Film Processing and
B&W and color. What do you guys do?
Here in Chicago area getting a roll processed and scanned would be between 20 and 30 dollars. Closer to 30. That is pretty expensive if you ask me.
I've have a roll of Ilford Pan F in my FM2 so long that I think my kids have grown up on the same roll. Seriously years. Really haven't shot it off because digital once you get the camera is pretty cheap.
I am thinking of starting to develop B&W. I know how. But then the scanning comes into play.
What do you guys do?
I started off using Caffenol as a developer, you can check out the thread I made called “coffee break”. It’s really easy and cheap to do, and the documentation for various film stocks is pretty good. Recently, however, I’ve started using D-76 in stock dilution, and that’s worked well too. My stop bath is just water, and my fixer is Kodak Professional Fixer, which is an easy-to-mix powder.
For color, I got the cinestill CS-41 kit, and that works well. From Alf the kit I got 14 rolls, extending the developing time to make up for depletion. It’s a hassle to have to keep them at temp though.
I was gifted an Epson V600 which I use for scanning and although its probably not as sharp as DSLR or higher end scanners, it works well enough for my purposes also useful to have for documents, or non transparent stuff such as instax.
I’d say that developing yourself is worth it, especially in the longer term. There’s an initial investment in a daylight tank, containers, funnel, measuring beaker, dark by, etc but within 10 rolls you’ll almost certainly break even. I also quite enjoy it too!
I also use the Cinestill c-41 for my color. It was great for me as I had never developed film before that and it has an easy enough workflow. I bought a Patterson tank, a dark bag, thermometer, containers for chemicals, the chemicals and a couple other random things for under $100. With the cost of developing it pays for itself if you shoot enough film. The chemicals obviously have to be repurchased but the other stuff is good to go.
I haven’t done B+W yet, but cinestill offers a really inexpensive and easy developer for that as well so I think that’s the route I will go.
For scanning it can be tedious but using your camera works pretty well. If you don’t have a lens that will focus close enough to cover most of the frame with the film then a cheap extension tube attached to most lenses would do the trick. A dedicated scanner probably presents a faster workflow, but I haven’t invested in something like that yet.
I've developed quite a bit of B&W in the last few years, no color though. So far I have used DF96 monobath and Adox Adonal (Rodinal), the monobath is a very quick, simple way to develop film. Just pay close attention to temperature and agitation, those elements matter much more than time with DF96, in fact, as long as you don't undershoot timing, it's practically unimportant. Go a minute or two over if you want, doesn't make a difference.
Rodinal is a very flexible developer with a lot of character. A strong dilution like 1:25 yields contrasty, sharp images, while something like a half hour or full hour stand development evens out contrast, can save bad exposures to a degree, and can even be done the same way regardless of the film or film speed. I like both options, but Rodinal lasts a lot longer than DF96. You can get a lot of rolls out of DF96 but it will go bad if it's opened and not used within a period of time between about 3-6 months.
