I don't live in Australia obviously but thought I would chime in. I don't like testing either so that is what I like about BTZS. I switched over last year. Now I don't have to do any testing because all of it was done up front. Before I did the BTZS testing, I was essentially "testing" every time I exposed and processed film because the exposure was approximate and the development was approximate. Over time I would tweak a little here, tweak a little there, and feel like I was making progress. In reality, I should have done the testing in the first place. The underlying science does not change and getting past it (with the testing) makes the creativity part much easier and the main focus. Now I have the proper tools to expose/develop TMAX 100 from ~N-2 to N+2 an all steps in between so my prints have improved a lot.
When I read the book, I liked the idea of it but thought I would be a year in the darkroom fussing around. However, all I did was purchase the "film test" from the View Camera Store (a sponsor on APUG). They sent me 5 sheets of TMAX 100 (you can order almost any extant film) that was pre-exposed to a step wedge. I processed each sheet for a different time in my developer and sent the processed sheets back to them. They used a calibrated densitometer to collect all of the data and generate all of the graphs as seen in the book. That is all I had to do and it costs $45. A workshop would be nice, unless you have a good science background and the time to study the system.
The point I am making is that if you are the person who does not like testing, then BTZS is exactly what you need. BTZS gets you past testing so you can focus on your photography with the data to pre-visualize your results better. (I do think that the film testing service is a great deal though and it saved me a lot of time.)
