Opinion about developing black and white film.

[Pyrogallol]

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I understand that though HCB did his own printing in the early days, he was not very good at it.

[01af]

Don't (as in: DO NOT!) send your B/W film to a commercial lab. If you don't want to develop your own film then find a person who does it for you manually and with dedication as if it was his own film. Otherwise, do it yourself.

Colour film is a different story. Send it to a good lab; they will do the processing more precisely than you can.

[Aryel]

As mentioned earlier in the thread both are viable options. If you find a good lab, it will be consistent and you can adjust your film stock and shooting habits to get very good results. You win convenience at the expense of cost ($) and flexibility. If you process your own film, you have way more options. It all depends on your preferences. Explore both, you do not even need to choose. Only way to find out is to try!

 

18 hours ago, 01af said:

Don't (as in: DO NOT!) send your B/W film to a commercial lab. If you don't want to develop your own film then find a person who does it for you manually and with dedication as if it was his own film. Otherwise, do it yourself.

Colour film is a different story. Send it to a good lab; they will do the processing more precisely than you can.

Sorry, I could not resist. This negative was processed by a lab and printed at home. So don't? 😁

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Edited March 15, 2023 by Aryel

[Eclectic Man]

I develop B&W at home, and send colour off to the professionals.  Having recently taken up 4x5 sheet film, colour film like Provia 100F comes in at around £10 per shot (purchase and dev only).  With B&W I can develop 8 sheets in one seat of pore-mixed chemistry.  (I saw a video where the presenter stated that the chemistry was designed to process two sheets of 8x10 film, 8 sheets of 4x5 film or the equivalent area of 35mm B&W film.)  

I got back some nicely developed Provia 100F from the UK company the-darkroom.co.uk recently.

[Herr Barnack]

On 3/14/2023 at 2:50 PM, 01af said:

Don't (as in: DO NOT!) send your B/W film to a commercial lab. If you don't want to develop your own film then find a person who does it for you manually and with dedication as if it was his own film. Otherwise, do it yourself.

Colour film is a different story. Send it to a good lab; they will do the processing more precisely than you can.

I'm in agreement with @01af 100%.  Develop black and white yourself at home.  It is a simple process and you will get far better results than if you send it to a lab.

In my experience, that applies to C41 and E6 film as well, both of which I have developed in my kitchen sink with excellent results.  With color film, you have to maintain the temperature more tightly than with B&W.  It's not that hard to do.

The biggest down side to do it yourself film developing is that it is time intensive when you have 20 or so rolls to develop.  It's worth the effort, though to get high quality results.

 

[250swb]

On 3/17/2023 at 6:05 PM, Herr Barnack said:

 

The biggest down side to do it yourself film developing is that it is time intensive when you have 20 or so rolls to develop. 

 

I would just add that unless you've been on holiday and accumulated a lot don't wait to develop film, one roll or two rolls at a time keeps things moving along. It's false economy spiritually to store up big tasks.

[Bobonli]

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I like to reuse and recycle so I'd like to use this thread to ask a couple of related questions:

1. Thoughts on buying an all-in one starter kit to develop B&W versus buying the components individually.

2. Thoughts on 1-step chemicals, like that sold by Cinestill, versus the "traditional" multi chem process

I developed my own stuff years ago. Moved away from film and tossed everything. Back then I bought everything individually, not sure that's still the best way to go. My plan was to take a developing class at the not-so-local community darkroom to refresh my skills then have at it. Use the community darkroom when I'm ready to learn how to print.

[Tom R]

3 hours ago, Bobonli said:

I like to reuse and recycle so I'd like to use this thread to ask a couple of related questions:

1. Thoughts on buying an all-in one starter kit to develop B&W versus buying the components individually.

2. Thoughts on 1-step chemicals, like that sold by Cinestill, versus the "traditional" multi chem process

I developed my own stuff years ago. Moved away from film and tossed everything. Back then I bought everything individually, not sure that's still the best way to go. My plan was to take a developing class at the not-so-local community darkroom to refresh my skills then have at it. Use the community darkroom when I'm ready to learn how to print.

In reverse order: I have used Cinestill for a variety of commonly used B+W films. It's fine for traditional grain (cubic grain) films, assuming you keep good records and add fifteen seconds or so per each roll you process. It's more problematic for "modern" (T-Grain and Delta, for example) films. I no longer use it, however, because I find that I have much more control with single bath developers, such as Claytons F76+ (this is an easy to use versatile developer that handles both traditional and modern B+W films). For example, Kodak films prefer five seconds/inversions or so very 30 seconds whereas Ilford films prefer 10 seconds every minute agitation protools. Or, I can vary times/dilutions to add a little more control to the development process. I'm sure others on this forum will bring their own experiences to this particular matter ... .

That leaves "starter kits:" I have never used them. The first thing that comes to mind is how I use different fixers: neutral fixers for "traditional films" and "rapid fixers" for "modern emulsions." All freshly fixed films are given a two minute bath in hypo clearing agent and (with rare exceptions) with the Ilford three changes of water (again within a few degrees C) with 5, 10, and 20 inversions per cycle. A final treatment with fresh PhotoFlo mixed in distilled water---hang and dry in a dark, dry environment and you're done.

At the end of the day, I'd say beware of "false" savings. The cost of most chemicals are much lower than even budget films. Mix the first three baths, developer, stop and fixer, with distilled water. Keep temperatures within 1 degree C, if possible. Keep copious notes---no exceptions. Frequently check your fixer. With rare exception, I discard any partially filled bottles of developer after six weeks or so.

Strive for repeatable results. All negatives are stored in archival film sheets in a cool, dry and dark place. I place mine in three-ring binders that are labeled. 

[250swb]

9 hours ago, Bobonli said:

I like to reuse and recycle so I'd like to use this thread to ask a couple of related questions:

1. Thoughts on buying an all-in one starter kit to develop B&W versus buying the components individually.

2. Thoughts on 1-step chemicals, like that sold by Cinestill, versus the "traditional" multi chem process

I developed my own stuff years ago. Moved away from film and tossed everything. Back then I bought everything individually, not sure that's still the best way to go. My plan was to take a developing class at the not-so-local community darkroom to refresh my skills then have at it. Use the community darkroom when I'm ready to learn how to print.

If you already know what you need buy the separate components, a starter kit is a great idea for a complete novice but you'll probably want a larger developing tank than comes in the kit, larger mixing jugs, etc. 

Some people get along fine with one-shot developers such as Cinestill, I personally hate the look it gives. If you are getting back into film isn't experimenting part of the fun, and it's very easy to try a few different developers and decide which you like best. You're making decisions for yourself and not following a one-size-fits-all approach. As for doing a photography course I think you'll find developing film is like riding a bike after many years, it all comes back to you, but it's a discipline and you may need to refresh yourself with a YouTube video. Certainly printing is worth doing a course, but in the meantime you could also look at scanning your film if you have a suitable digital camera.

[hansvons]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:34 PM, Bobonli said:

I like to reuse and recycle so I'd like to use this thread to ask a couple of related questions:

 

The Jobo starter kit including a 2-roll dev tank makes sense. Also, get these compressible bottles for the developer and fixer to get rid of most of the air in the bottle because oxygen cuts down the developer’s lifetime considerably. You will need a proper thermometer. 

One-shot developers do not get the best out of your negatives. The results will be overly grainy. There’s a reason for the separation of development and fixing.
Rapid fixers work for old-school emulsions such as Double-X and tabular-grained stocks like Ilford’s Delta series. 500 ml last for about 5 rolls if you adjust the fixing time from 3 min onwards by 30 seconds for each subsequent roll. 

I defaulted to Xtol/Adox XT3 diluted 1+1. This is an environment-friendly low grain but sharp and box speed-obtaining developer. It works nicely with classic stocks and modern stocks. The results I’m getting with Delta 100 are truly stunning.

I develop at 24C* because I fancy getting better results (probably wrong. But dev times are shorter). The right timing and temperature in B&W is crucial for best results. But sloppiness won't be punished as severely as with colour development. 

Doing home dev leads often to better results than commercial lab development besides the reduced costs.
 

 

[Tom R]

1 hour ago, hansvons said:

The Jobo starter kit including a 2-roll dev tank makes sense. Also, get these compressible bottles for the developer and fixer to get rid of most of the air in the bottle because oxygen cuts down the developer’s lifetime considerably. You will need a proper thermometer. 

One-shot developers do not get the best out of your negatives. The results will be overly grainy. There’s a reason for the separation of development and fixing.
Rapid fixers work for old-school emulsions such as Double-X and tabular-grained stocks like Ilford’s Delta series. 500 ml last for about 5 rolls if you adjust the fixing time from 3 min onwards by 30 seconds for each subsequent roll. 

I defaulted to Xtol/Adox XT3 diluted 1+1. This is an environment-friendly low grain but sharp and box speed-obtaining developer. It works nicely with classic stocks and modern stocks. The results I’m getting with Delta 100 are truly stunning.

I develop at 24C* because I fancy getting better results (probably wrong. But dev times are shorter). The right timing and temperature in B&W is crucial for best results. But sloppiness won't be punished as severely as with colour development. 

Doing home dev leads often to better results than commercial lab development besides the reduced costs.
 

 

All reasonable ... I would, however, check with other sources re: the efficacy of compressible bottles. I do not recall where, but at least one credible source (a paper comparing the shift in pH in various D-76 formulations?) found that accordion-style storage bottles performed poorly (i.e., encouraging faster oxidation) compared to tightly stoppered brown glass 1 liter bottles.