Processed my own film for the first time in years!! What fun!

This post is not a question or seeking advice, I'm just making an announcement. The past six months of reading this forum has encouraged me to not only keep shooting film, but to start processing my own again. This past weekend I took my RB67 to Holden Beach, NC and shot about ten rolls of Pan-F and Tri-X. Up until now I would have taken them to a lab but that is getting harder to do these days, so...

I just finished developing the first roll of Tri-X, which I rated at 200 and developed in D-76 1:1 at 72F, for 7 1/2 minutes. These ten negatives look so good. I wish I had an enlarger to print them, but that's what the school darkroom is for, right? I've never experimented with ISO before or tried to find "my personal ISO" for any film, I just read that Tri-X looked good at this ISO. Now I just need to get a clock with a sweep second hand again, using my cell phone timer was a bit of a hassle! Any comments are welcome.

Correction - according to my notes I rated it at 250.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Yeah, but that cell phone can be a handy back up at times. I'm glad you had fun.

I think you are probably better off starting at 200 with trix than starting at 400. I got a new 35mm camera and went back to box speed for the first roll in anticipation of having to readjust my EI. Nope, 400 is still underexposed, in my opinion of course. Back to 250.

Welcome back! I find a digital (did I say the "D" word?) stopwatch to be the best for darkroom use. I hang it around my neck for printing and flat on the countertop for doing film. I did a google search for stopwatches and found an outfit that sells them for $6-8, IIRC. I find the black color of the stopwatch body not good tho', but this is minor. You may be able to find them in bright colors.

Happy shooting!

I use those LCD kitchen timers to time film and paper developing. You can use them as count-down timers, too, but I don't usually. They're also cheap enough that if I drop one into something, I don't really care.

I develop film in my kitchen. The microwave timer works well.

I have also used the LCD kitchen timers, and they too work well.

Not too long ago, I found a Gralab 300 at a swap meet and that works the best - especially when I'm using the rotary base and continuous rotary development.

Matt

The Gralab 300 is what I really want (I sold my Omega B66 enlarger in 2003 and I included the Gralab timer in the sale, unfortunately). I process my film in my bathroom so I'll probably just go with an analog clock that I can stick up on the wall. That is how I learned to do it 20 years ago!

I always use my cell phone, I actually prefer it, but maybe your timer is a bit more of a hassle.

Congrats on getting back into film developing. The timer I use is an old Gralab 520 digital that will either count up or down to 99 min. 59 sec. Works for both film and printing and only cost $27 a few years back at a local auction. Above all have FUN!

Me too ... just finished the first processing I've done in some 30 plus years. Breaking in my new almost completed darkroom. Just a couple of test negs in some verrrrry old HC-110.

HC-110 ... amazing stuff; the bottle is so old it's stained on the inside but the chemical worked fine.

I don't feel like I forgot much over the years. Just practically fell back into the old routine.

Congrats!

MattKing said:

Gralab 300 ... works the best ... using the rotary base and continuous rotary development.Matt

Click to expand...

I plug the base into the timer. The base makes a grinding noise when it's running - so when the noise stops I know its time to rush to the darkroom and change the chems. I much prefer it to a buzzer going off as I have to listen to the base sawing away in any case.

For hand/tank processing I use foto-timer for a Palm Pilot. I like it because it gives beeps when it is time to agitate. I keep the Palm in my pocket, put the tank in a plastic bag in a 5x7 tray and then I can walk around doing other things while developing and don't have to keep my eye on the clock. As I am a fan of Microdol-X 1:3 developing times tend to be long.

I don't know what gave me more thrill the first time: seeing the negatives in the wash. Or, seeing the print come up in dektol.

I guess it was the negatives.

Great site, this.
Steve.

optique said:

I don't know what gave me more thrill the first time: seeing the negatives in the wash. Or, seeing the print come up in dektol.

I guess it was the negatives.

Great site, this.
Steve.

Click to expand...

Seeing the print come up in the developer tray for the first time was a great thrill, but I have to relate a story from high school chemistry class. We did an experiment where you get silver salts to precipitate out of solution, pour the solution through a filter, and open the filter to light and watch the white powder turn dark. THAT was great, not least of which because I was the first person in class to realize what we had done. The teacher told us nothing about it before hand, just gave us the steps to complete and then asked us to tell her what the results meant. It was quite a thrill!

Great story!

I wonder if the teacher was a photographer also?

That reminds me, I need to get some silver nitrate.

Steve.

this is going to burn your but - I have had and sold many gralab 300's with different darkroom lots as they come and go. I had a hankering for and 'extra' one to devote to my UV eexposer box, and thought I would pick one up at the coming camera show this weekend. Then last week we were garage sailing, and what should appear - for a whole $3 too