A Guide to Home B&W Developing

Well I've given this a go.. firstly, as this thread started over four years ago the "climate" has changed a bit. There's not as much available out there, even online the pickings are a bit slim. I had to mix and match and do without some things but its still quite do-able. Do note I'm only developing the film, then digitizing with an Epson V500 scanner.

Chemical wise all I could get my hands on locally were:
- Ilford Ilfosol 3 solution (or powder Kodak TMAX Developer but that seemed messy)
- Kodak Pro Indicator Stop solution
- Ilford Rapid Fixer
- No wetting solution at all, but I'm assured some "is coming soon"

All three chemicals were $45

Equipment was eBay and laterally thinking at Walmart:
- Kindermann stainless developer tank + stainless 35mm spool $15 on eBay
- Pyrex measuring cup; 2 cup size $7
- Three latch-top mason jars, 500ml each $6
- No name kitchen dial thermometer (-20 to +100 c range) $8
- No name kitchen timer $10

Three clothes pins and a hook for hanging the film, free from home. So the total is $91 for everything and it should be enough to last for 30 rolls of film.
You can re-use the Stop & Fixer a few times you get a lot of mileage from even a small 500ml bottle.

The cool thing is the guys who work at the photography store grew up working in labs or working for the local newspaper so they had some cool and handy tips which I found very helpful.

- Stainless steel spool and tank. They really couldn't stress this enough for ease of use, longevity and easy cleaning.. on four separate occasions from two separate salesmen I got this lecture.
- Dont bother to use a squeegee once removing film from the tank, run the wet film between your fore & middle fingers (the meaty part). Its just as effective and far less likely to scratch if there's impurities.
- Developing temperatures can have a 1-2 degree variation either side without really effecting developing time.. Speaking of developing time, close enough is good enough here too

Finally here's my observations..

1. Kodak instructions are Gallons and Quarts, Ilford is ml/litres. I prefer Ilford cos I'm a metric sorta guy.
2. As it should turn out, the final mix ratio of Stop solution doesnt seem to be critical, neithers the exposure time.
3. My spool was a bit short to take an entire 36 shot roll if you only take the leader off.. so cut off the leader plus a frames worth. Its OK, thats the bad bit

All up the film body, two SR lens' and developing kit/chemicals comes to $156 total. After this the only expense is the film which is $5-8.. so pretty cheap and a good way to spend an afternoon.

Edited by Tezzating - 19 November 2012 at 19:03

Tezzating wrote: ...I've read that the washing soda can be replaced by using baking soda heated to a certain level that I dont remember, which is handy cos I couldnt find washing soda anywhere

Funny, that's the part that has kept me from trying it as well. At some point I'll just break down and order some online.

There is enough information about developing films on the net, but not so much about exposing and developing your own prints. Any tips?
I do have all the needed chemicals and equipment.

B&W Film Developing Times | The Massive Dev Chart - select film and/or developer on the left side.

Just added the following link to the OP which may be of interest:

Ilford Youtube video "Processing your first black and white film" showing development process, including loading of spiral

Live and learn..........

I still had a roll of film in my camera (from ~6,5 years ago) and it needed ~6 more exposures to finish the roll. Went and took some images in the neighbourhood and got my developing kit out.

I had some older Ilfosol 3 developer left and it had become slightly darker. I remembered the same happened in the past to my concentrate of Rodinal so went ahead anywy.

WRONG !!!!

The film came out totally blank, also no marks of exposure # and film type in the perforated edge and no black patch at the start of the film.

So I guess the developer was totally wasted after standing in a partially filled but tightly closed bottle   



I had another exposed, but not developed, film from around the same time, and developed that in fresh/new Ilford ID11 and it came back perfect and the negatives are being scanned at the moment.

So bottom line, don't skimp on developer cost and try to use old stock, even when it's been stored in tightly closed bottles. It's the same as a failed memory card, but with no software to try and rescue something that might still be on there, the fixer totally removed any latent image that was there before.

Thanks Joe, the first result is up here.

About the lost film, I really can't remember what was on it (except for the 6 shots last week, which were just tests of my camera and to fill the roll). However leaving it in the camera for 6 1/2 years I must believe it wasn't really worthwhile and I didn't lose any masterpieces