Processing B&W 120 film

[bdb]

Please forgive these incredibly ignorant questions. I have zero experience with film and have no idea how

processing works. I've been shooting digital (Canon 20D) since I got into photography six months ago

and have never used a film camera. However, recently I bought a Holga and now I have some 120mm film

that needs processing.

 

Once I have the negatives, I intend to scan them with a Canon 8400f scanner that can handle 120mm film

rolls. So I'm not particularly interested in making prints.

 

What I need to know is the best way to go about develop negatives from the film. I understand that I

could send the film to a processing lab, but most seem to charge about $6 to develop a single roll. That's

way too expensive for me, especially because I'm used to shooting digital!

 

There is a local art studio affiliated with UC Berkeley that I can join for $30/semester. They charge $4/

hour plus a $1.75/roll processing fee. However, in their instructions on "what to bring" to the lab they

include "negatives". So perhaps this lab is only for making prints from negatives? How do I get the

negatives in the first place?

 

If all I want is to develop the negatives (so I can scan them later), what's the cheapest/best way to do this?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[doug grosjean]

To process the negs yourself, you'd probably have $75 in tools to start (changing bag, reel, tank, thermometer, and some chemistry). Could save some of that by loading reel in middle of night in a black room and / or buying used.

 

After you have the tools, chemistry is about $2 / roll each time.

[Charles_Webster]

Doug's answer presupposes that you are shooting B&W, in which case he is completely correct. It's easy to learn, cheap to do, and is very rewarding.

 

Now if you are shooting color, you should stick to the lab.

 

<Chas>

[greenstphotography]

If you are using B&W film the cheapest way in the long run is to develop the film yourself. This will require some money up front; it also requires some time practicing. A great book that outlines all of this is "Into Your Dark-room Step by Step" - Dennis P. Curtin. This book tells you exactly what you need and how to do everything.

If you buy everything new you are probably talking around $100 give or take for everything. After the initial investment in materials you are talking about pennies per roll of film in terms of developing costs. If you use e-bay you can probably get most everything for much less. You can pick up chemicals at a local photo store or online at Adorama (one of the few places that will ship them). More information on developing film can be found all over the web and on photo.net. If you would like a list of everything you need feel free to e-mail me, I recomend getting the book since developing is a fairly involved process (but worth it for the control you will have and the money you will end up saving).

 

Now if you are talking about color or slide films, pay the $6.

[bdb]

Thanks for your reply Doug. Is there a book or website you'd recommend that would teach

me how to process the negatives using the tools you describe?

 

Chris

[Fotohuis RoVo]

Here is a link to do it:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf

 

and on the http://www.apug.org you can also ask all questions about analogue photography, same like photo.net.

 

best regards,

 

Robert

 

http://www.FotohuisRoVo.nl

[michael_madio]

Try http://www.nyip.com/sub_idx_pgs/referidx/ref_b2bw.php

[michael_madio]

Also, Kodak has a reference at http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/aj3/aj3.pdf and Ilford has a reference at http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/download.asp?n=386

[bdb]

Great. Thanks Chas and Andrew. I'll check out that book. I was talking about B&W film,

though I'll probably shoot the occasional color roll and I guess it's better to just pay the lab

for that one (although I think color 120 is a bit cheaper than the $6 I quoted eariler for B&W

120... more like $5). I found a place that sells 120 Artista 400 for $1.79/roll and if I'm

developing myself I think I can handle that expense. 12 exposures per roll at say $2.00/roll

including chemicals is about 18 cents per exposure.

[doug grosjean]

I don't have any book to reccomend, but others above do.

 

I'm betting there's tons of sites on the Net with the info, but I don't have any I can point you to, either.

 

I was already used to using a changing bag from days in a photo studio, so I just had to learn to load the film onto a reel.

 

After the film is on the reel, and the reel is in the light-proof developing tank, the rest of the process is done in light.

 

A local custom lab talked to me about the processing steps when I asked, and said the chemistry is just 3-4 steps:

 

1. developer

 

2. stop bath (it stops the chemistry of the developer)

 

3. fixer (it make the image permanent)

 

4. rinse

 

 

They copied a sheet of data they used and gave it to me.

 

Ilford has a line of (liquid) chemicals that I started with. On the back of each one are times and temps for the various films that can be processed in that chemistry. It's a pretty wide range.

 

Follow the directions on the bottles regarding mix ratios, temperature, and number / times of inversions (literally, turning sealed tank upside down) and times spent in the chemical bath(s). If you follow the directions carefully, you'll get exactly what you expect.

 

Another neat thing about B/W is that after you have the hang of the process, you can vary the times so that you can use a roll of 400 speed film as if it were 3200 speed film, by use of longer developing times.

 

After that, I do like you - I scan the negs myself, and print only the good stuff.

 

You'll prolly mess up a roll or two getting the hang of it, but after that it'll be routine and fun. Fun hell - *magic* is the right word when you pull the wet negs out and hang them up, and they actually have images on them.

 

HTH..!

 

Doug Grosjean

[rich_ullsmith1]

See if you can find somebody to walk you through it once.

[bdb]

Thanks again to everyone for your answers.

 

Just out of curiosity, if I was to go to the local university lab to develop the film, about how

long does it take to do one roll?

[conrad_hoffman]

You can do rudimentary processing for next to nothing. The only essentials are a processing tank, and two chemicals. If you can get a used tank (and reel) from some photo store, the total cost of tank and chemicals should be less than $20. You'll need to practice loading a junk roll in the light, then just load your real roll at night in a dark closet, bathroom, or wherever you can't see light leaks. You'll pour in the developer at a certain temperature and invert the tank every 30 sec to a minute for however long the film and developer combination takes, usually about 5-12 minutes. Then you'll pour in and out a couple changes of water, then pour in the fixer, cap the tank, and invert every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes. Run water in the tank for about 15-20 minutes to wash, then hang to dry. Every step has things to watch out for, and you can add more steps to solve certain problems. You can add a wetting agent step after the wash to avoid water spots, and you can use "hypo clearing agent" before the wash to shorten the time and save water, but that's a quick overview of the whole process. If you want a dedicated timer, special thermometer, water temperature controller, water filter, filtered hot air drying cabinet, special stainless steel film clips, and misc data books and such, then you can spend a great deal more, but the basics are pretty cheap.

[lee hamiel]

Chris:

 

This is a great B&W developing article by Paul Butzi

 

See:

 

http://www.butzi.net/articles/filmdevelop.htm

 

Good luck & have fun

[frank.schifano]

If you choose your chemistry wisely and use it efficiently, the price for consumable, minus film cost, can be closer to $1/roll rather than $2.

[bobmichaels]

I compute HC110 Dil. H cost 16 cents per 35mm roll. Water instead of stop is free. Rapid fix is 15 cents per 35mm roll. Total 31 cents for 35mm. Of course 120 film will increase that to almost 50 cents per roll for chemistry.

 

Remember that developing b&w film used to be a Jr High school class. And that was when Jr. High kids were not near as smart as they are now.

 

The Ilford website has a great article "developing your first roll of b&w film". That will give you a clue just how simple it is.

 

If you can figure out a 20D, developing film will be a piece of cake.

[gnashings]

I highly reccomend doing it yourself, and even more so finding someone to walk you through it. That is how I learned the basics, and I find it takes care of all the little things that are hard to describe in print seeing as we all undertand/visualize things a bit differently. I would be more than happy to spend the half hour needed with you, but I don't know where you live, so you would have to find someone local to you. In my experience, there are so many wonderful folks in this hobby that you should have no trouble finding a willing tutor if you ask nicely if you don't have a friend who can play this role.

Also, the magic of B&W truly comes through in the glow and tonality of a print - you may want to have a look at some before you write off that all important (albeit more involved) step.

Best of luck.

[richard_f1]

If you do it at home you will probably end up saving time and maybe money compared to doing at the uni. $4/hr and $1.75 a roll will add up reasonably quickly to the cost of buying the gear yourself.

 

I do it in the kitchen underneath the extractor fan thing. Admittedly the kitchen isn't the best place, given that you're using chemicals and it's a food preparation area. But we live in one of those studenty group houses where no-one really uses the kitchen and if they do they'd never dream of eating anything that touched any of the surfaces there! And I am very careful not to spill anything (or clean up thoroughly if I do). It's good to find somewhere with decent ventilation because these chemicals can harm your health or at least give you a fat headache.

 

You asked about time. It takes me about an hour from putting the roll onto the spool, running the various chemicals through, washing and drying, to cutting up the strip to put it in sleeves.

 

You can dry your films in the shower or bathroom. There was a thread on here about that recently. I poke a little hole in the film at either end which gives a peg something to grip onto, and then just hang it up from a hook. I run the heat lamp at first but not too long (because overheating can be bad) and I run the extractor fan too.

 

There are also quite a few threads on here about disposing of the chemicals when you are finished with them.

 

A good way to get your temperatures right is to put the chemicals in a jug, and then place that jug in a sink of colder or warmer water (depending if you need to heat up or cool down). Slowly but surely the chemicals in the jug will come down or up in temp.

 

Others may disagree but generally if you get within a degree of where you are supposed to be, you should be ok - certainly for the first few rolls you do while working it all out.

 

Good luck!

[bdb]

Thanks again to everyone for your replies. I really appreciate the spirit of support on this

board.

 

I did read the Ilford article about B&W processing, and it doesn't seem that hard. The real

obstacles for me of doing the processing at home are 1) space - I don't want to use our

kitchen and my wife would flip because she's very sensitive to chemicals, 2) time - I have a

limited amount of time for practicing this artform overall, and spending hours developing

film is just hard to get my head around when I'm so accustomed to just spending a couple

of minutes uploading 200+ exposures from my 20D.

 

Alas, the reason I became interested in the first place is that I love the Holga and there are

lots of times I don't want to lug my 20D around but I would happily throw my Holga in my

backpack.

 

If it takes 1 hour to develop one roll of film, and the university charges $4/hour for

darkroom use plus $1.75/roll, then that's $5.75/roll. At that rate, I'd rather just drop it at

the local camera store, pay the $6 and save myself an hour. I can see how doing it at

home would save lots of money, but I have to figure out where I could do it without

making my wife sick. I also quite frankly don't know if I can spend an hour just to develop

12 exposures (120 film in a Holga). Of course that's something I need to figure out on my

own.

 

If I do decide to do it at home, I think I'll take a class at the university lab (it's just four

weeks, once a week) to get the hang of it and then buy the stuff to start at home.

 

Thanks again everyone.

Chris