Taped timer.

[Torus34]

I've mentioned this in reply to a couple of questions. Time to post it here.

For complex processing procedures such as color film or prints, you can help to eliminate errors by making a simple tape recording of the whole process in which you tell yourself just what to do and exactly when to do it. Tape speeds are quite consistent, so you can index times to the nearest second and be confident that they'll remain accurate.

Then, when you're ready to process with all solutions at the correct temperature, run the tape and follow the directions. No timers to reset, and no instructions to look at.

 

[stingray]

that's a really great idea, probably only really useful for colour and those more complicated processes, but also for a beginner it would be a fantastic idea! maybe a cd as well would be an easier idea, especially with computers these days could be much more accurate/ easy to produce.

 

[ThomThomsk]

I saw exactly the same suggestion on APUG last night! Was that you?

Sounds like a good idea, if you have complete control over your chemical temperatures. If it drifts up or down while it's in the tank then you might want to adjust the development time, in which case you are going to regret not having a timer running.

I only developed my second film on Sunday, so I'm not an expert, but while that one sat at just over 20 degrees all the way through, with my first film the developer shot up to 21.5 and I stopped development a minute early (1 minute out of 13, which could have made quite a difference to negative density).

Thomsk

 

[Torus34]

To maintain temperature for film development, use a water bath. Won't work with rotary drum print processing, of course.

 

[ThomThomsk]

To maintain temperature for film development, use a water bath. Won't work with rotary drum print processing, of course.

Yes, I know. Trouble is, with that first film I was expecting the temperature to drop during the 13 minute development time (HP5+ in ID-11 1+1), so I had a 23 degree bath standing by. Second film I had warmer and cooler baths, but didn't need either, although that was only 8.5 minutes (Delta 100 in ID-11 1+0). Ilford has a time adjustment chart on its website which is really good:

http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/tempconv.pdf

Thomsk