Film developing by mail

does anyone here send there film away by mail to get it developed ?

Try the Darkroom Ltd. They even provide a mailing sticker for free mail.

K.

thanks for the information. £4.50 is cheaper than jessops
I need to learn how to do this myself

Developing black and white is fairly easy with one of these, although this one is a bit expensive they do crop up regularly.The manual can be found on the net but I don't have a link at the moment.

Chemicals can be got from this firm.

Hope that helps.

I use one of the Agfa tanks - paid about £6 for mine and it was worth every penny! Do follow the instructions to the letter, especially about loading film as if you don't make sure that the film is feeding into the guide properly then you'll end up with a mangled mess wrapped around the spool like a winch rope rather than a film in the spiral groove.

See this photo to see what I mean - you need to make sure that the edges of the film curve downwards as it goes into the guide. There is enough leader to ensure this before you put the lid on and wind the rest of the film in.

this is the first time i have seen one of these. I take it that this is only for black and white film only

I wouldn't like to process colour in it as I suspect it would be almost impossible to keep the temperatures spot on.

I use Ilford HP5 and Microphen developer along with their own fixer, which seems a pretty tolerant combination and works perfectly when I time the various stages using a standard wristwatch. It takes roughly 15mins to develop a film from loading it to hanging it up to dry. As you have to give the knob a half turn every two seconds to agitate the film you do not want to use anything requiring a long developing time - HP5 and Microphen works out at 6mins 30secs, then 5mins in the fixer. As it is I tend to get an annoying blister on my right thumb from turning the knob!

The Rondinax tanks are not hugely common. There are versions for 35mm and 120 film, and I know of two versions of the 35mm one. Mine is the earlier Bakelite one which could date from any time between the 1920s to the 1960s judging by the box design, the later one has a large white plastic knob in place of the black one on this example and I'm given to understand that it's made from a more modern plastic.

I tend to pre-warm mine to 20C by putting it in the airing cupboard for a while, then process the film.

I have both the 35mm 120 versions and both work fine.

I'm currently using Ilfosol S and Ilford stop bath and fixer to develop Fomapan 400 film.

The grain effect I get is awesome, and a result of not being too precise with developing times or temperatures.

I scan the negs into the computer and hey presto!



Taken with my MZ-30 fitted with DA40mm lens using Fomapan400.

I did consider trying some other film types, as I seem to have developing HP5 cracked now. Only snag is that I'm pretty sure all the others take a lot longer to process, and I already get a seriously sore thumb from turning the knob!

No complaints with HP5, great film for all round use. Not much grain and tolerates my home processing.

Just found this LINK that may be of interest.

I use something similar to scan my films to the PC.

I have something similer to that scaner in the link, but it is going back as it is fauity . i manged to scan a few pictures before it broke and it is ok

what would i need to develop colour film ?

The chemicals are available at Ag Photographic and a search of the net will provide advice/instructions.

I haven't tried colour yet so it's a foreign land as far as advice is concerned from me.

Apparently it can be done in the same/ a similar way and with the same kit as B&W, but don't quote me on that...

On a related note, I'm considering Ilford SFX 200. Apparently I can develop this in the same Ilfotec HC which I already use (not sure why I thought it was Microphen earlier, should have gone and read the bottle before typing), but it has some interesting-sounding capabilities when combined with red filters. Only snag is the need to crank the handle for 9mins, but the almost infra-red results sound intriguing.