Lee Saxon wrote:
In my university photography program where there was a huge darkroom which somebody else had to set up, maintain, refresh chemicals, etc, I guess I felt this way (though I never really got proficient at getting film onto the reels). But looking into everything involved in doing it at home, from finding and blacking out a space to the cost to the shelf life of chemicals...
If you are not wet printing i.e. using an enlarger printing directly onto photo paper, all you need is a darkbag to load the film into the dev tank. All the rest is done in daylight once the film is in the developing tank.
As for chemicals? For B&W I just use Cinestill DF96 Monobath which is one solution that does everything. You can re-use it up to about 16 times before it loses it potency and becomes ineffective. Very easy to use, takes minimal space. One bottle is $20 so it works out to be about $1.25 to develop a roll at home.
All my B&W in the film images thread have been developed in DF96.
chez wrote:
Half the fun of shooting film is developing the film. Not only does developing your own film drastically cut into the cost, but also brings back some of that “organic” feel as you load the film into the development tanks and systematically add the different chemicals. Why send this feeling of self accomplishment out to some shop?
+1. Was the main driver for me to learn all my B&W, C-41, and E-6 film developments myself with manual Paterson tanks. Now I have shined away doing color film due to increased film prices. But still doing all my B&W film developments myself and making some silver gelatin prints from selected negatives in my darkroom.
IMO external lab development only fit the purpose for one or some of the following reasons for example:
+ Limited space available to perform own development, or young kids around where the risk of chemical storage is too high
+ Try-and-See approach: If new to film and just to get a flavor of it before deep-diving into it, external lab development for one or a few films is a solution before vesting too much time and money into.
+ When traveling and not willing to undergo the risk to have exposed films run with a new CT airport scanner.
+ Convenience: if enjoying the photo-taking process with film but not the handling of film for development
I only shoot b/w and have been since the Dwayne’s stopped processing Kodachrome. I want to start shooting color print film with my Rolleiflex. Regarding the labs I only want to have 120 C41 processed no prints no scans. Does it matter which lab? Is it hard to mess up automated C41 processing? Some say they use dunk and dip and some say they use some kind of roller system. I don’t know the difference. Should I just decide based on price? Scratching film would be a problem though.
I've always been very happy with Mikes Photo - they have a bunch of locations in the SF bay area.
Mailing it out? I've been happy with Northcoastphoto and thefindlab
Anyone know if AgX is still going? I tried using their contact form a week or so ago (since there's no order form or details about how to specify what you want on the website), and I haven't heard back. Might just be because of the holidays.
hkrazerx wrote:
I only shoot b/w and have been since the Dwayne’s stopped processing Kodachrome...
Dwayne's ruined every roll of Kodachrome that I've ever sent to them.
Somewhere around here there's a thread where I tell the story of how Dwayne's ruined EVERY roll of Kodachrome that I sent to them. It was during that time when Dwayne's was the only processing option.
I hadn't been paying attention and didn't learn about the processing discontinuation until it was almost too late. I had a deep-freezer full of PKR, PKL and PKM by the flats. With the processing deadline quickly approaching I loaded up 3 different cameras and went out shooting.
I sent two giant boxes of film to Dwayne's to be processed as two different orders. One box was exclusively Kodachrome to be processed and mounted as slides, One box that was exclusively print film. In the film box I left them a note to leave the negatives uncut and return the processed negatives as uncut rolls.
They didn't follow the instructions. They combined both orders into one order and never mounted my slides. They left the negatives as uncut rolls (as they were supposed to) but they also left the separate order of Kodachrome uncut and returned them as rolls, providing no slides, no mounts, no discount for not doing the cutting and mounting.
The final coup de grace was that they scratched every roll of Kodachrome in exactly the same way, leaving longitudinal scars across every roll of film, but didn't scratch any of my negative film. They had the nerve to say "your camera is defective and ruined all of your film." That simply was not possible as I had used 3 different cameras (one for PKR, one for PKL and one for PKM) to expose the film and it just isn't possible for all 3 cameras to have selectively scratched Kodachrome in exactly the same way while not scratching any of the negative print film.
My interpretation of this is that they stopped proper maintenance of the Kodachrome line during the final month of processing, and ruined a lot of film due to substandard maintenance. They weren't conscientious enough to maintain the equipment, nor were they honest enough to admit that they ruined every roll of film in exactly the same way.
After seeing how they scratched all of my Kodachrome, there was no way that I was going to return the rolls to them that were improperly left uncut to have them mounted -- as I did not want to give them another chance to further ruin my film.
I would not entrust film to Dwayne's if they were the last photo lab on earth -- I can say this because I did entrust Kodachrome to Dwayne's when they were the last lab on earth and they ruined every roll that I sent to them.
It's sad, but there are lots of labs that do a poor job in processing film. That is a good argument to learn to process C-41 and E-6 at home.
Lee Saxon wrote:
Anyone know if AgX is still going? I tried using their contact form a week or so ago (since there's no order form or details about how to specify what you want on the website), and I haven't heard back. Might just be because of the holidays.
I had a similar experience a while back. About 1-2 weeks later I did receive an e-mail stating to ship the film with contact information, and a note on how to process. It seems like they are more easily reached via phone.
I've been using Northeast Photographic since they've opened a few years ago. https://www.northeastphotographic.com/
I can heartily recommend them. Prices seem reasonable and they allow a fair bit of customization when it comes to choice of developer, scan results and so on.
I've sent a few rolls to the darkroom and haven't had any issues, but I am open to hearing from others about film labs where you had consistent results and a good experience.
I sent a LOT of stuff to NCPS from 2009-2013, always had great results.
Indie Film Lab in Montgomery Alabama is also pretty good from my experience but I mostly just used them when I was local.
WillOfTheWilds wrote:
I had a similar experience a while back. About 1-2 weeks later I did receive an e-mail stating to ship the film with contact information, and a note on how to process. It seems like they are more easily reached via phone.
Confirmed, for anyone who's interested. I heard back from AgX once the holidays were over.
I've just sent three rolls to them again this week. $4.99 a roll for color development and 7.99 return shipping for your negatives. Check the website for more options including scanning.
John said they just upgraded to a brand new dip and dunk developing system.
I tried Northeast Photographic and first impression was not too good. C41 goes through roller transport machine, which they are very proud of. Even though the quality was great, you can see where the roller went over the film. And then they snipped the corner off a frame on the end of the roll. Their scans aren't significantly better than my local lab's.
So if you need C41 dip and dunk, Northeast is not your lab.
I'm going to try NCPS next. Only need C41, as I do B&W myself and E6 is a rabbit hole that I am not ready to go down. What scan sizes do you normally get from them, if at all?
