Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Andrew, The first thing I would suggest is picking up a copy of Anchell and Troop's "Film Development Cookbook". There's lots of good info there to get you started. You might want to also pick up a basic darkroom book from Kodak etc...Luggster Dante Stella worte a little article on getting started developing your own film, http://www.dantestella.com/technical/guerilla.html My additional comments, - - I personally prefer steel tanks and reels, but if you go steel, be sure to use Hewes reels and not cheap generic ones. - - to hang up film I just use a length of kitchen twine and some of those black spring paper clips along with wooden clothes pins to weight the film. - - I haven't used Diafine, so I can't comment on that. I've primarily used xtol as a developer, but it is now no longer available in 1 liter packets only 5 liter. If you aren't shooting alot it may take you awhile to work through 5 liters. D-76 at 1:1 is a classic developer, as is Rodinal at 1:50 or 1:100. Rodinal is particularly easy to use since it's a liquid and keeps a long time. - - If you are using any developer besides xtol, you may want to consider using neoprene rubber gloves as most developers are somewhat caustic and may cause skin irritation. - - For films I'd start off with something traditional like FP4+, HP5+, Tri-x, APX400 etc... Traditional films tend to be more tolerant of variations in temperature, agitation, and development time than the modern t-grain films. Tom Finnegan - -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Touchon [mailto:atouchon@cox.net] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 12:46 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] Develoment Help! Hello Group, I'm going to attempt to develop 35mm B&W film and I need some help on getting started. I will not be printing, just developing the negatives and then scanning them into digital format. As a neophyte, I would appreciate any recommendations you have concerning easy to use B&W film and associated chemicals to for general purpose photography i.e.. photos of people and things in natural light, ASA range of 50 to 400. Thanks, Andrew Touchon Virginia Beach, VA atouchon@cox.net - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html