Develop Individual 35mm Frames

guitstik said:

Use positive printing paper instead of film. Way easier to cut and load using a safe light with less worry about scatching the emulsion when processing.

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I've never worked with positive paper, but I might give that a try. What can you do with a small (2x2 in or less) sheet?

Vaughn said:

How about using a SS or plastic clip (used for hanging a whole roll of film to dry) and developing in a small tank (like a two-35mm roll developing tank). The other end of the clip could be on a short rod (or wood skewer or chopstick) that would keep the film suspended in the tank. Basically using the same method as 4x5 film in SS hangers.

Use several tanks dev -- stop -- fixer -- wash

Vaughn

PS -- Use just one tooth of the clip on a corner of the film

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That sounds like a nice little assembly line. If using a tank instead of a tray I thought about using a stainless steel paper clip in the last sprocket hole so I could easily submerge, hang (as you suggested), and agitate without touching the film. A second paper clip in the opposite corner may be needed if the film tends to float. Cheap, I know. Any downside to the versatile paper clip?

alipstadt said:

Matt, I was suggesting that you pop them from the mounts when fixed, still wet, putting them back in fix, and then proceeding to washing/clear. You might use another storage tray, putting holes at the bottom of each section and using that as a dryer, perhaps coupled with a gentle airflow.

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You think the mounts would trap a few drops of developer and/or stop? I didn't consider that. Once they go through the fix for a few minutes, a couple drops of developer wouldn't do any damage though, especially if I quickly put the "naked" frame back in the fix for a minute...right? I could be wrong about that. I'm still fairly new to film development. So far I've been lucky that every roll turned out good or very good. No huge mistakes yet, so I haven't had any of those "never again" learning experiences.

alipstadt said:

Oh, I was expecting to take a hacksaw to it to shorten it as needed. The reason I would want square is so I could lay it down on a flat surface.

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Of course, a hacksaw could make it the right size

wblynch said:

I would try to load the cut frames into a plastic developing reel. It should be easy enough to slide them into the grooves and run them around to the inside by their edges. Load them in like little train cars...

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I tried, and it doesn't work. Single frames easily fall out the side of the reel. I just tried again with strips of 5-6cm and they were possible although not terribly easy to load. Maybe I'll make a panoramic pinhole. That would require bigger mounts and of course bigger more conspicuous cameras though. Not ideal for this particular project but perhaps another one.

hi matt

i'm a little late to the party, but if it was me processing 1 frame at a time,
i would actually cut the frames ahead of time and make something
akin to a falling plate camera that just exposes 1 frame at a time.
it wouldn't be hard to make a camera like that, it would be like a box camera
that you have your frames in little metal septums ( or cardboard, or plastic or ... not )
and you shuffle the frames inside the camera like a grafmatic back or bag magazine ...
you get each frame exposed, and then in the darkroom you pull them out of the septum
to slide them into something like a FR tank 1 frame at a time ... and process them by rocking
the cube or stand developing them ...

its funny you posted this .. i was just thinking "wouldn't it be great" ... if kodak created a camera that was multi-media
sensore+flim, where you flipped up the sensors, and a frame of flim cold be exposed and flip the sensore down for the whole numeric thing .. kind of the best of both worlds that they seem to be forever trapped in,
not wanting to commit to just one ...

good luck !

If you're using ortho film, just keep the safelight on for another two minutes while you make sure there are no droplets to leave uneven development marks. If panchro, drop them in a tray of fixer, one by one. Honestly, I've not done this before - slide mounts are designed to keep slides flat and crap out, not for even development chemistry - but it seems like this would be your first gotcha. That's why I have ortho film in 35mm, 4x5, and 8x10: relaxed work or runthroughs for experimental stuff.

Use 35mm film cans as miniature processing drums. You can fill them with chemicals in the dark by submerging the open cans in a tack of chemicals then capping them before turning on the lights.

It occurs to me that dentists process (or they used to. Umm... maybe I'm overdue for a checkup) little rectangles of film for bite x-rays. On ebay I've seen a kind of hanger with 10 little clips for processing these in a rectangular tank like sheet film. This is what you need.

I also just saw this. Interesting idea.

I suppose that you could prepare very short rolls for yourself and just switch the rolls each time you have a new composition. You can probably make a roll as short as 8 frames or so and still get a decent wind. Apart from that you could just manually load a short film strip into place in the camera.

Okay here's another idea. Overexpose the first three shots on a roll. After you finish the roll and rewind it into the spool, just pull a bit of film out at a time and develop by inspection until you locate the beginning. Once you have that, you're set: the spacing for the subsequent frame will be fairly uniform. Shooting each important frame three times should ensure that you don't cut through something valuable.

A related idea that comes to mind is simply to shoot a sacrificial roll with your camera and measure the distances from the end of the roll to the frames (I suppose there would probably be too much error if you measure from the leader). If you shoot each frame three times then you should have plenty of room for error- one of each set of three should within your cuts. So then when you unload a roll you'd hold it alongside you reference and snip it carefully.

I have successfully developed short snippets of 35mm film in a beaker, that's not hard at all.

One other nutty thing I did was tape pieces of 35mm film to a glass plate, for use in an old camera that takes plates. That worked well enough.

By the way, the konica hexar AF supposedly has good enough registry that you can rewind mid-roll, change rolls, and then get back to where you were with no overlap. I don't know if that helps but it is interesting camera trivia. I guess some other cameras can do this too.

matt nalley said:

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Each camera will be as small as possible, hence individual 35mm frames. Think of a matchbox pinhole with only the matchbox, no canisters. Slow film + pinhole = loooooong exposures. Rather than sit around with my camera and an entire roll of film to take 1 shot I can stick a matchbox in an inconspicuous location and walk away to look for another shot. Repeat with 10-20 matchboxes, and then make my way back to the beginning to start collecting them several minutes/hours later.

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Whatever you do please do not do it in a Scottish shopping mall. If caught,you might have to run classes on innovative photography for rest of your life "behind large walls" with bars on windows

pentaxuser

You can get an Exacta camera. They have a film cutter built into it so you can shoot a frame and cut the film. In the Exacta's you can load the takeup in an Exacta take up cartridge so when you open the camera it will not subject the exposed frome to light. This made the camera popular with real estate agents and news media for some time.

David, being a dentist i recommend that you have regular check-ups! That said you can get film holders that hold one film, some that hold four and some that hold twenty. Just have the point go through the sprocket hole.

An alligator clip could work but would probably corrode from the chemicals. You could also make a hook from stainless steel wire to go through the sprocket hole.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/