My first attempt at developing film

[Kav]

So I gave developing my own film a go with a press kit. All and all for my first time it turned out ok. My two main issues were:

First off, I got into a hurry, and when I did my first wash with water I forgot to drain the water back out before I put in my developer. I could not figure out how I poured out twice as much developer as I poured in. Then it hit me and I said to myself "Oh crap..." But I felt I might as well see what I come up with. (The 12 shot film mag had jammed on me while we were flying. So I had to pull the dark side out and unjam it. So this film was suspect anyways.)

Secondly, I thought my developing tank for the 4x5 sheet film was a 1L tank. Turns out it's aout a 1.5L tank so I did not mix up enough developer or blix to fully coat the film. So the middle at the top of the tank got developer (see above) but no blix. But I still got usable negatives out of it. So I feel I'm not off to a bad start.

I don't have access to hot running water so I found a little griddle and a stainless steel serving dish. I used the griddle to heat the water in the SS dish thing for a warm bath to keep everything at the right temp and went from there. I have about 10 rolls of 120 film to develop in the next few days. That should go much better.

 

[Rick A]

Good, now that you have gotten the mistakes out of the way, things will only get better. I've been at this for the better part of 45+ years, and still screw up on occasion.

 

[Kav]

I decided to develop the 4x5 film I had shot during a memorial flight here. But I did not want to use 2 press kits to develop 10 sheets of film. So I added some water to the developer and blix to have enough to fill my developing tank. But because I had diluted the chemicals I took a SWAG for my developing times. I added about one minuet and the came out very good. I had 10 exposed negatives when I was done. All with good sharp detail. My first time getting every shot fired off and in-focus with the Speed Graphic.