These are just a relatively sparse list of developers I have used for black and white film.

Rodinal (from Labo-Argentique)

High acutance, my mainly used so far, generally at 1+25 to 1+50. Reveal grain

Used 2 times to do semi-stand at 1+100, agitate 1 minute, stand 30 minutes, 4 inversions, then 30 minutes of stand again.

When developing Ilford Delta 3200, it is better to push development time one extra stop when using the time form Massive Dev chart to get a more contrasted/denser negative that is easier to scan.

After getting bad results from one development session and not being sure why, I decided that every C41 development should be logged

Film surface area

The best kit I can get for C41 color chemistry is the Bellini one. It is a kit for 16 rolls of 24 exposures as per its datasheet.

Because the lifetime of the bleach, fixer, and stabilizer is higher than the developer, you can also purchase the developer part separately on the Bellini kit to “recharge” it. Everything here is talking about one bottle of the developer specifically, and not specifically the lifetime of one kit

Those are attempts at developing film with Caffenol

First roll, Fomapan 100 from Flexaret (test) 2024-09-08

This is a roll of film that I knew was damaged by the camera (rollers for 35mm film dug into the emulsion and backing paper. I fixed it since)

Tried to develop it in Caffenol’s- main recipe

• Sodium Carbonate 54 g
• Vitamin C 16g
• Instant coffee (Belle France, store brand) 40g
• tap water to 1L

I think temperature was around 24 degrees, but I proceeded as if it was 20 degrees.

I scan all my film myself using a DSLR. I am currently waiting on a Copy stand. used contraption I 3d printed in the past, but recently got an Essential Film Holder.

I attempt to expose the histogram to the right to get the most information possible in the shadows.

I align the camera with the film by looking at a mirror though the camera and trying to have the center of the lens in the center of the

Easel

L P L 21 x 26 cm

Max paper size usable on this thing is 20x25 (8"x10"), there is a screws on the back to set the offset of the top left corner for the margins. Sadly it is not graduated in any way so you cannot easily set it to half an inch…

Note: Base is magnetic, so it should be possible to use Paterson marginless magnetic holders, if those are any good?

So far, I only have done a couple of sessions of color printing, and I am unsure what I am doing is best or advisable, but so far has been mostly successful

The Bellini kit is for 5L. though I prepared only what was needed for 1L of each (beside the stabilizer)

I store all chemicals in collapsible bottles so they do not contain air, to limit oxidation.

The stabilizer should be used “fresh” for each 1 minute wash step, so I dump it every single time I use it.

My scanning setup works better on full, uncut rolls of film.

• Cut a piece of the leader at a slant for easier insertion
• Put in essential film holder
• Turn on light source
  • Cool light for color negs
  • Medium light for black and white (does not matter to much)
  • Warm light for color slide (at least for Ektachrome)
• Plug DSLR to PC
  • EOS Utility is probably running, if not start it
• Camera in M mode
• Put the old Macro lens, it does not talk to the camera and is already stepped down
• Set white balance to correspond to the configured light
• Attach camera to the Durst enlarger column
• Align film holder on top of light, use 3d printed spacer to help diffuse light
• Fill the frame with the negative, and focus on the grain using the 10x zoom in live view
• Set camera to 100 ISO
• Expose with shutter speed to push histogram to the right
• Take the first frame of the shot
  • This creates a folder in C:\User\<logon name>\Pictures\<today's date>
• Open Filmomat SmartConvert
• In preferences, change the hot folder to the one found above
• You should see that picture, adjust settings for density, contrast, color…….
  • tip: Select greyscale in the UI if you shoot black and white on the first frame, that shows the true contrast. This setting persist for all subsequent frames too.
• Each time you take a picture of the next frame, check exposure to see if all the dynamic range is well available at the top of the histogram, then adjust frame by frame in SmartConvert
• Once you are done, export the TIFF files
• Open those for furher editing (I do not crop them in Filmomat, I do that in DarkTable for example)

Stabilizer

The kit comes with enough stabilizer concentrate to make like 20L of the stuff. The Stabilizer is used as preservative for the dyes, and should be the last thing to hit your film. I would advise

• Mix it with deionized or demineralized water (whatever you put in a clothes iron should be fine)
• Add a wetting agent to the stabilizer I personally use Agepon because my lab stock BERGGER producs very well. Photo-Flo or the Ilford one, it does not matter. Add the recommended concentration on the packaging to your stabilizer when you mix it (Agepon is 1:500)
• After fixing, wash using the ILFORD method of doing 5, then 10, then 20 inversion with running water. But do it with water temperture in the range for the stabilizer (between 32C and 38C)
• Stabilizer should be used one shot (only use fresh one). Do the 3 minute continuous agitation. Because of the added wetting agent it may get very foamy in the top of the tank. Let the film stand in the wetting agent for like a minute then pull the reels out and shake them out to remove excess. squeegee the film with your gloves between two fingers wet with the stabilizer solution.