How many rolls do you shoot before you develop?

Jim Jones · Mar 9, 2017

Sometimes after a week-long photo trip I accumulated enough B&W 35mm to fill several 8-reel tanks. Otherwise, developing however much that accumulated in a few days was a balance between efficiency and impatience.

lauffray · Mar 9, 2017

Usually 15-20 rolls, I can't be bothered to setup and mix chemicals just for a couple of rolls.
I'll develop more in one session if I was away on a trip. The most I've done was 30 rolls in one session, but that's because I ran out of drying space to hang them !

wahiba · Mar 9, 2017

It depends. For one roll of 35mm I have a choice of an Agfa rondax or a single 35mm Paterson. For 120 a Johnson or new Spanish made tank.
I have tried developing with more than one tank at a time in paralell and found it hard work. In future with more than tank I will do it serially. Takes more time but mistakes are less likely.

Gerald C Koch · Mar 9, 2017

RalphLambrecht said:
I usually develop after each shoot;however many rolls thay may be.

+1

I personally dislike marathon darkroom sessions. When you are tired it is easier to make mistakes! Then too some films like Ilford Pan F Plus have a poor stability for the latent image. So best to develop as soon as possible.

Alan W · Mar 9, 2017

Usually 1.Sometimes 2 and on rare occasions,a few when I'm coming back home having been away for a while.I can't wait to see what I've got and,unlike Winogrand,I like the emotional attachment I feel toward negatives.

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 9, 2017

Sometimes I process a roll immediately upon finishing it. Other times I'm 40 rolls deep, like when coming back from a trip.
Just do what suits your needs. I'd like to have more time to process all my film immediately; I usually run out of steam after about 20 rolls, though, so that's about as much as I will do in a day, four at a time (120 or 135).

Wallendo · Mar 9, 2017

I have a 2-reel metal tank, a 4-reel metal tank, and a 2 reel Paterson tank. Generally, I develop 2 reels at a time. I shoot a variety of films (because I enjoy doing that), so I often have to wait until I have 2 of a particular film type. I tried developing two tanks simultaneously and it did work, but was stressful enough that I no longer do that.

I try to not let film lay around more than a week or two, otherwise I forget details about the rolls such as camera, lens, or filter used.

TenSpeed · Mar 9, 2017

it varies week to week, sometimes im super caught up, other weeks i get behind and have several rolls waiting

Helinophoto · Mar 9, 2017

I think a sub-question should be added:
....."and what do you shoot?"

Some of shoot an awful lot!

Luckless · Mar 9, 2017

Helinophoto said:
I think a sub-question should be added:
....."and what do you shoot?"

Some of shoot an awful lot!

And there can be a fine line between shooting an awful lot, and shooting a lot of awful. I have more than a few frames that now fall into the "It seemed like a good idea at the time..." category.

Personally I would like to shoot more often, and have more frames to work with. For film work I only had around two dozen rolls of 120 last year. But I rather enjoy coming back through and looking over the catalog of old images, and at times worry that I've been overly conservative with my film work and have been overly quick to pass over a scene as 'not worth the film'.

Feelings on things change. Images that seemed good at the time might lose their shine, and images that felt like they fell flat on first inspection might have more details or interesting aspects later on that you didn't notice at first, so there is kind of an interesting balancing act between not 'wasting' film, but still experimenting and pushing boundaries.

Sirius Glass · Mar 9, 2017

Black & white I develop as I shoot.
Color, I save up the roll to get to 16 rolls which I will process myself, however if a lesser number would be sitting for months waiting for processing then I take them to Samys Camera to be developed.

Steve Goldstein · Mar 9, 2017

I never have a huge backlog. When I'm making images locally I'll often develop the film within a day or two of exposure. Of course if I'm traveling for a week or two I might come home with a number of rolls of 120 or a bunch of sheets of 4x5, but I always develop the film as soon as I can.

Quick-turn processing is one way for me to verify that my equipment is always working properly. Imagine how you'd feel if you went off on a lengthy trip, exposed a whole bunch of film, and came back to discover every exposure ruined because of something you could have detected and had fixed before leaving if only you hadn't put off developing that last roll of film exposed before the trip!

The above applies to my black and white work. On those occasions when I use color film I'll usually save it up (in the freezer) and send a bunch to Praus at one time. But it's always been exposed with the same bodies, lenses, meters, filmholders, etc., and I know that my equipment is very likely working fine because the black and white negatives exposed just before the color work came out ok.

Pioneer · Mar 9, 2017

There really is no standard for me. Processing takes time so it often waits until I have a free block of time.

I do try to develop as quick as possible. But, since I can shoot a lot of film in a short period it doesn't always work out that way.

MattKing · Mar 9, 2017

Pioneer said:
There really is no standard for me. Processing takes time so it often waits until I have a free block of time.

I do try to develop as quick as possible. But, since I can shoot a lot of film in a short period it doesn't always work out that way.

+1
I have no "not enough reels or tanks" excuse.
I probably have enough reels and tanks to load 40 rolls of a selection of 120 and 135 black and white film.
But if I had that many different tanks loaded, I would just get confused.

Pioneer · Mar 9, 2017

And priorities change.

The four rolls from this past weekend's birthday party will instantly move up the que in priority over rolls shot of last fall's beautiful colors and other things I thought were important a while back.

I have also been known to lose things from time to time. What that means is that I can find several rolls of film from 2014 or 2015 that haven't been touched yet.

kreeger · Mar 9, 2017

RalphLambrecht said:
I usually develop after each shoot;however many rolls thay may be.

+1 "I second that emotion... "

Agulliver · Mar 10, 2017

Pioneer said:
I have also been known to lose things from time to time. What that means is that I can find several rolls of film from 2014 or 2015 that haven't been touched yet.

Oh yes....years ago I shot a roll at a friend's BBQ using a Fujica Drive half frame camera.....found the film 10 years later behind the sofa - yes really. Developed it in 2014 having shot in 2004, and it looked gorgeous. It was a Paterson Acupan 100, which should be the old formula Fomapan 100.

mrosenlof · Mar 10, 2017

normally one or two. I have four reels for both 35mm and 120, and a four-120-reel sized tank. But normally, I develop right away. I usually scan shortly after developing film, but I use the scans basically as contact sheets. I print in the darkrrom and it's printing that can take months to get around to.

traveler_101 · Mar 18, 2017

Five rolls are sitting up there now and a 6th is in the IIIf ready to be exposed soon. I am waiting for Easter vacation to mix up a pack of XTOL and process the lot. The backlog is partly a consequence of the lack of time and that has been worse - I remember once having a backlog of 16 rolls - and partly intentional. Knocking off 6 or 7 right from start uses up fresh XTOL (or D-76 when I am using that) assuring that a larger percentage of the XTOL will get used up before I have to ditch it. I must say, however, if I had all the time I wish I had for this hobby, I would be shooting 2 or 3 times as many rolls and processing them every week - as well as setting up a darkroom and learning how to make my own prints.

Sirius Glass · Mar 18, 2017

traveler_101 said:
Five rolls are sitting up there now and a 6th is in the IIIf ready to be exposed soon. I am waiting for Easter vacation to mix up a pack of XTOL and process the lot. The backlog is partly a consequence of the lack of time and that has been worse - I remember once having a backlog of 16 rolls - and partly intentional. Knocking off 6 or 7 right from start uses up fresh XTOL (or D-76 when I am using that) assuring that a larger percentage of the XTOL will get used up before I have to ditch it. I must say, however, if I had all the time I wish I had for this hobby, I would be shooting 2 or 3 times as many rolls and processing them every week - as well as setting up a darkroom and learning how to make my own prints.

Rather than dumping the XTOL, now would be a good time for you to use replenished XTOL ==> even better results at a lower cost.

Ces1um · Mar 25, 2017

If it's b&w I develop as soon as I've shot a roll. I use a reusable monobath so it doesn't waste chemistry. I don't develop colour so I just drop the roll off when I've shot it.

How many rolls do you shoot before you develop?

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