i think home developing could be on the cards!

fontmoss

fontmoss

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Was looking here http://www.flickr.com/groups/diybw/discuss/72157607291269826/ as well as through some of the other developing threads on here. I can source ilfostop, rapid fixer and ilfosol for a bit more than in UK (26 euros for half litre of each) paterson tank is 26 euros and buy a darkroom bag on fleabay. Am i forgetting anything obvious?

Asked girlfriend (our flat is tiny) and she's cool with it :D Looks like 120 black and white film isn't much more than UK either which is a bonus. (In some places here its 5 euros for black and white, 10 for colour!)

EDIT: and how long can i expect a half litre of each to last roll wise?
 
Dont bother with the stop. Just use a good plain water rinse!

Ilfosol can be used 1+14 so a if you need 600ml's of solution you are going to need 40mls of solution for every film so 500/40 = 12 films ish. The fix will last a lot longer, I cant rememeber exactly the amount of films you can run through each batch.

There ae other devs that are better value though. HC-110 and rodinal spring to mind if money is tight!

26 euros for a bottle of dev is flaming pricey though.

Might be worth getting some shipped over from the UK at those prices. A 500ml bottle of Rodinal which I use at 1+50 would last you 40 odd films and costs only £15 ish.
 
ah yeah!

what about the stop, necessary? some folk say ye and some say nay?


EDIT: must have posted at the same time.

sorry its total cost of 26 euros for the 3 bottles: stop 9.30, fixer 5.60 and sol is 9.80 but as dont need stop just saved 9 euros!
 
If you are planning on re-using your fixer then a stop bath can help although a water bath is fine too.

If you only plan to use the fixer once then you don't need a stop or water bath. Just pour out the developer and add the fixer. I use the fixer one shot but I do usually use a water bath anyway.

Is the developer you are thinking about getting Ilfosol S or Ilfosol 3?

Ilfosol S is the old version which doesn't have a very good shelf life. It was re-formulated to Ilfosol 3 to improve this.

I recommend Ilford DD-X as a good general purpose developer.

Before you start doing it yourself, you may want to consider Ilford's black and white process and print service:

http://www.ilfordlab.com/

It's a UK and Europe service.



Steve.
 
One shot fix?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

What dilution you using that at Steve? You must be getting through litres of the stuff!
 
What are the advantages of one shot fix? I generally reuse (diluted) Ilford rapid fixer until the time it takes to clear a strip of film is twice what it was when new.
 
Dfhaii said:
I generally reuse (diluted) Ilford rapid fixer until the time it takes to clear a strip of film is twice what it was when new.
Click to expand...

I use Peter Hogan's alkali fix which he created to go with his excellent Prescysol developer.

The instructions state 'We do not recommend keeping used fixer longer than 24 hours'.

If I am using Ilford Rapid (which I do if I develop with DD-X) I do use it two or three times before discarding it.



Steve.
 
Gandhi said:
What dilution you using that at Steve? You must be getting through litres of the stuff!
Click to expand...

Funny you should ask that. When I first used the alkali fix I mentioned above, I thought to myself that this was going to be a very expensive way of fixing.

I woke up the next morning to the realisation that I had used the stock solution full strength. I should have diluted it 1+4 with water.



Steve.
 
Cheers for that Steve, ilford looks good but i wonder if it might be better for me to develop my own stuff (esp initially) and then send the keepers to be printed? the first few rolls will prob be crap and it's not cheap to send them off to be printed.

developer is isofol 3, to be honest im limited by what i can buy locally. what's a stop/water bath? Id like to re-use as much as possible.

EDIT: will i be able to tell from the negatives which are decent?
 
The 'Basic Film Processing' sections on this site look useful:

http://www.silverlight.co.uk/tutorials/toc.html

By 'decent' do you mean correctly exposed or interestingly composed?

I can usually tell which images I want to print just by looking at the negatives. It takes a bit of practice but with time you will sub-conciously translate dark to light and light to dark and form an image in your mind of how it will look printed.

As for correct exposure and/or development, an old rule of thumb was that you should just about be able to read newspaper print through the darkest parts of the negative. If it's easy to read, it's too light which would indicate insufficient exposure or development. If you can't see the type at all due to the negative being too dense then the culprit is either over exposure or over development.

You have to get it very wrong not to be able to get a useable image from a negative. If you meter carefully and follow the instructions with regard to development time, temperature and dilution, you should do fine.




Steve.
 
to me decent would hopefully encompass both!

but really i was wondering if i could hold up a negative and get an idea if it's for the bin, if it's not then it will probably be a keeper. until i get the hang of things anyway

cheers steve
 
ill take a proper look at that link tomorrow thanks steve, hopefully i can determine what i need. tempted by the ilford processing but about £14 a go inc posting. i know that includes prints but im assuming my stuff wil be lets face it, crap.
 
ok another stupid question: if you develop the negatives at home and then scan them, you can just invert the scanned image to give a proper black and white image? or is there another step im missing?
 
Yes but you can usually select 'black and white negative' in the scanning software and this will do it for you.


Steve.
 
not really planning on a scanner, already spent wayyy too much but it's nice to know beyond chemicals etc it's just the scanner i need to upload my film to the interweb.


EDIT: btw what would you pour your chemicals into if re-using them? just a plastic bottle?
 
fontmoss said:
not really planning on a scanner
Click to expand...

Its worse than you think, like Blappers say's, any old scanner won't do, it has to be capable of scanning negs, and in you're case even worserer M/F negs.
So for cheaperey, its gonna be a flatbed with neg carriers.
Or.....slide copy and forget scanners.
Or.....there isn't another or



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/
 
well let's stick with home developing for now! Found a place that processes 120 film, 4 euros for colour and 7.50 for black and white (isn't it normally cheaper b and w?) but still thinking about getting my own stuff together-will work out at 70 euros. Still need to work out whether i need a stop bath (still not entirely sure how it's better than using water?) and where to store used chemicals.
 
oh and of course i need to decide what film to use! getting some ilford hp5 400 with the camera but thiking some velvia colour stuff too poss? suggestions welcome, have a swatch at flickr to see what i like :D
 
70 euros = 10 films worth of processing but the price will come down once all you have to buy is dev and fix (1 euro per film approx!)
 
yeah took my until late last night for that to click in my head! I had forgotten how many things were one off purchases.

Ok and to film choices: ilford hp5 400 seems a given (although i could prob use a much faster film while im living here) and thinking possibly fuji provia 400 rather than velvia as i want a more subtle colour for portraits. Also one of my flickr contacts uses fuji pro 800z which looks pretty cool. any advice or suggestions folks?
 
No tripod gonna try handheld (hope it works!)

think ill pick up the following film when in the UK next week: 400h, 800z and provia 100.

theyre a lot cheaper in calumet than buying here, for example it's £11 for a 5 pack of 400h and 6 euros a single pack here! Just need to make sure i have space for everything in hand luggage. will the 800 film need to be kept away from x ray devices?
 
From what I understand it'll be fine in your hand luggage, even when x-rayed. You can ask for a hand inspection though.

It's the hold luggage that gets bombarded, so you won't want to check it.

Where are you returning to in the UK?
 
im heading back to glasgow for 48 hrs to see an auntie and my new baby niece :) very tight schedule but aiming to drop by calumet and collect armfuls of film
 
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