cheaper chemicals

[Jakecb]

I find plastic Patterson reels perfectly adequate too. Oxfordshire isn't as dusty as Dhaka (I fondly believe) but I wouldn't want a hairdryer in my darkroom blowing everything around anyway.

Jake

[cesare]

Personally I think the trick to develop cheaply is to find a process that means you reach the maximum rolls/litre of your chosen developer without over-complicating your process.

I used to re-use chemistry, and keep different bottles of different chemistry (so unused, 1 use etc) but I found this to be error prone.

My current process is based around jobo 2500 series tanks, which are used in a rotary processor. I need 150ml of chemistry to cover a single roll of 120 film, or 250ml for 2 rolls.

I use xtol for B&W development, and it recommends 100ml minimum chemistry per film. Since I like the look of the chemistry diluted 1+1, I use 100ml of xtol + 100ml of water in a normal 1 film development, or 200ml + 200ml of water for 2 rolls. This means I get the maximum 50 rolls out of a 5L kit of xtol, using the chemistry single shot so it's as fresh and reproducable as possible.

5L of xtol costs around £8. Since this develops 50 rolls for me, the cost is around 15p per film.

For fix I use the same amount of chemistry, using Fotospeed FX30, which can be diluted 1+9 for film (5 mins fixing time). 5L of fixer is £25 or so. This will be enough for me to fix 300 films, so around 10p per film.

I use tap water for stop.

So, my chemistry costs are around 25p per film, and for a £4 roll of film. personally I don't think it's worth me trying harder to reduce the cost as i'm currently around 6% of the film cost on chemistry.

I guess buying rotary tanks and some mechanism to rotate them is probably the major cost in equipment. The jobo tanks are very good though, and I prefer the larger diameter for loading (and support for 5*4 development as an option too!).