After years of hesitation, I was finally convinced to give DIY film development of black & white film a go. All thanks to Jimmy who even helped me pick up a set of the developing kit when he bought his recently. I rushed over to ThirtySix during lunch to pick up the stuffs and he gave me a 5 minutes crash course on how to go about developing film. Ermm … a super rush training and I left the shop still in a state of confusion. All I remembered was him saying ‘Okay … you shake it every minute’ … or something like that.
I managed to roll the film and now it is sitting in the developing tank … waiting for Fitzand to go to bed before I actually attempt developing it. Excited yet worried. Why worried? I haven’t actually noted down the ratio of mixing the stuffs, just popped in some water to make ice cubes to bring down the temperature and also have not noted down the development time. My old brain cannot be depended on to remember everything and I don’t wanna screw up my first roll. 😀
I do have a timer/guide installed on my Android phone … guess I’ll use that to help me later. Let’s see how it goes. 😀
While at ThirtySix, I also picked up a copy of the Japanese Snap Shot magazine … sent to me by none other than the very famous Mijonju. I’m very sure many of you guys know him … the handsome young man who brings us the hit Mijonju Show on YouTube. He was featured in a 4 page (!!!) special in the magazine and I got an autographed copy. 😀
Don’t trust what he wrote (in the image above). He is the biggest ‘poison master’ in getting victims (like me) to buy more cameras and he dare say his poison grew from mine?!! 😀
I’ll go entertain my little boss now and start work on my developing process later tonight. If all goes well … I’ll post the photos. However if I screw up … I’ll post the horror story.
* UPDATE
I made it!!! I made it!!! My 1st DIY developed roll of B&W film … survived! Oh well … some shots were overexposed during shooting but at least the rest were okay. Let’s see the scans tomorrow. 😀
Nice kit! From the picture, did you get stopbath? You might want to consider getting a bottle of stopbath and add an additional step to the process. This is because when remaining traces of developer mixed with fixer will produce sulphur dioxide which will potentially make the house smell if your area is not well ventilated. Congrats to your successful development! 🙂
@Patrick : I am using vinegar as the stopbath. 😀 Thanks.
Hi. Nice result you got there. May I know how much did you bought for those? I’m in the same situation as you. I have though about developing Black and white myself but still have not try to do it yet.
@Declan : Thank you. I can’t remember exactly the price but it was around S$100+ for everything. You should give it a go. I was a little worried in the past but now it seems pretty easy (though I still struggle trying to load a roll of 120 into the holder). Hahhaa.