Hi all,

I posted this in "the other" forum yesterday, I'm hoping to get some responses here too, especially as members here may be more familiar with Ilford chemistry than our American cousins.

I've recently acquired a few 35mm film cameras and I've run a few films through them (colour & B&W). The problem is that here in Spain, developing black & white film is extremely expensive, and it's primarily B&W I'm interested in. I wasn't planning on home development until I realised what it would cost me to get it done in a lab.

So, I'm looking into a basic setup for developing it myself, I'll then get the negatives scanned or printed elsewhere. I've been looking into what I need and I won't list it all. I do have some questions though.

I will be using Ilford HP5+ initially, simply as I got a good deal on a few rolls. Later I'm sure I will experiment with others. As regards the chemicals, my plan is to get hold of the following, all of which I believe I can get from a local supplier:

Paterson developing tank with two 35mm spirals.
Ilford ID-11 / Perceptol
Ilford Ilfostop
Ilford rapid fixer
Ilfotol wetting agent

Does that sound ok for a beginner?

1. Development is supposed to be done at 20ºC. I live in Madrid, where the summer days will hit 40º (or more) and the nights will drop to 32º. So, maintaining things at 20º will be difficult in the very near future. Will I be able to accurately calculate the development times for temperatures that are several degrees above what's recommended?

2. I've read that developing chemicals go off quickly, but I haven't been able to determine how quickly. Should I worry about this? Is powdered developer better? My current plan is to use Ilford ID-11 and I won't be doing a huge amount of developing. Will the high summer temperatures of where I live make the chemicals even more short-lived?

3. The ID-11 is apparently not recommended for pushing films, something which I might want to do in the near future. I think I can also get Perceptol. Which is better?

4. One link I found recommends a water pre-soak for a minute before developing, but I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere. Opinions?

Many thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

PM sent.

Have you got the aperture ring on the "A" setting? It should work in all exposure modes like that.

I tried to read this but I can't stand exclamation-mark abuse.

Payment sent to Sorted78 for a 105mm S-M-C Tak. Thanks also to Alvarossorio for the offer of an 85mm f/1.8, I wish I could stretch my budget to a fast 85.

I have a KX and an SP1000 which I just bought and had CLA'd. I want to put a roll of film in each of them, but if I do that, I won't be able to pick them up and crank/fire whenever I want to hear the wonderful sound of the shutter!

Now that I have an M42 mount camera (an SP100, a real beauty) I have a gap in the lenses I can use for it, as I have nothing between 55mm & 135mm.

I would be interested in any lens from 85mm to 105mm, f/2.8 or faster. Any amount of fungus is a no-no. Price would be dependent on model/optical quality and condition. Preferably sharp wide open and with auto-aperture. Must be able to post to Spain, payment by bank transfer or Paypal.

A Jupiter-9 or a Tak or third party 105mm are the most likely candidates I think.

Thanks

Hi,

As I've recently started shooting film as well as digital, I'm looking for the best and cheapest way of developing & scanning or printing the images. So far I have a roll of Portra 400 developed and printed and scanned at fairly low resolution. In Madrid (where I live) this costs around €20 a roll, which is prohibitive, and more for black & white.

I can't scan the colour negatives on my normal flabed scanner as they come out very brown and even inverting the colours they are very light blue. The resolution goes up to 4800 so that shouldn't be a problem. Is there any way to process the scans to get them to look like normal photos?

Can I scan my own black & white negatives if they're developed? Obviously there would be no colour cast (or not one I couldn't remove), so I was hoping that would be easier.

Many thanks

There are foam light seals around the rear door where it joins the body. There is also a buffer at the front of the mirror box to absorb the shock of the mirror flipping up when the shot is taken. If these are gone or have turned gooey or fragmented then they need to replace. If it's not done then you risk light leaking into the back of the camera and spoiling the film, and damage to the mirror.

If you're looking for better quality film, try the professional ones (Kodak Ektar or Porta for example). I'm currently trying some Ilford B&W too (HP5), if that floats your boat. There are a LOT of B&W films out there. The first consideration is the light level you'll have for shooting (as this will dictate the ISO range you can use).

As I also just started, I want to try all of them. I have Ektar, two speeds or Portra, two speeds of Ilford B&W, Rollei Retro B&W, lomography 100 all waiting to be tried, and plenty more on my list...

I just got a KX on ebay but I haven't run a film through it yet. It's a beautiful camera, and I think it will suit my large hands better than my MX does. I paid £55 for it with a K55 f/1.8 that had a big ding in the filter ring but was otherwise ok. The camera cleaned up nicely and has been serviced (another £70). All in all, I think the price was reasonable. A service (or at the least a change of light seals) almost always has to be factored into the price of an old camera.

Have fun with your ME Super, the price you paid is what you'd normally pay just for that lens. Get the light seals changed as they will almost certainly be degraded.

For what it's worth, I have recently been using a P30 & P30N and I can't fault them for being great cameras to get into film with, and they're DIRT CHEAP. Not as handsome as the 70s & early 80s cams, but small, functional and well built. The P30N is the only film camera I have which seems to have had ergonomics taken into account when the grip was designed.