Want some money?

[Matt_Gill]

Hey there, does anyone with a b/w darkroom want to earn some money developing some b/w film for me every fortnight or so? I dont no how much it would cost you to do? Anyone interested though? Thanks

 

[Matt_Gill]

Oh and i forgot, its probably best if your in the UK, for p&p reasons.

 

[ksmattfish]

Where are you located? What kind of film? What format? How many rolls? Any special instructions, techniques, or materials needed?

 

[Matt_Gill]

Nothing special realy, I just need to get some 35mm Black and White film developed ill probably have about 2-3 rolls to give you a month if you are interested, Im in Chelmsford, Essex. Size wise anythink goes realy im not fussy although im wouldent want 5x3.5's or anythink silly. And in most cases 36+/- Exposures

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Are you looking at just developing the film or do you want all the prints too?

 

[Matt_Gill]

Well, ive been thinking about that, mabey just develop them for now, ill pick you the good ones and make prints from them, that way ill cut out having the cost of printing crap! What do you think?

 

[ksmattfish]

Why aren't you using a photo lab? Unless you find someone who doesn't value their time much, simple developing and printing is going to be much cheaper at a lab.

 

[Matt_Gill]

Well...I think thats the way its going at the moment.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

You'll find that the printing side is very subjective too.

Different people prefer different tones and contrast levels for example.

Making 36 prints from negatives will be a labourious task, taking possibly over a whole day depending on how good the film exposures are and how good you want your prints!

 

[Torus34]

The gear needed to develop B&W film is dirt cheap and the process is easy. Why don't you do it yourself and cut out the middle man?

 

[ksmattfish]

You don't even need a darkroom to develop your own film.

You would need one to make your own gelatin silver prints.

 

[Matt_Gill]

SO how much would i need to "invest" if i wanted to print my own?

 

[ThomThomsk]

SO how much would i need to "invest" if i wanted to print my own?

It depends what is on eBay at the time, but if you time it right you can be set up for 35mm for well under £100, and that is for everything you need to develop and print. A lot of enlargers don't sell at all, or go for pennies.

It's amazing what you can get. I recently bought a Durst M370 enlarger (£230 new) with Nikon 50mm and 80mm lenses (total of £250 new at a guess, probably more), a Durst conversion kit to do 6x7 medium format (£200 brand new), a printing easel and two boxes of Ilford paper (£60 worth) for a grand total of £80.

 

[benhasajeep]

For developing just the film. Just a very dark closet or a changing bag. A film developing container. A couple flim spools. And the chemicals. Can do everything but load the film on the reels in daylight (and put them in the container). So you can use the kitchen or bathroom sink for the water needed. It is really straight forward. And black and white is not as temperature dependant as slide or color film. There is a reason so many people did black and white at home. It is honnestly not that hard.

I still enjoy doing slide film at home. I do use a Jobo processor for that. But all it really is, is a temper bath for the chemicals and a motor that cycles back and forth. Slide can even be done without equipment!

 

[Rolleistef]

yep it's damn cheap :
20£ for a good small tank
15£ for the chemicals
35£ is not that expensive
and looking on ebay you can have enlarger for a couple of pences. Just need a red light and paper process chemical, fixer is the same.
A "dark room" doesn't need to be utter dark : just need a pair of shutters, thick curtains and that's all. Oh, and also 4 basins but it's no use mentioning it.
And doing all by yourself is really enjoyable.
Processing a film is worth 40 pence, printing a photo around nothing. You'll save a lot of money!!
Good luck