Home developing 120 film ?

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>First of all you don't have to work in total obscurity - you can be as famous as you like!</p>

<p>Seriously, you don't need to do all of the steps in total darkness. You do need to load the film into a developing tank of some sort in complete darkness, and this can be easily achieved in a changing bag. In case you don't know, a changing bag is a light-tight fabric bag with elasticated sleeves to put your arms through. The inside remains totally dark while you load the film by feel. This isn't as difficult as it sounds after a bit of practice. After the film is loaded into a tank you can do all the remaining steps in the light outside of the changing bag.</p>

<p>"You will never be as consistant with C-41 as a well run lab will be" - That's assuming you can find a well-run lab these days! Most high-street labs are NOT well-run and do a really poor job of colour negative developing. With a bit of effort you can easily exceed the quality and consistency you get from commercial processors. Commercial processors have a tendency to overdevelop C-41 film to artificially boost the colour saturation, which most undiscerning amateur snapshooters like. However this destroys the brightness range capability of the film and its colour accuracy. Besides, C-41 is only a 3 or 4 bath (with stabiliser) process and really no more complicated than B&W developing, especially if you use a Jobo rotary machine. I use good quality chemistry, not the cheapest, and check my processing with Kodak quality control strips. In this way I can get <em>much better </em>C-41 quality than most commercial labs.</p>

<p>E6 (reversal slide film) is a totally different matter and I wouldn't recommend home processing of that at all.</p>

<p>Bob: The Paterson reels aren't very good! Jobo ones are far easier to load - especially for the larger sized tanks, as are stainless reels after a bit of practice. Stainless tanks are also usually abit more economical to use unless you use rotary processing.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

Come, come, now! There's nothing wrong with Paterson reels.<br>Perhaps you don't like them (and you might consider telling Bob why not), and that's perfectly fine, of course. (Myself, i don't like the Jobo reels: loading them is a bit more 'involved' than loading the Paterson thingies. Not much, but still: why?)<br>But all in all, it's up to personal preference, and neither Paterson nor Jobo reels (or any other reel) would have been offered for as long as they have if they weren't more than good enough.<br><br>Jobo made good processing machines, and if you are serious about processing fair amounts of film (the occasional role or two is best processed 'manually'), a Jobo autolab is a very nice thing to have.

[randall_pukalo]

<p>What I am about to say is not an opinion, it is a fact. Home E-6 development is SIMPLE. Disregard all above comments to the contrary, they are mostly made by people who have never tried it, or who have problems following directions precisely. Not meant to be an insult, but seriously, such foolish comments kept me from trying home slide dev for so long, only to find when I tried it this Spring, that it is SUPER EASY. Should have started years ago, my wallet would be much thicker now! All you have to do, is follow the simple directions, and use a cheap Styrofoam cooler and regularly monitor the tap to keep your water at the correct temp. thats it, no magic, no hassles, and an hour later, fantastic looking slides!</p>

[paulopires]

<p>Do it my friend. It's not all about learning or to reduce costs. It's our "time out" form daily work, it's our little private moment.<br>

Speaking for myself, developing at home makes me feel like I'm doing my thing, my own selfish pleasure. I'm not only a husband or a father, first of all I'm Paulo, a laim ass who loves photography.<br /><br />You will love it all, you will hate it too when the results are not good, but it's all part of the path. Trust us, do it. As a starting kit you have many options, use plastic, use metal, use Jobo or Patterson. You will get the hang of any kit fast enough.<br /><br />One thing I can advise, if you plan to have a low production buy Rodinal as developer, it lasts forever and you can use it from 1/25 to 1/100...<br /><br />Sorry for this "from the heart answer". ;)<br>

P</p>

[michael_josefsson]

<p>As you have gathered by the responses so far it is quite possible to develop at home. I have been doing just that with B/W for about a year. I use "standing development" almost all of the time, unless I'm in a hurry. The developer I use is the classic R09/Rodinal and that seems to do fine for me, even if it is said to give grainy negs. The graininess is most notable when using Fomapan film. Standing development is a method where you use VERY diluted developer and develop for an hour or so (by just leaving it in the kitchen sink at room temperature). This way I really don't need to have a watch with second hand on it:)<br>

Lately I have also tried a Tetenal C-41 kit for colour film. The only problem is holding the temperature at at steady 38C during the developing phase (which lasts only 3-4 minutes depending on how used the soup is). I also find that colour film is more flimsy and definitely tricker to get on to the god****d spool! But apart from that I would not hesitate to recommend C-41 at home. It works.</p>

 

[jim_peterson2]

<p>Well, since there are so many with experience and expertise in home developing I will take the opportunity to ask a very basic question. I've just gotten started; did my first roll of 35mm a few days ago and today I did a roll of 120. The results have been fine, but I'm still unsure of many things. So, my question is about fixer. How important is the time. I've read 5-10 minutes. The first day I did about 5 and it was fine. Today I did about 7 and it was fine... How important is it, and how do I find out the proper time? I've been using Fuji fixer.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pbase.com/revdocjim/1stroll">http://www.pbase.com/revdocjim/1stroll</a></p>

[michael_josefsson]

<p>Have you seen what the fixer actually does? Cut off a strip of film (a few centimetres will do), dip it into a glass with fixer, after a few seconds or half a minute you will see the film change! That is what the fixer does. You only need to fix as long as it takes to get the film clear, in an exposed and developed film the developed parts are already there and wont be removed. So 5 or 7 minutes is normally ok. Perhaps even 2 minutes would be ok but just to be on the safe side add a couple of minutes.</p>

<p>BTW, nice pictures there so far! Medium-format is the way to go! I use an old Mamiya 645 or Fuji GA645Zi or even Agfa Billy Record:) </p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

You can 'overfix'.<br><br>Traditionally, the time to use is read off the bottle the fixer (concentrate) comes in. ;-)<br><br>There is also a traditional test: take a bit of film (a bit of the leader cut off a 35 mm roll), and drop it into the fix. Time how long it takes for it to become (to the eye) perfectly clear, and use double that time to fix your film.<br><br>Be aware that fixer gets exhausted, and the time needed will get longer depending on how many films have already left their silver in the fix.

[jim_peterson2]

<p>Thanks Michael and Q.G.,<br>

That is the info I needed. The extremely fine print on the bottle of fixer doesn't appear to say how much time is required. But I will get my loupe out and read it again carefully. But I had read in other places that you should look at the film to make sure the fixer has worked and didn't know what to look for, so this info was very helpful.</p>

[missi_ali]

<p>All great responses here...<br>

Good job on the first attempt Mr. Peterson. My first attempt came out grainy and contrasty. I started about 7 months ago, and have ruined a couple of rolls since...<br>

I find loading the 120 way easier than 35 mm. Infact i am having issues with uneven development on the 35 mm... maybe time to switch to stainless steel reels.<br>

I find the whole process quite thrilling and am kinda hooked on it.<br>

so ... just do it!</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

With 35 mm film, it's important to not over do the agitation. If too vigorous, the developer will be force-flushed through the sprocket holes, leading to local overdevelopment.<br>It could be that different reels help. But that may all you have to do to get rid of the uneven development: be gentler.<br>Diagnosing why you get uneven development would be easier if you can describe, or even show a scan of, how it looks.

[rashed_s]

I just bought a used Jobo CPP2 processor in complete, I will try to learn using it.

[jim_peterson2]

<p>I did another roll of 35mm Neopan 400 Presto this evening, after carrying the Voigtlander Bessa-R with me today. I still struggled a bit getting the film onto my stainless steel reel. The hard part for me is getting it started and doing the first one or two rotations. Nevertheless I was pleased with <a href="http://www.pbase.com/revdocjim/rf_bw1">the results.</a> Thanks for the agitation tip. Typically I just slowly turn the tank upside down and then back, over and over again for the first minute and then 5-10 seconds each minute after that. </p>

[darkroommike]

<p>To clarify, type of reel and tank is entirely a personal matter, beginners like Paterson for ease of loading, stainless steel uses less chemicals per roll, will load when wet, and temp control can be a bit easier.<br>

Processing black and white, there a two types of fixers, standard fixers made from powder and liquid rapid fixers. Fresh fixers clear film much faster than used fixer solutions and some films require much longer fixing times than others. As a rule ISO 400 films require longer fixing times than slower films and the tablet grain films, ESPECIALLY TMax films, require much longer fixing times than conventional films.<br>

C-41 and E-6 are a little fussy but your wet processing times are actually shorter than times with black and white. The three step E-6 kits are easy to use and produce good results. You don't need to mount slide if your plans involve only scanning the film strips. Rather than maintain a strict developer temperature most kits can also be used in a "drift-by" mode where the developer starts a little warm and then ends up a little cooler at the end of the developer cycle. Check the instructions that come with your kit.<br>

For consistent results I personally use a Unicolor Kit (mad by Tetenal) and a Unicolor Film Drum on a UniRoller. Easy to use, economical, and consistent.<br>

Save up your film so that you can process a batch of film all in one day that equals the capacity of your kit.<br>

darkroommike</p>

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