Home made monobath?

[Dinis Figueira]

Hi guys.

I have a dilemma on film photography - it's getting expensive.

The nearest film development center is 30minutes away from my village and it's expensive. The cheapest development center in my country is 4 hours away from me and still not that cheap when there are many rolls of film (I like to shoot everything to get many perspectives of what I see).
I mainly shoot Ilford HP5 and APX 100 (Agfa).

Now, I wanted to start to develop my own film and scan it (with a flatbed scanner with proper DPi for it).
I already have the space to do it and I'm making a list of things I need for this process, but there's one problem in this. Time. It seems that it takes too much time for this process. Time and proper knowledge.

And both as a newbie and with little time I was wondering if I could resolve this problem with a homemade monobath?

What would be your idea guys?

Thank you!

 

[Neal]

Hello Dinis,

There is a current thread in the Darkroom Equipment section that you will find helpful.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

 

[pdeeh]

you'll need a lot more time and proper knowledge to get a monobath working properly.

developing film is straightforward. apug can make it seem impossibly complex and requiring a mountain of complicated appurtenances.

buy a tank reels developer and fixer.
follow the manufacturers' instructions.
be happy.

more information for beginners here: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[fdonadio]

You don't need a darkroom, only a dark bag (changing bag). Put film, reels and tank inside the bag; load the film on the reel; put the reel inside the tank; close the lid and you're good to go — open the bag and work normally under room light.

Use whatever clock as a timer. Pouring in and out is easy enough and you'll get better and better with time. Agitation is easy to learn too. I find it all easier (and safer) than frying an egg.

Cheap kitchen plastic graduates are precise enough for diluting photo chemistry — you don't need lab glassware. Just don't ever use them in kitchen again after using for chemistry.

Forget about monobath. Even in the coldest days, you'll take no more than 20 minutes to go through the whole process (dev, stop and fix). If using a larger tank, you can develop more than one roll at a time and save some. Washing will take some time, but if you do it with running water, just go do something else in the meantime! If you get an extra tank and reels, you can develop another batch while the first one is washing.


Cheers,
Flavio

 

[darkroommike]

Monobaths are always a compromise, maybe nice for fieldwork, but if you have the time for most monobaths, you have time for a fairly vigorous developer and a rapid fixer (which is what most monobaths are formulated from in the first place) and you will get more repeatable results.

 

[pcyco]

hallo

you dont need a dark bag. maybe you have a toilet without window. but e towel to th doorgap on the floor and work while sitting on the cover of the toilet. the rest like in the posts above

regards

thomas

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Actually monobath processing turns out to more expensive than conventional methods. AFAIK there is only one commercial monobath available at present and it is rather pricey. So you would have to buy the chemicals and mix your own. Then there is the opinion of Grant Haist an engineer at Eastman Kodak. He did some extensive experimentation and even wrote a book called "The Monobath Manual." His eventual conclusion is that it is just not worth the effort and expense. You certainly don't save any time or money over traditional 3 step processing..

 

[Dinis Figueira]

Aww... It seems I have to stop to take a picture of everything...

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Sometime in the 50's or 60's a monobath developing tank was sold. It was only a little bigger than a 35mm cassette. You exposed a 12 exposure roll of B&W film. After rewinding the film almost all the way back into the cassette you taped the leader to the outside of the cassette. You filled the tank with monobath, dropped the cassette into it and replaced the tank cover. Then using the longer end of the film spool as a knob and rotating it you opened and closed the coil of film. After processing you removed the cassette opened it and washed and dried the film. It was designed for people working in the field. No darkroom or changing bag was needed. It was a rather nifty concept. I can't say how well it worked but it was probably the only reason one would use a monobath. It's been a very long time but it may have been sold by Spiratone.

You might be able to make a similar tank from a short length of PVC pipe and two end caps. Drill a hole in the cap intended as the top and glue the other to the bottom. Since the film remains in the cassette until after processing the tank des not have to be light tight,

 

[Prof_Pixel]

Sometime in the 50's or 60's a monobath developing tank was sold. It was only a little bigger than a 35mm cassette. You exposed a 12 exposure roll of B&W film. After rewinding the film almost all the way back into the cassette you taped the leader to the outside of the cassette. You filled the tank with monobath, dropped the cassette into it and replaced the tank cover. Then using the longer end of the film spool as a knob and rotating it you opened and closed the coil of film. After processing you removed the cassette opened it and washed and dried the film. It was designed for people working in the field. No darkroom or changing bag was needed. It was a rather nifty concept. I can't say how well it worked but it was probably the only reason one would use a monobath. It's been a very long time but it may have been sold by Spiratone.

I still have one of those Agfa tanks in my basement that I got in the late 50s. It was fun to use.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I still have one of those Agfa tanks in my basement that I got in the late 50s. It was fun to use.

I forgot about the Agfa Rodinax tank. I too have one somewhere. The tank I was describing was different and small enough to fir into the the palm. Although both tanks could be used with monobaths in daylight. There is also the little Minox tank that can be loaded in daylight. I have one but never use it because you must break the increasingly rare Minox cassettes.

 

[darkroommike]

You can actually process a 24 exposure roll of film right in it's cartridge, or so I'm told. Use a small beaker for the chemicals and a pencil to agitate the film. I've read about this for years and I'm going to try it with my next film. Supposedly a 36 exp. won't work. not enough slack inside the cartridge.