I know this is the digital photography section, but I'm wondering if anyone else here shoots analog. I'm sporting a Nikon N80, and I'm looking for tips on developing film cheaply.
I know this is the digital photography section, but I'm wondering if anyone else here shoots analog. I'm sporting a Nikon N80, and I'm looking for tips on developing film cheaply.
I know this is the digital photography section, but I'm wondering if anyone else here shoots analog. I'm sporting a Nikon N80, and I'm looking for tips on developing film cheaply.
^ I had no idea they had "home" kits for color. I thought the temperature control was so important that it made it next to impossible.
For me, all I've developed at home in a bathroom is B&W. It seems easy and forgiving. I've done slide, pyro, and color in a professional lab that belonged to a photographer I used to work for.
I think it is more time consuming and expensive these days to send off color film. My setup for analog these days would be b&w and a decent scanner to keep costs down, I suppose.
^ I had no idea they had "home" kits for color. I thought the temperature control was so important that it made it next to impossible. ...
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Then the real fun starts. Merely processing film is not a lot of fun. The excitement comes when you start to print your own negatives.
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I scan my negatives, too. But at some point I would love to make my own prints. Having a print which never touched a computer is truly magical (at least for me).Scan the negatives. There are some really nice ink jet printers on the market now and good paper and good ink. I would not bother with an enlarger. Especially when to "normal" output media today is an electronic screen. Few people even want prints.
I use the same procedure. After the development process, one can use the water for washing the film.YES. Temperature control is critical but it is not hard. What you do is get a big tub or bucket of water and place the bottles of chemical in the water. Then you adjust the temperature of the water in the tub and WAIT.
I've never filtered the water and never had a problem myself. How can this affect the negatives or the development process?Do not forget to filter your water, both for mixing chemicals and washing film. Absolutely essential for any format, but CRITICAL for 35mm.
Scanning the film is not easy. That being said, I can suggest that you google a bit how scan the film properly with the scanner you have. This can dramatically improve your results. I use a Epson V700 for scanning and there are some settings to be made, for sure. Also, make absolutely sure that the film is lying flat. When I started scanning, I wasn't content and it turned out that it was the film not lying flat(because the film strips tend to 'curl' a bit).I've looked into developing color at home and it's not for me. I do have a film scanner but it is an epson flatbed scanner and the quality of the scans are not as good as I'd like. A dedicated film scanner is expensive. I might switch back to digital, but still gonna stick with analog for now.
I have no experience with this particular lab. But, in general the results from a dedicated lab will be significantly better. You can find a lots of people over the web, which say that film were screwed by a supermarket film service and the results improved dramatically by using a 'real' lab. In conclusion, the extra bucks might be worth it, depending on how you shoot and how you want to use your negatives.http://www.thedarkroom.com $10 for one roll?! That's out of my price range. It's less than $5 to get them on a CD at costco. The reason I don't do that is because I don't have a costco card, so everytime I go I need to ask a friend to go with me.
I scan my negatives, too. But at some point I would love to make my own prints. Having a print which never touched a computer is truly magical (at least for me).
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I've never filtered the water and never had a problem myself. How can this affect the negatives or the development process?
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I've never filtered the water and never had a problem myself. How can this affect the negatives or the development process?
I put a Nikon FE in a garage sale today for $50 and got two offers of $10 for it.
I meant sending film off for developing has gotten more expensive. I used to use a jobo tank for E6, pyro, and medium to large format. I didn't like teak reels but I got used to them. I preferred the plastic.YES. Temperature control is critical but it is not hard. What you do is get a big tub or bucket of water and place the bottles of chemical in the water. Then you adjust the temperature of the water in the tub and WAIT. If you do a lot of it you can buy a small pump and a thermostatically controlled heater, like for an aquarium. I used the water bath method even for B&W. It cost nothing, just a bucket and hot and cold running tap water. Fill the bucket and dump in a bottle or two.
The hard part that takes practice is loading the film on thermals. I like the stainless reals, other hate them and go plastic. Buy both and see which you like.
Devolopting film is not expensive and you don't need a dark room. A changing bag is enough.
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Scan the negatives. There are some really nice ink jet printers on the market now and good paper and good ink. I would not bother with an enlarger. Especially when to "normal" output media today is an electronic screen. Few people even want prints.
If you are looking to buy a film SLR body, even the later model auto focus models are not that much. So get one of the later ones like the N90, N8080 or even the F4.