Process my own, or send out?

[houstonphotographics]

<p>Hello,<br>

I am going to be shooting b/w 120 film for my personal enjoyment. Not a lot of film, but a roll here/there perioidcally, maybe a couple a month. Will shoot and have scanned to cd for viewing/reference. Anything serious I want printed , I will have that negative drum scanned. My delimma is whether I should process and scan the film myself, or have a service do it for approx $10 a roll. My time is worth something, and that is where I am stuck. My scanner is an older Epson 4870 w/neg carriers. Seems tedious on my end to do one roll myself vs $10 or so.<br>

Opinions appreciated. thanks!</p>

[SCL]

<p>Kenneth - the appeal for many is having control of the development process, something not possible when sending it out. Also, depending on one's schedule, your feedback is much more immediate instead of waiting for days.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>Personally I prefer to develop and print B&W myself in my darkroom. But if you prefer to go the soup-and-scan route, $10 is a no-brainer -- let the lab do it. <br />When it comes to seeing which negatives to print, I usually make a contact sheet but it isn't necessary. You just hold a negative up to the light and you can see exactly what you have, especially with large 120 negatives.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>Watch the resolution of those cheap scans. To get real high rez scans of my 35mm B/W, I ended up paying and extra $21 per roll for 300 dpi. The low price scans were at 120 dpi ;-(<br>

<Chas></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I find that the trouble with doing the occasional roll at home is that the chemicals tend to go out of date before I get around to a new roll or two.</p>

<p>Under these conditions, I have mostly switched to C-41 process films that I can still get processed locally, at least for the time being.</p>

<p>I still do my own scanning though.</p>

[Member69643]

<p>What the world really needs is a dedicated 120 scanner for under $1000 :)</p>

[lachaine]

<p>It's really just following a recipe. I don't really see it as offering more control, unless it's because someone wants to use a specific developer like rodinal or something. Any lab that does black and white film will push the film whatever number of stops you want. You just have to tell them.</p>

<p>I did this many years ago, but I would rather let a lab deal with the chemicals and their disposal, for as long as there is one available locally. Plus, as JDM said, unless you develop a lot of film regularly, the chemicals tend to expire before you can finish using them.</p>

<p>Many of the great masters let a lab process their film, some of them after they had done the darkroom thing, so there is no dishonor in it. The real craft is the print making.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Ilford Ilfotec DD-X has pretty darned good shelf life. Kodak HC-110 syrup is essentially eternal. Rodinal (whatever the latest name it's sold under in) is also purportedly eternal.<br>

Or, make small amounts of D-76 from scratch, and bottle it in little 8 ounce or 16 ounce bottles<strong> </strong><em>absolutely</em><em> full</em><em>.</em> That also lasts a long time.</p>

[jeff_sudduth]

<p>Ken, listen to JDM. You will have problems with chemicals going off if you don't use them in a timely fashion or you are not neurotic about their storage. The other thing is you are going to burn a few rolls making mistakes. It took me awhile to learn to put the film onto the reel! Yeah seems like a dumb step to get hung up on (no pun intended). So you will have to do a few rolls just to master that skill. Then you will have to get your agitation technique down. I had a problem with to little agitation and ruined several rolls.</p>

<p>The thing is if you develop and scan yourself the cost becomes dirt cheap. The down side is the early screw ups. It's not rocket science but you do have to work the bugs out of the system. Scanning is an issue. I find for medium format film a home scan with an Epson v500 is pretty good. It's better than the low resolution cheapy scans you will get at most places. If you want better scans check out <a href="http://www.northcoastphoto.com/film_developing_scans.html#enhancedscan">NCPS</a>. Get the "enhanced scan." Yes it is pricey but if you compare it to all other cheaper scans including home flatbed they are better. The problem with NCPS is they charge you and arm and a leg to scan if they don't develop the film. So it doesn't make economic sense to develop at home and then have them scan.</p>

<p>If you are doing C-41 and scanning at home you might also try Walmart's send out serve. Don't laugh. They developed a roll of 220 film for me for less than a $1! I send my regular rolls there. My rolls from trips and so forth I send to NCPS.</p>

[ljwest]

<blockquote>

<p>What the world really needs is a dedicated 120 scanner for under $1000 :)</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />Amen! I'd keep my Mamiya 645 if that were available!</p>

[Bill Bowes]

<p>Hello all. Using Rodinol in a very dilute mix with semi-stand development or Coffenol with either full or semi-stand development should take care of the chemistry for a very cheap outlay...plus, the chemistry is always "fresh" for that occasional roll of film. The scanning could be accomplished with an Epson V600, less than $200 here in the states. I scan my negatives (various emulsions in the above chemistries) and get results from 6x6 negs that go to 16x20 prints (Costco here in the states) without blemishes. Just make sure you spot the negs in some type of editor program. I use PhotoScape...free on the web, but do give them a donation!<br>

Enjoy, Bill</p>

 

[Bill Bowes]

<p>Hello again. Why do I HATE Windows 8 ??? The 12 minute interruption for 2 updates ?<br /> Anyway, here is the picture that WAS RUDELY CURTAILED BY YOU KNOW WHO !! Film is 35mm, K1000, 55mm lens<br /> Bill</p><div></div>

[houstonphotographics]

<p>Hi everyone, I wanted to thank you all for great information. I have decided to process my own films indeed! I dug thru some boxes of stuff and found my old film developing reels/tanks (Paterson), thermomoter, funnels, and some other odds and ends. I am also playing around with an Epson 4870 I picked up a while back but never setup until recently. Has the neg carriers for most of the popular film sizes. This is a start for me and I cannot wait! If anyone else wants to keep posting please be my guest as I get email notices of new responses. Much thanks again!</p>

[Mike Gammill]

If you scan at the higher resolution setting a flatbed scanner with 120 holder can be surprisingly good.

[RaymondC]

<p>I will echo what others have said. I am a low volume shooter, heck, I spend 7 days overseas and shoot 4 rolls. I got into processing for the first time and while I processed my 2 rolls from that trip which the film has been in the freezer for that time, it is a challenge to shoot the other rolls just so I don't waste the chemistry.</p>

<p>If you are a low volume shooter, IMO use the Ilford powder developer that makes 1L. You can get the 5L power kits yes and for 5x the quantity they might only cost 2x the price. But you would just pour it out. Powder developers once mixed last 6 months in full bottles. This is from Ilford. You can get liquid developers which would last 2 or 3yrs and you can only pour out your 60ml or whatever required each time but the thing is liquid ends up processing more rolls of film so the price increases, haha. The standard DD-X per the roll of film think it does 16 rolls I think, per the roll it's not that cheap and if you do all that 16 in that 2 or 3yrs. The cheapest is Ilford LC29 but some argue the high dilution, you can process 50 rolls in that 3yrs, haha if you shoot that much.</p>

<p>For me re: Ilford, low usage. ID11 powder developer 1L. You may skip the stop bath if the development time is over 10mins? I have it but you may skip it. Use water bath. For fixer that stuff last 6 months again, and this is liquid maybe 12 months if pushed? The fixer can do so many rolls isn't it 24 rolls per the 1L mixed. The 1L of fixer can mix up quite a bit. 5L I think it is. Are you gonna do 24 x 5 rolls of film, but some say you may get fog about they test the film with a density tool so a guy in my club only does 6 rolls per 1L now. But they will just expire this fixer thing. You can get 500ml of fixers but they may just be 10% less.</p>

<p>If you wanting to use the powder like a bargain 5L pack and ration it, you cannot as I was told it doesn't mix thoroughly so you need to mix the entire packet up and pour into 5L bottles.</p>

<p>For me it is a challenge to shoot these 6 rolls of film per 6 months, I don't normally head out so I have to make trips out to enable myself to shoot them and also there is digital and other color slide film also ... If I just went with a liquid DDX general purpose developer like the 1D11 powder. That is 16 rolls for the 2yr, think it is 2yr think the LC29 is 3yrs. While the 16/2yr is 4 per 6 months if you want a break in between you cannot cos the bottle of DXX does 16 rolls if you take a break, and the rest of the time you don't shoot the 16 together it'll expire. I haven't done the maths with USD figures but where I am it is $3.72NZ per roll for DDX and $1.79NZ per roll for ID11. In the USA DDX is $19US divide by 16 rolls = whatever. Power 1D11 is $6US divide 6 rolls.</p>