Newbie-Developer questions

[Siggybottom]

Hi!
Today I'm going to develop my first roll of 120film, and I'm so excited.
I began my photography-hobby with digital (around 2006), but the feeling of developing my own film is way more appealing to me now than shooting digital.
It kinda brings the feeling of doing a craft instead of just "ah, I'll fix it in photshop".

Anywho. I've been taking some rolls of T-MAX 400 this week and I got some Rodinal and some fixer from the local supplyer.

Though I got some questions:

1. The fixer. I'm not sure how long I should fix the film (it didn't come with any documentation and it doesn't say so on the bottle).


2. Stopping. I don't have a acid stop, but I've read that it's okey to use water, but how long should I stop the film?

3. Last, the mixing of the Rodinal. I got a 500ml paterson tank and it the measurements say that I have to mix it 1:50. Does that mean that 10ml of rodinal and 490ml of water?

Greetings from snowy Norway.

Thanks =)

 

[trexx]

1) 2 to 5 min. for the fix.
2) fill and dump the tank 5 times with water
3) yes

Enjoy and welcome to the wet, and dark side

TR

 

[JBrunner]

1- Fix the film for double the time it takes to clear a small scrap of film. Typically with fresh fixer the fix time ends up about 3 minutes. Give it some agitation.

2. Water stop is fine, two minute with a bit of agitation. It doesn't hurt to do a water change, as it helps get rid of developer cary over, which will help the fix last longer.

3- Yes. I usually take a notation like that to mean 1 part in so many parts. If it is the other way it usually says 1+ as in 1+9. In any case 1:50 is such a high dilution that the difference between 500+10 and 490+10 isn't going to factor.

There is a Youtube vid linked in my signature that is a 4 part overview on 120 developing.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Siggybottom]

Thank you trexx =)
and JBrunner, actually I've seen your videos on youtube, very fun and nice videoes.

"ha ha ha, welcome to my laboratory".

 

[J Rollinger]

Hi!
Today I'm going to develop my first roll of 120film, and I'm so excited.
I began my photography-hobby with digital (around 2006), but the feeling of developing my own film is way more appealing to me now than shooting digital.
It kinda brings the feeling of doing a craft instead of just "ah, I'll fix it in photshop".

Anywho. I've been taking some rolls of T-MAX 400 this week and I got some Rodinal and some fixer from the local supplyer.

Though I got some questions:

1. The fixer. I'm not sure how long I should fix the film (it didn't come with any documentation and it doesn't say so on the bottle).


2. Stopping. I don't have a acid stop, but I've read that it's okey to use water, but how long should I stop the film?

3. Last, the mixing of the Rodinal. I got a 500ml paterson tank and it the measurements say that I have to mix it 1:50. Does that mean that 10ml of rodinal and 490ml of water?

Greetings from snowy Norway.

Thanks =)

It would be 10ml Rodinal and 500ml of water. Dont mix to whole bottle at once! Mix enough developer for the amount of film you are developing. Fix the film for twice as long as it takes to clear. I use water as a stop for 30 seconds.

 

[J Rollinger]

To rinse I fill and dump the tank 10 times. With Tmax films rinse long enough to get rid of the purple tint on the negatives.

 

[bdial]

The general rule for fixing is twice the time it takes to clear the film, although T-Max films may require longer times.
With fresh fixer, during the first minute or so, the film will have a milky appearance. When the milkyness is gone, the film is "cleared".
For most films, the total fix time will be twice that time.
For T-Max, if some pink color remains at the end of the normal fix time, give it additional time. (See http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4016/f4016.pdf)

 

[Siggybottom]

YAY!
I finally managed to get the film on the reel, really glad I had a pratice film^^

Now I just have to mix the chemicals and I'm ready to go - hopefully.
Thank you everyone for the tips and advice, and again - JBrunner, awesome video serie, helped me alot

Paterson reels<3

 

[nworth]

1. The suggestions above apply to rapid fixers. Regular fixers take longer. Mos fixers have some brief instructions somewhere on the package. Just follow them. Fixing goes to completion, so small errors in the timing are not critical. If in doubt, about six minutes would be safe for most fixers.

2. A stop bath won't hurt, but you can use a water rinse instead.

3. 10 ml of Rodinal stock solution diluted to 500 ml makes up a 1:50 solution of Rodinal, just as you said. Most developing charts show times for several different dilutions of Rodinal. Make sure you use the time for the 1:50 dilution.

After fixing, be sure to fully wash the film. It is best to wash the film while it is still on the developing reel. With the Patterson tank, you can run the tap into the built in funnel and let the spent water flow out the sides. With other tanks you might have to push a funnel down the center hole of the reel. I just put the funnel under the tap and let the water run into it at a moderate rate. A half hour with at least 8 changes of water through the tank is usually adequate, but more time does no harm.

 

[Siggybottom]

Wohoo!
I've developed my first film, it was incredible fun. Can't wait to scan it in tomorrow (yeah yeah it's partly cheating but I don't have enough space to build a darkroom, yet).

While fixing, is it the same with agitation? 10sec of agitation at the beginning of each minute?

 

[Konical]

Good Afternoon, Siggy,

Ten seconds each minute should be fine; Two or three tank inversions every thirty seconds is also a commonly-used approach. There's nothing especially critical about it as long as it's done often enough to have fresh fixer more or less constantly in contact with the film. About the only way to screw it up is to fail to agitate at all.

Konical

 

[trexx]

The fixing agitation need not be as rigorous as with development. My regimen is constant agitation the first minute. Then a couple of times during the remainder of the fixing time.

 

[BetterSense]

What are you scanning it with?

It doesn't take a darkroom to make contact prints. After you cut your negatives and put them in negative sheets, you can put them ontop of a piece of cheap photo paper, optionally put a piece of glass on top, and turn the lights on briefly. Wa-la, a page-sized 'index print' that you can file with the negative sheet. Saves you scanning or printing bad frames. Very handy for future reference (who wants to look through their computer and try to keep all that sync'd up to the negative storage) and faster than scanning the whole roll just to toss out bad ones.

 

[Siggybottom]

Well, It went okey.
The film I developed was unfortunaly a roll that I kinda just fooled around with inside around christmas time so the exposure on most of the frames was terrible.

Anywho, the one negative, yes the one and only negative that seemed to look correctly exposured looked relativly fine.

So today I think I'm going to develop two rolls that I'm 100% sure that the exposure is correct. Thank for all the nice answers and thanks for the tip BetterSense, I'll keep that in mind =)

I'm btw scanning with a Epson v700.