color film b7w chemicals

mysteryscribe · Jan 18, 2007

This doesn't come up often I'm sure but I had a question recently about developing color film in black and white chemistry. Since then I have done it and find it very doable in my current methodology.

The time for the developer is very similar to a simple black and white film. The fixer might take a little longer I'm not real sure yet. The fixer I used was cold as a corpse.

I scanned mine immediately upon drying so I have no further use for the negative at the moment. I have no idea how it will keep, but I have boxes of them that I never reuse anyway.

Since I scan the negatives and zero out the base color anyway, it is a very doable project. I think I have found a universal film since the 46mm is currently pretty inexpensive. I expect that it can be successfully rolled into a used 120 paper paper and shot as a 4x6 negative. Just requires a little imagination i think.

Then develop it either way, color or black and white.

fmw · Jan 19, 2007

What is the purpose?

mysteryscribe · Jan 19, 2007

That is a fair question...

In my case it is to have a film that is inexpensive and I can shoot just for the purpose of making images.

If i buy Arista 120 b&w film because it is a buck and a half a roll, why not shoot this film for $.50 a roll. or less. I bought 200' for $17. It takes about two feet to make a 127 roll. In my case of an image a day, it will take about half a foot to make a roll with 3 exposures of 4x7. It isn't as cheap as digital but I get the fun of doing it for almost nothing.

The image quality should be satisfactory since I can't use a darkroom anymore so have to depend on commercial printers. Whatever adjustments I can make to the digital image is all there is.

Most of all I guess I like being different. Why would anyone else do it, I have no idea.

Of course it is convenient to just shoot the same film for everything. It's a lot like a digital camera.

I should also add at this point that I don't have and don't plan to buy a freezer and refrig just for film. So I am sharing our household refrig with my wife. I have one drawer at the bottom of the refrig and whatever space I can find in the freezer. If you have fifty rolls of 120 film iso 100, 50 rolls of 120 1so 400, fifty rolls of color 120 iso 200, fifty rolls of 35 mm color various iso, a hundred foot roll of 35mm bulk, 300' of 46mm bulk, 3 boxes of 2x3, 4 boxes of 4x5, and one box of 5x7 paper in that drawer you aren't going to get much more inside. At the moment I have that and I just bought 20 rolls of fuji 35 mm iso 200. I couldn't find a place for it but since its winter I'm not to worried.

Why did I buy the fuji... Well to be honest I was at the photo lab at eckerds and they are selling out a lot of their film. they have five roll packs of fuji under 2bucks a five pack. I couldn't resist.

And for my final answer, I do it because I can.