please help me getting started with film developing

[fotohuis]

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To be complete the full log D curves for APX 400 (new) / Rollei Retro 400 in:

 

Rodinal (Agfa) 1+25, para-amino phenol, high acutance

D76 (Kodak) 1+1

RHS/AM74 (Amaloco) 1+7 phenidone/hydroquinon, semi-compensating

RLS/CG512 (CG-Suvatlar) 1+4 (24 degrees C.) metol type, ultra fine grain developer

 

http://www.mahn.net/DL_MAHN/CSRollei.pdf

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[vickersdc]

Here's a link that may help you in processing your first films...

 

http://creativeimagemaker.co.uk/course/view.php?id=2

 

Scroll down to topic 2: Beginners Series and you'll find a few articles about it.

 

Hope it helps.

 

David.

[junglehs]

Thanks for the link. Great site.

 

Al.

[rob_x2004]

Some interesting Rodinal APX400 discussion here.

With my 35SummiluxASPH I develop at 11min/20centigrade for 1+50.

It might go out a bit with other lenes and maybe it is a function of the soft water, contrasty lens and Australias harsh and contrasty light.

The results I got were very good, or appeared to be compared with what I have seen others post. I had pretty good shadow detail and not overgrained.

Agitations came back to six tilts to kick off then two tilts rather than full invert on the minute.

I cant believe anyone would rodinal APX(anything) thirty minutes a second time, unless it was for nail files.

Anyone?

[junglehs]

So i did it over the weekend. Developed 4 rolls of tri-x, with x-tol 6 min, stop bath, fixer 3min, kodak wetting agent for cleaning, then thorough rinse with water, then photoflo then another quick rinse.

 

My first impression: the chemicals are awesome. Everything comes out beautifully.

 

My big problem is the jobo tank and the 2 plastic reels. I had such a friggin hard time loading the reels in the dark. Film got stuck, then i tried it all over, than it got stuck again. Such frustration. The edges got bent. Ended up with lots of frames destroyed form sticking together. When all was done you could tell that the chemicals work perfectly, just the film is all messed up from loading. What a pain.

 

I have bought 40 rolls of tri-x. I am going to go through this process for the next 3 months and all the film. I am not sure though if its worth the hassle.

 

Any tips are highly appreciated.

 

Thanks guys for the tips in the past.

 

Greetings from a struggling man who is not yet willing to give up.

 

A.

[andybarton]

In my experience, the Jobo spools are buggers to load. Much more difficult than the Paterson ones. Unfortunately, the latter don't fit in the former tank, so when I do my E6, I just have to be very careful and patient.

 

Persevere, though! IMHO, it is worth the "hassle".

[junglehs]

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Persevere, though! IMHO, it is worth the "hassle".

 

I just wonder if I maybe should bring the rolls to a lab and have them make me contact sheets. I just had bad experiences with machine development. Scratches etc.

 

I guess it is worth the hassle if the end result is clearly better than the lab.

[semrich]

I don't know much about plastic tanks and reels, I read a post about how great Hewes SS reels are so I bought them and SS tanks for two 135 reels, sacrificed a roll and practiced until comfortable to do it in a changing tent and have had zero problems.

 

I started shooting MF and bought two reels (I have two tanks) and after some practice (just a little more difficult than 135) am comfortable with developing both formats.

 

I'm sold on SS reels and tanks, have never had the problems I read about plastic reels.

[Michael Hiles]

In my experience, the Jobo spools are buggers to load.

 

Same experience exactly. I got some joy by cutting the corners off the film before loading onto the Jobo reels. Not the easiest thing in the dark, but it made the Jobo reels acceptable. Minimized the square corners getting caught, which is the main issue. Otherwise it was horrible.

 

And the reels have to be bone dry. Otherwise disaster.

 

But persevere. It is worth the effort to get a technque down that works.

 

I also found that I had best success using my 5-reel tank for 2-3 rolls per time. I of course made sure that I had enough solution to fully cover the film, but the advantage was that the agitation was really effective. There was lots of room for the solutions to move about, meaning no eddies at sprocket holes or other picture destroying annoyances. Complete, random agitation is crucial, and this approach does it.

 

All this is mainly in the past. For esthetic reasons, I use almost exclusively XP2 which is done by the local lab. I scan as a substitute for contact sheets, and to catalogue the pictures, and then I make the occasional "exhibition" print in my darkroom.

 

And a little Kodachrome.

Edited March 30, 2009 by Michael Hiles

[fotohuis]

OK I am trained but:

 

15S for a 120 roll film in a Jobo 1501 reel,

30S for a 135-36 film in the same reel.

 

I do not cut the corners of the 120 roll film.

I cut the leader from the 135-36 film a bit round but never in the perforation.

 

Jobo 1501 reels have to load easy. For the 2501 (2500 system) even easier. But because I am doing inverse processing with a Heiland Tas film processor, I am using the 1510 and 1520 tank system. When I have a lot films the 1540 (=1510+1530). If your reel is damaged, bent or a lot of junk (Silver, wetting agent) on the plastic reel it's going to be difficult to have a smooth loading.

 

Test it with a junk film by light, then you can see what is happening.If it got stuck something is wrong and when you force a film on such a reel it's got damaged.

[kenneth]

Welcome to the wonderful world of home processing. You will not be disappointed. Check out the Ilford site they offer some excellent PDF download files on all topics of processing. I also have found this forum to be extremely helpful

 

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[junglehs]

SO here it is! My first self developed tri-x . Had to throw away 70% of my images because I messed up during developing. Anyway i will keep on going...i like the results.

 

Please do not comment on the artistic value of the image. I like the tones though.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Greetings,

Al.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[junglehs]

Oh no. The actual image looks a lot better that what i just posted. Anyway...gotta learn how to convert for the web.

[the.ant]

Congratulations!

It looks like you have watermarks there (for example upper right corner). If I understood correctly, you rinsed after the wetting agent, which does not make sense to me. I always wash (Ilford method) and then let the film bath for 60 seconds in distilled water with a bit of wetting agent, no rinse afterwards.

 

Try loading the film reels with a junk film at daylight to get a feeling for it. Personally I prefer metal reels (Kinderman is the way to go!). Tastes differ on that one, but if you don't like the plastik ones, maybe you can get your hands on some second hand Kindermans. However, I found it differs from film to film, tri-x works like a charm with Kinderman, Fomapan (or other thin film) I always find a bit annoying.

 

Anyways, congratulations on making this step, I also only started some months ago, it's great to develop yourself!

[junglehs]

Thanks for the reply, Tim. I used the Kodak wetting agent then I rinsed then I used photoflo and rinsed again. That was the info I gathered from the manuals and books I read. I think my bigger problem was that I did not swipe the film properly off. I need to get a sponge or something. The sponge I had prepared was a little rough so I did not use it. In fact I used toilet paper. Oh no! Haha.

[Guest Bernd Banken]

In my experience, the Jobo spools are buggers to load. Much more difficult than the Paterson ones. Unfortunately, the latter don't fit in the former tank, so when I do my E6, I just have to be very careful and patient.

 

Persevere, though! IMHO, it is worth the "hassle".

 

The trick is to cut the leaderend in daylight and get a gentle curve of the edges. In daylight I "load" the film into the Jobo plastic reels (it's the part of the film which is already exposed during camera loading. Then I move into the dark and load the rest - out of the unbroken cannister!

The weight of the cannister helps to untwist the film-portion and at the end of the film it's easy to pull the filmend out of the cannister because the fixing tape inside will give up.

 

So there is no hassle in the dark with the bedinning of the film and the spools.

 

BUT I'm afraid, my first trials with 120 film, it's paper sheet etc. will crank me up....

[junglehs]

Good Idea, Bernd. But 1 question: The film is rewound back into the canister before removed from the camera. How do you get a bit of the end out?

[Chrizzlie]

Good Idea, Bernd. But 1 question: The film is rewound back into the canister before removed from the camera. How do you get a bit of the end out?

 

Just don't rewind your film fully...

 

You can feel the "tongue" come loose from the sprocket when you rewind in your M - just stop there, take out the film and store it in a film container with the "tongue" bent backwards (this is how I can tell an exposed film from a new one even in darkness).

 

In the lab (or dark-bag for that matter) it pays if you round-cut the film for loading the reel as Bernd described.

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[Guest Bernd Banken]

Good Idea, Bernd. But 1 question: The film is rewound back into the canister before removed from the camera. How do you get a bit of the end out?

 

During rewinding you can "hear" the film in the cannister, because there is some resistance from the take up spool. When the tongue will leave the take up spool you'll hear a slight cracking sound. The secret ist to wind only a small part further, or in other words some turns (1..) so that the leader part is not fully slipped into the cannister.

I failed in this so I had to buy a cheap film-extractor from Hama or Ilford. This device can pull out the film leader by using two tounges which have to be put into the mouth of the cannister.

After some rolls it will never happen to you, you are trained....

 

Another tipp from the forum here is to hang the wet film in the shower in an angle so that the water will run to the sprockets and than at the edge down into the sink. That's it.

 

Happy shooting!

Bernd

[haris]

Same experience exactly. I got some joy by cutting the corners off the film before loading onto the Jobo reels. Not the easiest thing in the dark, but it made the Jobo reels acceptable. Minimized the square corners getting caught, which is the main issue. Otherwise it was horrible....

 

I just saw Bernd Banken post, and I am doing the same, cut corners and load only part of already fogged (fogged by loading in camera) lead of film in reel in light, go to dark and finish loading film in reels. Never had image fogged or light leak or simillar problems.

 

For 120 film it had to be done all in dark, but with practice it become no problem. And I often even don't cut corners of 120 film and manage to load reels without problems. Only problems I had few times were when try to separate film from glued band on 120 film (band which keeps together paper and film). I don't lioke to process 120 film with band on it. I have read people process films with band of film (just take paper from band, flip band and glue it back on film) but I don't like to do that. Few times I teared some of film, fortunatelly never on image part and had no probelms with film fall from reel guides. But, with time and practice I don't have those problems anymore.

Edited April 2, 2009 by haris