Topic: Cost of developing at home vs. a lab.

[chris667]

Hello

I have been thinking about this, because finally I have gathered all the equipment to start printing at home again.

Up until now I've been using a lab for developing and scanning. While this is OK for colour, I want to start making prints, and more to the point making prints in black and white.

I can do all this stuff, but I've had a break of quite a few years now, and as I have either stolen my dad's chemicals when living with my parents, or used my local adult education centre after I left home(which closed years ago), I either paid my subs which included chemicals or didn't pay at all(sorry, dad!), so I have no idea about the costs involved.

While I love making prints, I always found film developing a bit of a chore. I am thinking that I might just stick with XP2, have the lab process them in their C41 lab, and make my own prints. My local camera shop (Dents, in Chesterfield) will develop only a roll of c41 film for £2 in sleeves, and sells a 36 exposure roll of film for £6. 22p per frame isn't bad, and I like the XP2 "look", with all the grain in the shadow areas.

Traditionally I used FP4. This is prohibitively expensive to process commercially, so I haven't shot much of it since I came back to photography. This is a bit cheaper per roll, but how much will it cost me to develop it myself?

Is it just too extravagant to farm out the boring bit to other people? It feels like "cheating". But why?

[MiguelCampano]

I got 20 rolls out of an Unicolor C41 kit that I bought for $17.99. In comparison, the lab where I send my E-6 charges $11 per roll, and my local lab $9 + tax.

Granted, I invested about $25 in bottles and whatnot, but still.... Way cheaper.

[chris667]

Ah, but that's colour. Colour developing at home is, for me, even more of a drag!

[Francois]

I used to find film developing a drag too until I found the problem: slow acting chemicals.
For me the worse was fixing. I now use some ilford rapid fix and have been able to shorten times for this step to 1 minute.
Developing was another one. Hc_110 Wass made for journalists so it works fast.
Now, if the temperature permit, I can get a roll done in 6:30.... Not bad.
As for doing the dishes, I just rinse the year and let it drip dry overnight.

[rattymouse]

Hello

I have been thinking about this, because finally I have gathered all the equipment to start printing at home again.

Up until now I've been using a lab for developing and scanning. While this is OK for colour, I want to start making prints, and more to the point making prints in black and white.

I can do all this stuff, but I've had a break of quite a few years now, and as I have either stolen my dad's chemicals when living with my parents, or used my local adult education centre after I left home(which closed years ago), I either paid my subs which included chemicals or didn't pay at all(sorry, dad!), so I have no idea about the costs involved.

While I love making prints, I always found film developing a bit of a chore. I am thinking that I might just stick with XP2, have the lab process them in their C41 lab, and make my own prints. My local camera shop (Dents, in Chesterfield) will develop only a roll of c41 film for £2 in sleeves, and sells a 36 exposure roll of film for £6. 22p per frame isn't bad, and I like the XP2 "look", with all the grain in the shadow areas.

Traditionally I used FP4. This is prohibitively expensive to process commercially, so I haven't shot much of it since I came back to photography. This is a bit cheaper per roll, but how much will it cost me to develop it myself?

Is it just too extravagant to farm out the boring bit to other people? It feels like "cheating". But why?

Cost to develop black and white film is virtually nothing.  I cant see how it is even possible to be put off by the cost of doing it yourself. 

Kodak HC-110, a one liter bottle costs $28.  You can process 2 rolls of film with as little as 11 mls of this concentrate (dilution E).  That's around 90 rolls of film for $28.
Stop bath, just buy vinegar from the store, usually a few bucks per gallon.   Lasts forever.
Ilford Rapid Fixer is under $20 a bottle.  You can process 16-24 rolls per dilution.  The bottle makes 5 dilutions so that's 100 rolls or so.

That's a LOT of film processed for very very little money.

[Faintandfuzzy]

Hello

I have been thinking about this, because finally I have gathered all the equipment to start printing at home again.

Up until now I've been using a lab for developing and scanning. While this is OK for colour, I want to start making prints, and more to the point making prints in black and white.

I can do all this stuff, but I've had a break of quite a few years now, and as I have either stolen my dad's chemicals when living with my parents, or used my local adult education centre after I left home(which closed years ago), I either paid my subs which included chemicals or didn't pay at all(sorry, dad!), so I have no idea about the costs involved.

While I love making prints, I always found film developing a bit of a chore. I am thinking that I might just stick with XP2, have the lab process them in their C41 lab, and make my own prints. My local camera shop (Dents, in Chesterfield) will develop only a roll of c41 film for £2 in sleeves, and sells a 36 exposure roll of film for £6. 22p per frame isn't bad, and I like the XP2 "look", with all the grain in the shadow areas.

Traditionally I used FP4. This is prohibitively expensive to process commercially, so I haven't shot much of it since I came back to photography. This is a bit cheaper per roll, but how much will it cost me to develop it myself?

Is it just too extravagant to farm out the boring bit to other people? It feels like "cheating". But why?

Cost to develop black and white film is virtually nothing.  I cant see how it is even possible to be put off by the cost of doing it yourself. 

Kodak HC-110, a one liter bottle costs $28.  You can process 2 rolls of film with as little as 11 mls of this concentrate (dilution E).  That's around 90 rolls of film for $28.
Stop bath, just buy vinegar from the store, usually a few bucks per gallon.   Lasts forever.
Ilford Rapid Fixer is under $20 a bottle.  You can process 16-24 rolls per dilution.  The bottle makes 5 dilutions so that's 100 rolls or so.

That's a LOT of film processed for very very little money.

One can go even further by developing in cafenol, or many of the Pyro developers.  You are then taling pennies a roll.  I buy HP5 in bulk 100' reels, and find the cost to be cheap.

[chris667]

I suppose.

I was really looking for reasons to justify getting a lab to process my film for me. I know I don't really need to justify that to anyone really, but still.

Am I really the only person that finds the bits before making the prints a massive drag?

[jharr]

You probably aren't the only one, but speaking for myself I enjoy the 'process' from reloading the film canisters from a bulk roll, to using fully manual cameras to making developers, developing and in my case scanning. I think of photography as the 'whole package' and I generally enjoy each step. If you don't like the developing part and can afford the lab fees, then send it out. Don't enjoy your photography less because you dread developing the film. There. Consider yourself justified! 

[Francois]

The way I see it, if you're not enjoying the development part, it's just that you haven't found a way to make it pleasurable.
For me, developing film is a bit like meditation. I count seconds and don't let anything else distract me.

Also, there's nothing like pulling a freshly developed film out of the fixer and seeing that it worked once again!
And then waiting for the washer to be done before unspooling and putting photo-flo on the film and popping it in the drying cabinet.

[Cadha13]

Five years ago I decided to start developing negs at home. Why not, it's not very expensive, my experience showed that I can do a lot with a little bit of chemicals, like Rodinal stand developing, rapid fx and scanning. That works, very well for normally exposed, low contrast negatives and boost it through printing/scanning.

Just to make sure to not let stuff sit around for more than 3 months! Nothing like the crud stuck in rapid fix bottle!

Wait till you learn to wet print. I have just started, and it amazing.

Also having the B/W negs developed at a lab is kinda of a luck of the draw. There's no standard processing for it, and who knows what might (not) come out.   

[chris667]

Oh, I can wet print.

Anyway, I decided to get my XP2 processed commercially. Three reasons:

1. I am keeping my local photography shop in business.
2. I work full-time, and have very limited spare time. Getting the lab to do what I think are the boring bits frees up time for the bits I enjoy.
3. I managed to pick up a load of out of date XP2 for cheap.