Q: EASIEST way to develop at home??

[the...@my-dejanews.com]

Hello,

I'm new to photography, and would appreciate any advice. What's the easiest
way to develop 35 mm color film myself? Someone mentioned that it wasn't hard
or expensive -- some sort of machine makes the process almost automatic? I
need a method that is easy and has little chance of screwing up : )... and
preferably inexpensive, needs little space & equipment, etc.

Please EMAIL replies. Thanks!

Laurie

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[lau...@comports.com]

[Jim Williams]

>I'm new to photography, and would appreciate any advice. What's the
easiest
>way to develop 35 mm color film myself? Someone mentioned that it wasn't
hard
>or expensive -- some sort of machine makes the process almost automatic? I
>need a method that is easy and has little chance of screwing up : )... and
>preferably inexpensive, needs little space & equipment, etc.
>
>Please EMAIL replies. Thanks!

Oops! Since you posted via DejaNews and didn't include an email address,
there's no way to email replies to you directly, so here goes...

You're really asking a two-part question (the "almost automatic, easy,
little chance of screwing up" part and the "inexpensive" part) and
unfortunately, those two parts are somewhat mutually exclusive!

There ARE machines, such as the Jobo Autolab ATL-1000, that automate a lot
of the tricky parts of color film processing -- controlling the
temperature, timing each step, pouring the chemicals in and out, etc.
However, these machines are quite expensive -- around $1000 and up, I
think. And there's still a lot of work associated with using one of these
machines: setting it up, mixing the chemicals, cleaning it after each
processing session, etc. This means the machines don't offer much advantage
for someone who just wants to process a roll or two occasionally; they're
really more useful for people who need to run lots of film on a fairly
regular basis.

You can process occasional rolls of color film much less expensively by
using the old-fashioned manual method, where you control the temperature,
timing etc. yourself. Nothing about it is really difficult as long as
you're careful and consistent. (I was going to say it's no harder than
baking a cake. But then I realized that baking a cake is actually MORE
difficult -- there are more ingredients and more different kinds of tasks
you have to perform.)

Aside from fairly normal household items such as a watch or timer,
clothespins, a big pitcher to hold water, etc., here's what you'll need to
process color film manually (you can find all these things at photo
stores): (1) a developing tank and film reel -- the traditional pro types
are stainless steel, but I like the plastic Paterson or Jobo type tanks as
they're less likely to leak; (2) a really dark place to load the film into
the tank -- if you don't have a dark place, you can buy a "changing bag"
and load the tank inside it; (3) an accurate thermometer that reads from
about 50 to 110 degrees F -- a dial-type thermometer made specifically for
film processing is best; (4) a chemistry kit for the type of film you want
to process -- a "C-41" kit for color negative films, an "E-6" kit for slide
films; (5) some plastic bottles and measuring graduates for mixing and
holding the chemicals -- check the instructions of your chemistry kit to
see how many and what size you'll need.

Although film-chemistry kits are available in a variety of sizes from
various manufacturers, I'd suggest buying one of the kits made
specifically for amateur processing, from one of the manufacturers such as
Beseler or Unicolor. These will come in more convenient sizes and have
more-easily-comprehensible instructions than the larger Kodak kits made for
professional color labs.

You may want to look for a kit that says it allows for "room temperature
processing," depending on how you want to handle temperature control. It's
important to control temperature fairly exactly when processing color film,
because having the temperature shift in mid-process can cause the colors to
go off. If the temperature in your living quarters is normally around 75
degrees and doesn't change much, you can probably control the temperature
satisfactorily just by letting everything sit out until it reaches a
uniform temperature, then work at that temperature. The drawback is that
the developing times are really long. Most of the chemistry kits are
designed to work at about 100 degrees F, and this shortens the time a lot.
If you want to work at the higher temperature, one way to do it is to use a
foam picnic cooler. Put it in your kitchen sink, put your thermometer in
it, and fill it with water; adjust the temperature until the water stays
right at 100 degrees. It'll drop a little as you work; when it does, just
run in a bit more hot water from the faucet. You'll float your chemistry
bottles and film tank in this "water bath," which keeps them all at the
same temperature while you work.

From there, it's really just a matter of mixing the chemicals according to
the directions in the kit (wear rubber gloves, as some of them are pretty
nasty), loading the film onto the reel, getting everything up to a uniform
temperature in the water bath, then following the kit's instructions for
timing and agitation. You'll probably want to practice on an unimportant
roll of film first, but after that it's pretty easy to handle. Just
remember that consistency is important, so try to do everything the same
way every time -- temperature, agitation, etc. That way you can learn from
any mistakes you make.

By the way, if you're thinking you'll save lots of money processing color
film yourself, I'll tell you right now that you might as well not bother.
Aside from the cost of buying the tank, thermometer, etc. (which isn't all
that much) the big expense is in buying the chemistry kits -- which have to
be mixed up all at once and have limited shelf life after you've mixed
them. If you only want to process a roll or two occasionally, you'll spend
more chucking expired chemicals down the drain than you would taking your
films to a lab! The big advantage of doing it yourself is that you can
control the whole process -- so if you want to push- or pull-process your
films, try cross-processing, etc., you can do it exactly the way you want
it.

[Jerry Houston]

They're probably talking about a digital camera and a "photo-quality" color
inkjet printer. If you already have a capable computer to run the graphics
programs, that's all you'll need to do your own color printing.

If you don't demand high quality results, both the digital camera and the
printer can be had for just a few hundred dollars each.

Keep in mind that longevity is a serious issue with most inkjet printer
output. In some cases you can expect the images to last only a couple of
years before they begin to fade objectionably. So if any of the pictures
are the kind you'd like to hand down to your youngest ancestors some day,
you'll want to be make sure you buy into a technology that will allow that.

"Real color photography" doesn't need to be incredibly expensive, by the
way. A good used enlarger with a color head, from a quality manufacturer,
can often be had for $200-300. In the beginning (and even later on) you
might be content to let a local lab "develop only" your film, leaving the
printing up to you. In the words of St. Ansel, the film is only the score.
The print is the performance of that score.

A used 8x10 developing drum can be quite inexpensive, and good
room-temperature chemicals like Beseler's RA4-AT eliminate the need for any
fancy temperature controls. That makes the process both easier and cheaper.
Once you've gotten past the experimenting stage, you'll be able to create
8x10 enlargements for about $0.50 each, or 11x14's for about $1. (Color
paper is about $0.30/sheet for 8x10's - actually cheaper than B&W!)

lau...@comports.com wrote in message <6n4hvm$3dh$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...

[John R.]

lau...@comports.com wrote in article <6n4hvm$3dh$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
> Hello,

>
> I'm new to photography, and would appreciate any advice. What's the
easiest
> way to develop 35 mm color film myself? Someone mentioned that it wasn't
hard
> or expensive -- some sort of machine makes the process almost automatic?
I
> need a method that is easy and has little chance of screwing up : )...
and
> preferably inexpensive, needs little space & equipment, etc.
>

> Please EMAIL replies. Thanks!
>
> Laurie
>
> -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
> http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum

The easiest color film to process at home is the E6 slide films. Color
print film is not bad either unless you want to do your own printing, which
would require you to purchase relatively expensive equipment and you would
almost have to dedicate a room for permanently or temporarily.

I have been processing slides since I shot the first roll of 'em, never
having it processed in a lab. The results have always been perfect. It's
cheap to do also: Just buy four 1 pint plastic bottles for the chemicals, A
developing tank, a funnel, a plastic tub to set the bottles of mixed
chemicals in when developing (for temperature control), a thermometer,
bottle of photoflo and, of course the chemistry kit itself. Aside from the
the chemistry kit itself, You should be able to get all the items for
around $40 U.S. You may need a graduated cylinder for mixing chemicals, but
there are ways around that.

If you are careful of the first developer time and temperature, you will
probably do good with everything else envolving the development.

The downside of developing slides is that you must have a least 5 rolls of
film (24 exp.) exposed and ready for development over a period of four or
five weeks as the mixed chemicals do not store for very long and the
chemicals weaken a little after each use. If you store the chemicals
properly, you may be able to exceed the five week storage time of the
chemicals.

I recommend a book from your local library on developing your own slides
for further info.

JCR

[Tommy Pickles]

The easiest and cheapest way to do it ia home is to put it in a mailer
and send it to a lab. I think there is a quasi-governmental agency
that drives around to every residence in the country 6 days a week to
check if we have any film ready to go out, and since they were going
around anyway, they drop off a bunch of bills and ads for new credit
cards. :)

-TP