Easiest B&W slide kit to use?

[dbrown57]

Good evening, I like developing and printing in my darkroom but it takes sooo long to print things and I can barely keep up with films I have shot. 120 is OK, usually shoot a Fuji GA645 so its only 15 negs to print but when I shoot 35mm I end up with so many to print. So, I thought I might have a try at B&W Slide film - but what is the easiest kit to use? I dont shoot a lot but with son, daughter, partner and nephew could probably shoot 8 films in 6mth so could bulk develop them. Thanks in anticipation David

 

[Samu]

The process is pretty standard, so I don´t think there is a big difference between kits by different manufacturers. I´ve been using Foma kit, which has never failed. Bellini kit has a chemical reversal bath, if you think that re-exposure by light is hard (which it is not). I would suggest buying any kit readily available where you live.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I imagine if you are hand developing B&W reversal movie film that chemical fogging might hold some charm.

 

[armadsen]

I've only developed B&W slides twice, both times with the Adox Scala kit using Adox HR-50/Scala 50 film. The first time was a complete failure due to underbleaching. I followed the instructions which say to bleach for 4 minutes with continuous gentle inversion. The slides came out mostly black. There's a step to check and rebleach but I didn't really understand what I was looking for when checking the film. For the second roll I did 6 minutes of continuous normal (moderately vigorous) inversion and got beautiful results.

I think if I were shooting 120, I'd try the Adox kit with Rollei Retro 80s or RPX25 (possibly the same film?) since they're on a clear base and available in 120. HR-50/Scala 50 is basically the same emulsion as those (Aviphot 80), but not available in 120 right now. Foma R100 is also not available in 120 as far as I know.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

It is not difficult to assemble your own reversal processing kit and it gives you more felxibility than a kit. You could use a paper developer like Ilford PQ Universal or Dektol as the first and second developer. A commercial fixer (such as Ilford Rapid Fixer) could be used as the fixer. Potassium permanganate makes an excellent bleach. Sodium/Potassium Bisulphate can be used in place of Sulphuric Acid. Rest of the chemicals are easily obtainable.

https://www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/REVERSAL-180619.pdf

 

[dbrown57]

Raghu - looking at the Ilford instructions I presume sodium/pot bisuplhate are to make up Solution B - what strength would you make up and what are the handling precautions to use?

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Bisulphate is used a safer alternative to Sulphuric acid in the preparation of the reversal bleach. Bleach needs to be acidic to be effective else it might not work or work very slowly and hence the use of Bisulphate.

1 ml of concentrated Sulphuric acid can be replaced with 4.42 g of Sodium bisulphate (anhydrous) for every ml of concentrated Sulphuric Acid. Ilford recommends using 10 ml of concentrated Sulphuric Acid in the bleach. So use 44.2 g of Sodium bisulphate.

Sodium bisulphate is a crystalline salt. It can be handled easily with a spoon. I wear the usual nitrile gloves while handling it. When bisulphate is dissolved in water as per Ilford's instructions, the result is a ~2% Sulphuric acid solution which is way less dangerous than concentrated Sulphuric acid but I would be careful to avoid spills on the skin or the eyes.