Tutorial How to develop your first B&W film.

David_Mug said:
The first time I tried to develop a film I was forced by my mother to work on a picnic table in the middle of the lawn. She would not allow me to bring 'chemicals' into the house. I tried to explain that most of the contents of her cleaning cupboard were far nastier than any of my photographic stuff but she would have none of it.
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I have that discussion with my OH at regular intervals! I suspect if I developed C41 my claim that my chems are much less harmful than her chems might be a bit less true!
 
ChrisR said:
Thermometers... I have a very robust thermometer in my "dev kit". The main problem is that it is VERY slow to adjust to the temperature. This makes getting the water to 20 C, either by adding warmer water (as now) or cold water (the occasional summer warm spells) very time-consuming. Does anyone have any recommendations for a faster reacting thermometer? When I search just now for digital thermometers I mostly seem to get ones for people, with restricted range! (Little known side effect of Covid!!!)
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Anyone?
 
I can't help. I've used the same Paterson certified mercury thermometer since the 1960s. It's fast acting and accurate. Being paranoid about breakages, I have two spares just in case. Mercury reacted faster than spirit filled ones. I have never used a digital thermometer as far as I recall for anything.
 
ChrisR said:
Thermometers... I have a very robust thermometer in my "dev kit". The main problem is that it is VERY slow to adjust to the temperature. This makes getting the water to 20 C, either by adding warmer water (as now) or cold water (the occasional summer warm spells) very time-consuming. Does anyone have any recommendations for a faster reacting thermometer? When I search just now for digital thermometers I mostly seem to get ones for people, with restricted range! (Little known side effect of Covid!!!)
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Sorry Chris, I had intended to reply, and then promptly forgot.

I use a digital thermometer - it is listed as a meat probe thermometer, but reads from (I think) -50C to +250C. It is fast to respond to changes, and was cheap (about £10-£15 if I recall).
 
Boots said:
Sorry Chris, I had intended to reply, and then promptly forgot.

I use a digital thermometer - it is listed as a meat probe thermometer, but reads from (I think) -50C to +250C. It is fast to respond to changes, and was cheap (about £10-£15 if I recall).
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:agree:

This is the one I use (Amazon link, £6.50)
 
@ChrisR The TP101 digital thermometer I routinely use is available from Amazon for £5.59 (search PPpanda thermometer - same model as @Harlequin565 just different label). Some other similar ones have a blue backlight which is a pain when actually using in a darkroom. However I always do routine sanity checks on all my digital thermometers against my certified lab thermometer. One digital changed from being only 0.8°C low at 20°C to being 6.8°C low across the range 0-100°C overnight.
 
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I had a digital kitchen thermometer that was pretty accurate but it stopped working so I bought exactly the same model and it was several degrees out at 20C and even worse at 38C so as @dmb says do check any digital. I use a paterson spirit thermomoter for 20C (covers around 10-30 IIRC) and it seems to react quickly enough, having tried all sorts of thing for 38C I splashed out on a https://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/kaiser-precision-thermometer-1740-p.asp becuase I got fed up with no two cheaper thermometers giving the same reading. Even a digital medical thermometer was found to be reading incorrectly.
 
Ah, thanks folks, I do have a digital meat thermometer that I never thought of using! I'll give it a whirl next time I have a dev session... and check it against the analogue one to be sure...
 
ChrisR said:
Ah, thanks folks, I do have a digital meat thermometer that I never thought of using! I'll give it a whirl next time I have a dev session... and check it against the analogue one to be sure...
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Works a treat! And the meat thermometer was spot on against the analogue one, just 20 times faster. Thanks folks...
 
ChrisR said:
Works a treat! And the meat thermometer was spot on against the analogue one, just 20 times faster. Thanks folks...
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i used a digital food thermometer for a while as an alternative to spirit filled ones as I am hopeless at keeping glass ones in one piece.

It was accurate , and , I found, easier to read at a glance, however it died a death just as quickly as previous thermometers when the business end containing the electrics threw a wobbler when it came into contact with liquid!:wideyed: :LOL:

I’ve resorted back to glass spirit filled .....three of them in fact so as to have back up supplies :oops: :$
 
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Peter B said:
Just wait until your wife discovers you're using the meat thermometer on your "chemicals" ..................... :eek::)
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I'll try to explain that the chemical in question is di-hydrogen oxide, only generally fatal in large quantities... which might then be coming my way!
 
TIP: sleeving 135 film

OK, maybe this is a bit OT, but devving film does usually mean sleeving it. I've always had troble sleeving my 135 film. Since I usually dev in the afternoon (not sensible to do it when my OH is in the house), it gets around 4 hours to dry before it has to be cut and sleeved. Sometimes I've spent 5 minutes trying to get one strip of film into its slot!

The last couple of films have been much easier though. I just don't know how I didn't think of this before but: I've got a nice smooth metal 12" ruler, just wide enough to fit in one slot. I pushed it ino the second slot from the bottom, until a bit was sticking out the other side. The ruler kept the sleeve flat, making it much easier to slide the film strip into place, and also gave me an easy way to hold the sleeve still while inserting the strip.

It's possible the rest of you don't have the same trouble with sleeving film; my hand doesn't work as well as it once did, which might contribute to my problems here. But in case some of you are experiencing problems sleeving, I hope this tip perhaps makes it easier.
 
With 35mm film (sleeved in 6 sets of 36 for 36 exposures) I used to curve the film slightly to make it narrower as I started the push. I think it may depend on the sleeves used; these were glassine Paterson ones.
 
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In the old days of film only, I had a dark room here at home in Australia , I had become in my opinion quite proficient and enjoyed the process. In 1990 my wife and I spent a year in the UK , Hedge End to be precise . I found out about a place in Southampton where all dark room facilities were available to the public for a reasonable cost I made use of it many times and came home to Australia with a lot of negatives and did some B&W printing. I wonder if the business is still there
Thank you for reading this possibly boring contribution.
 
Mare of a start to the dev session today. I somehow got flustered right at the start, loaded my canister of FP4 into the Rondinax, attached the strap that pulls it in, lid on and wind away. From the start it didn't feel right, getting stiffer and stiffer. Once it got to the end, I used the little guillotine to cut it, but it was still incredibly stiff to turn. That was when I noticed I'd left out the little doovery that guides the film into the spiral grooves!

I thought of just carrying on, but eventually put the whole lot into the dark bag, pulled the film out, making a roll of it, put the doovery in, and wound it back in using my fingers to give some tension. Seemed to have worked, AFAICS.

After I'd put the dev solution in, luckily I spotted that the next chemical in line was Fixer, to be followed by Stop! Luckily I was able to switch those around.

Two films, which is my absolute limit. Reminds me, I'd better start cutting and sleeving them!
 
I need advice on devving an unknown, probably long-expired roll of C41 (probably 100 ISO), taken at EI 100, in HC-110 (or else FX-39 II)...

I had a problem with my LX the other day (which incidentally resulted in losing ALL the photos from a group outing to see the deer at Charlecote Park). First, not all of the first film loaded into my Rondinax, and when I removed the cassette at the end of developing, before I'd realised what had happened I'd pulled all the rest of the film out of the can! Tehn the next film was entirely blank except for the first frame, which was black. I made a rather hasty diagnosis of "Help!!! My LX has died!!!". However, when scanning the first film (Kentmere 400), I found a light bar across the last frame; the bar coincided with two puncture marks (different separation than my film clips), so I think this was a manufacturing fault in the Kentmere. And a little reflection suggested that I might simply have mis-loaded the second film in the field (it's happened before). Anyway, I had this random short roll of C41 from my only go at Emulsive's Secret Santa, and decided to use that, but I don't want to send it off for C41 processing. I mainly want to know that the frame separation etc is OK, so I'm not too worried about final quality, although it would be nice to get something usable.

Massive Dev Chart gives 5:30 for XP2 at EI400 in HC-110 B, by way of guidance. They also suggest 12 minutes for FX-39 II 1+9 for XP2 at EI 200. Those are the only two devs I've got.

A guy called Ralph Brandi on Mastodon has suggested:"One option I use for unknown films is the one dubbed 'The Ansel Method”'by the All Through a Lens podcast, where I first heard about it. Supposedly Ansel Adams would develop any unknown film in HC-110 1:90 for 18 minutes, agitating every three minutes." Someone else suggested Rodinal 1+100 stand dev for an hour which is often suggested for unknown films. The trouble is I've only got the Rondinax or my Lab-box, so 1+90 or 1+100 are out if I'm to use 6 ml of syrup as recommended. I could do 1+99 with 5 ml of syrup I guess, but not 1+125 which is what I see for stand dev in MDC... I guess trying the Ansel Method with 5 ml of syrup might be OK, in the circumstances.

A guess at timings for dilution B (1+31) or E (1+47) would be really nice! Any suggestions?
 
ChrisR said:
A guy called Ralph Brandi on Mastodon has suggested:"One option I use for unknown films is the one dubbed 'The Ansel Method”'by the All Through a Lens podcast, where I first heard about it. Supposedly Ansel Adams would develop any unknown film in HC-110 1:90 for 18 minutes, agitating every three minutes." Someone else suggested Rodinal 1+100 stand dev for an hour which is often suggested for unknown films. The trouble is I've only got the Rondinax or my Lab-box, so 1+90 or 1+100 are out if I'm to use 6 ml of syrup as recommended. I could do 1+99 with 5 ml of syrup I guess, but not 1+125 which is what I see for stand dev in MDC... I guess trying the Ansel Method with 5 ml of syrup might be OK, in the circumstances.
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I've just re-read the HC-110 Resource Page, and he refers to Ansell's 18 minute dilution as G (1+119). The fact that it works for Ralph at 1+89 suggests nothing here is critical!

https://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/ near the bottom under "Unusual Uses"
 
I'm still working my way through all the topics on this forum - they are very extensive. However I think this is the place for a comment on developing Ilford B&W films. this came from a discussion I had with Ilford's tech department perhaps 5 years ago when I developed a film according to their data inside the outer carton of the film. Their response was actually quite informative in that when they have these boxes printed they do so in the millions and will take a while to use them up.. It is quite possible that the data printed inside the box was old data because the film has been tweaked or they found there was a problem with the times. The same applies to data on the Massive Development Chart which is not directly connected to Ilford, or the development times included with bottles or packets of developer the data may change.

The only reliable source of information is from the actual Ilford website where they publish an up to date list of times/dilutions. They were not responsible for data provided by other companies selling their own brands of developer. https://www.ilfordphoto.com and search or simply google Ilford Development Chart. It covers all current Ilford films and developers but also includes information on a few non Ilford concoctions.
 
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I've not deved anything for a good while but I never had any issues using the time listed by the dev makers. I would often tweak the times anyway to lower or raise contrast.
 
Rodinal said:
I'm still working my way through all the topics on this forum - they are very extensive. However I think this is the place for a comment on developing Ilford B&W films. this came from a discussion I had with Ilford's tech department perhaps 5 years ago when I developed a film according to their data inside the outer carton of the film. Their response was actually quite informative in that when they have these boxes printed they do so in the millions and will take a while to use them up.. It is quite possible that the data printed inside the box was old data because the film has been tweaked or they found there was a problem with the times. The same applies to data on the Massive Development Chart which is not directly connected to Ilford, or the development times included with bottles or packets of developer the data may change.

The only reliable source of information is from the actual Ilford website where they publish an up to date list of times/dilutions. They were not responsible for data provided by other companies selling their own brands of developer. https://www.ilfordphoto.com and search or simply google Ilford Development Chart. It covers all current Ilford films and developers but also includes information on a few non Ilford concoctions.
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Welcome! My only advice is stay away from The Lounge and Hot Topics sections of the forums
 
I use quite a bit of Kentmere 100. Recently I was quite surprised to notice that the Massive Dev Chart development time for Kentmere 100 at EI 100 is for a temperature of 22C, and is consequently a bit shorter than it should be for the more standard 20C. Looking at Harman's film processing chart, the IlfoTec HC time (which should be the same as for Kodak HC-110) for Kentmere 100 at EI 100 as 6m 30s, rather than the MDC time of 5m 45s at 22C.

I had previously been using the MDC time but devving at 20C!
 
ChrisR said:
I use quite a bit of Kentmere 100. Recently I was quite surprised to notice that the Massive Dev Chart development time for Kentmere 100 at EI 100 is for a temperature of 22C, and is consequently a bit shorter than it should be for the more standard 20C. Looking at Harman's film processing chart, the IlfoTec HC time (which should be the same as for Kodak HC-110) for Kentmere 100 at EI 100 as 6m 30s, rather than the MDC time of 5m 45s at 22C.

I had previously been using the MDC time but devving at 20C!
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I used to use MDC exclusively when I first started dev'ing film as I'd bought Suprol Universal developer (it was dirt cheap 5 or so years ago) and that was the only place that had any times for Suprol. Even then a lot of films weren't covered for Suprol so I'd often have to guesstimate a time based on the more mainstream developers.

These days I mainly use ID-11 and usually go with whatever times Ilford/Kentmere state inside the film box (Kentmere is my mainstay b&W film). I'll consult MDC if I've done something unintentionally like shot 400 at 100 in error.
 
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auntiemaryscanary said:
I used to use MDC exclusively when I first started dev'ing film as I'd bought Suprol Universal developer (it was dirt cheap 5 or so years ago) and that was the only place that had any times for Suprol. Even then a lot of films weren't covered for Suprol so I'd often have to guesstimate a time based on the more mainstream developers.

These days I mainly use ID-11 and usually go with whatever times Ilford/Kentmere state inside the film box (Kentmere is my mainstay b&W film). I'll consult MDC if I've done something unintentionally like shot 400 at 100 in error.
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Turns out I should have been checking the time for K100 at EI 200 (8:00 rather than the 6:30 I used), as after the devving was done I noticed "200" written on the back of the film tab! I finished this film a few weeks ago, and it's been on the shelf since then for various reasons, which is why I didn't remember.

Scanned the film last night; quite a lot of it looks very low key, but not necessarily all bad for that!
 
Welcome to the forum Richard. There's a lot of useful info in the Film & Conventional (F&C) category. Hope you stick around.
 
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