Processing last year's film...

I dunno. How can you guys let photos sit undeveloped for over a year? Once I finish off a roll, I'm ready to see the results in a few days, not years. But then again, I do send out to a lab for the developing, so maybe that has something to do with it.

When I've returned from vacation and shot several rolls, I usually send them out one or two at a time instead of all at once though. Reduces the chances of something happening to all the rolls between the time I drop them off and the time I get them back. And it's a bit easier on the budget to spread the spending out too.

ME Super,

There's a particular character trait at work.

Develop as normal. Also get an even larger tank. My 2000 ml stainless steel tank allows me to develop 4 rolls of 120 and 1 roll of 35mm in one batch.

Instead of getting a bigger tank, why not get another tank the same? Then, you can develop more in a session without having to dry out your tank and reels for another go.

Mix up some chemicals, develop the first tank-full (pouring the chemicals back into the jugs instead of down the sink), then repeat with the second tank!

I actually have three Paterson tanks (a 3 x 135, a 2 x 135 and a 1 x 135). I make enough chemicals to fill the largest one, do that one first and work my way down in size. It also has the advantage of allowing different developing times/agitations for different types of film, or different shooting conditions, without forcing everything into the same tank... oh, and you don't need so much volume of chemistry, either Win-win-win!

Just this weekend, I developed 6 rolls of 135-36. The oldest was hanging around for about a year, but the others were much more recent. In my tanks, I had:

3 x HP5+
2 x Bergger Panchro 400
1 x HP5+

The nice thing was that I could give different developing time to the different films and, if I made a c0ck-up (like last time, when the "light-proof" funnel in the middle-sized tank fell off 3 times during developing!), then not all films would be affected. As it happened, no mistakes this time, and 6 very nicely-developed films to be had. Oh, and incidentally, the film from a year ago (just hanging around in my kitchen cupboard) looked identical to the one shot last week. No change in process required.

I forgot about this thread. I was completely caught up this past winter, and now have just a dozen or so rolls to get to. Funny you should mention using two tanks, as I started building a funnel-and-pipe contraption just this weekend that will allow me to pour into two stainless steel tanks simultaneously.

Haha, I should really check the dates of the last post before replying to ancient threads

DaveTheWalker said:

Haha, I should really check the dates of the last post before replying to ancient threads

Click to expand...

I know the feeling!