the spool. So it might be Thursday with some Tri-X. Shot a roll in the yashica which of course I winded back to leave the leader out and naturally it was colour film not b & w :rolleyes:
 
:banghead::banghead::banghead: :wave: We've all done something similar!
 
I get an old piece of film, stick some double-sided tape on thee underside, then feed it into the slit of the film reel. Wind the spool backwards until the sticky tape catches the film inside, then gently pull the old film (with new film leader stuck to it) out the slit!
 
Might try the yashica as it winds back the film window so you know where it is. I thought I was ok with the hi-matic as there's a definite point you normally feel when it's just loosened off the other spool.

Will set the dynax to leave the leader out if I kack up the next one. That's idiot proof and will always leave it out for me :)
 
Rewinding the Pentax MX I can feel when it comes off the right hand spool... as long as I'm paying attention! I seem to remember that the Z-1 left a bit out for me but I might be making that up...

EDIT I have a film picker that really works; the first one didn't (from Jack the Hat IIRC; he was good and refunded me). The one that works (for me) is a Film Picker 7 made by Matin.
 
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Some do seem to leave a small bit out. That's ideal as you know it's been used.
 
ChrisR said:
Rewinding the Pentax MX I can feel when it comes off the right hand spool... as long as I'm paying attention! I seem to remember that the Z-1 left a bit out for me but I might be making that up...
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Yes, the Z-1 does this. It's hidden in the functions setting and very handy it is too.
Also: Blimey! Someone else with a Z-1. How's that Power Zoom working out?! ;)
 
schpleep said:
Yes, the Z-1 does this. It's hidden in the functions setting and very handy it is too.
Also: Blimey! Someone else with a Z-1. How's that Power Zoom working out?! ;)
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Both my lenses are Pentax F manual zooms (35-105 and 24-50, IIRC) and quite good. But I don't really enjoy the automated film camera experience and will put them up for sale once I get off my backside enough to do it!
 
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