Develop-it-yourself: color slide film medium format and 35 mm film

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

Dear photographers,

I have a large amount of slide film Fuji provia 100f and 400x to develop this winter.
As I live in Belgium, I have been looking for a local shop to develop my slide film in a professional way.
There is the Hema shop, of course, which does still E6 film in a good way, I have been told.
I am waiting for some test results coming back from the Hema.

But, I am aware that developing it yourself - even when it is colour film and slide film in one film -
is still the best, if you do it correctly. There is no one to blame then, but yourself. The results are
as you developed it and the prices - for large amounts of slide film - are better, with all chemicals included.

Please, is there a photographer between you who develops color slide film her/himself in a professional way?
Can this person come back to me with clear information what is required to do so?
I have been informing myself about the process. I want to hear from you, how you think about it. How you experience this work.
I prefer to have the best results with the less money, but who does not.

Thank you in advance,
Best regards Teresa

AgX · Aug 11, 2013

Niet locaal, maar dan aan de professionele kant:

Jazz Colorlab, Vlaamsesteenweg 29, Brussel

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Aug 11, 2013

Steendam 59, Gent, Belgium
Website: http://www.fotoshopgent.be/

For map : see the link : http://www.lomography.com/more/photolabs/1507-fotoshop-gent

◦Does 35mm film development
◦Does 120 (medium format) film development
◦Does E6 film development
◦Does C41 film development
◦Does black and white film development
◦Does X-Pro film development

AgX · Aug 11, 2013

The Gent Labo only process themselves C-41 and RA-4 (on their Frontier machine). E-6 they would send to some other lab.

madgardener · Aug 11, 2013

First off, Welcome!!!

Not so long ago, I was where you are. I'm hardly at the professional level, but developing your own color film is not that hard. The most critical part is the temperature control, at least for C41. There are a lot of threads on developing your own film here on APUG. This one is my favorite: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

My setup for temperature control is a 2 gallon (~7 liter) plastic tub, with a cheap fish tank heater (tetra brand, to turn up the temperature, all I needed to do with it was pull off the knob, put it back at the beginning and keep turning it up), a cheap fountain pump, and 2 instant read electronic food thermometers that I had a friend calibrate with his color developing thermometer. It has trouble getting water up to the right temperature, but when I start with hot water, it maintains it just fine.

Since you live in Europe, you should be able to get the Fuji-Hunt chemicals with the separate bleach and fix, unlike here where all I can seem to get are kits with blix.

Hope this helps.

MartinP · Aug 11, 2013

Out of curiosity, how much film are you talking about and in what formats?

Hema seems perfectly adequate for 135, but do they accept 120 E6? In any case, all the film is sent out to a large commercial lab. For me here in NL it goes to Tilburg, but I have no idea if that handles Belgian jobs too. The results have been fine, though I only use half a dozen rolls per year and choose 'process-only'. From the reactions of the assistants in the shop, when they hand back the packages and I show them what is inside, they don't seem to get much E6 per week!

The old days, when closely controlled dip-and-dunk Q-Lab E6 processing was widely available, are gone. Many local shops/labs will either send the film out to a larger lab, or process it in a small developing-tank. In the latter case there can be no effective control of the process and one will not be sure of consistency from batch to batch, or lab to lab. On the other hand, these days there is perhaps less of a requirement to have perfectly consistent E6 as it is rarely the origin of a tightly controlled imaging chain.

If your batch of film is in formats handled by Hema (10x8" transparencies are certainly out of scope!) then send a test roll or two, with a couple of weeks between them, and go from there. Their large volume, relatively speaking, and process-controlled lab will be more consistent than a hand tank.

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

Well, thank you, madgardener.
I am aware that there are some more photo-chemicals available in Europe then in the USA.
And it could be the subject of another song of the Beatles, if we were mid' sixties.

I do know about the Fuji hunt Chrome, as I have been reading about Tetanol Colortec. The last one is less expensive, although none of them is
a real bargain. I like the description you just gave with the fish tank thermometer.

Best regards!

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

Bedankt voor de tip. Heb je zelf ervaring met de knowhow van deze winkel? Hoe tevreden ben je over hun werk?

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

I will develop more then 100 film rolls.
Hema is still 'on test': I am not yet comparing results.
It will depend on the one-week-in-between test rolls I got processed by them (by the labo).
35 film and 120 film is possible to develop, but as I said, I have no results in hands yet.

If the results are fine, I will still consider processing it myself.
By learning the skills, one can manipulate results, a thing a labo will not make possible.

Best regards

MartinP · Aug 11, 2013

More than a hundred rolls sounds like quite a project that you have shot! A long travel-trip perhaps?

The lab at Tilburg is, I think, the huge Fujifilm one - though Hema staff would not officially confirm that. If you approach the lab directly (not via Hema) they will offer any current E6 service you could think of, but would naturally also charge more than the prices via Hema . . . Tilburg is about 1 1/2 hours from Ghent so it doesn't seem too bad for delivery of the film rolls.

Most convenient would be a smaller, dip-and-dunk, closely process-controlled lab nearby to you - but I know of none, even in Brussels. If you do find such a lab, please let us all know!

Macodirect have 5ltr E6 kits in both the three and seven bath variants, if you decide to go that direction.

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

Yes, macodirect is an option to buy products from.
I know that Fujilab is behind the processing of Hema.
If I'm fine with the processing at Hema, I am fine with their prices, too.
I have no idea about other lab's in Belgium that are worth it.
Most of them are indeed becoming to small to develop for a good price.
So, there is something about developing it yourself.

MartinP · Aug 11, 2013

Good ! You are already well organised with the processing possibilities - of course, no sane person would shoot a hundred rolls of E6 without knowing what they are doing

teresa · Aug 11, 2013

That is right

madgardener · Aug 11, 2013

MartinP said:
Good ! You are already well organised with the processing possibilities - of course, no sane person would shoot a hundred rolls of E6 without knowing what they are doing

I wouldn't necessarily say that. If I had 100 rolls of E6, I'd be happy to shoot it and I don't have a clue what I am doing with it.

clayne · Aug 11, 2013

Both the Fuji and Tetenal 5L kits fit the bill and definitely will be cheaper than paying a lab. I recommend doing a bit of research on temp control methods first as that's going to be the main issue really.

Dr Croubie · Aug 11, 2013

madgardener said:
I wouldn't necessarily say that. If I had 100 rolls of E6, I'd be happy to shoot it and I don't have a clue what I am doing with it.

That's fine, I'll happily shoot 100 rolls of film when I don't having a clue what I'm taking pictures of...

madgardener · Aug 12, 2013

Dr Croubie said:
That's fine, I'll happily shoot 100 rolls of film when I don't having a clue what I'm taking pictures of...

Exactly! lol.

Robert Liebermann · Aug 17, 2013

There is a rack that will hold ~30 35mm rolls at a time for dunk-and-dip into an 8x10 tank (2 gallons)... As I also have a huge backlog because of inability to develop for several years, I'll be trying this this autumn (my other usual method, 2 4x35 tanks at once, would take forever with my ~200 35mm rolls and who knows how many 120s...

AgX · Aug 18, 2013

Teresa, I sent you a pricelist of a very reputable lab so you can compare price offers you might get from private or other workers.

Develop-it-yourself: color slide film medium format and 35 mm film

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