p.1 #1 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
Well I did what I always said I would never do, I am now shooting film on two different Leica bodies (M6, IIIf) with a mix of screw mount and M Leica lenses.
I have shot about 5 rolls of film so far and have had 2 developed at a local camera shop. The reason I have chosen to do this is my project in Parma Italy. This is a historic city and I find that the vintage lenses, bodies, and lenses give me results that I don't get with my digital M11 and modern Summilux lenses. So I will incorporate the film into the project along with the digital wok. Plus, the film process turns out to be fun and inspiring to do.
One thing I found quickly is that the expense of film, processing, and scanning at labs is irritatingly high. Plus the results were not what I hoped as the local labs standard is low quality jpeg scans. I want better, less expense, more control, and better quality scans. So, I have decided to process, and scan myself. I have assembled the following kit.
A Lab-Box Pro daylight developing tank using, mono-bath chemistry and all needed accessories.
A Valoi Easy 35 vII scanning setup using with my SL3 and 50mm APO-SL lens with extension tubes for 1:1 reproduction.
The total cost of the processing and scanning kit was just under $450. The consumable cost of doing my own processing I estimate to be less that $1.50 per 36 frame roll. I should quickly be able to recover the investment in equipment as high quality TIFF scanning here is between $27 and $30 per roll. I get 60mpx DNG RAW files to work with which I strongly prefer to what the labs offer.
So that is the theory at this point. We will see how this works out. I am sure to screw stuff up at the beginning. My intent with this thread is to share the adventure, headaches, failures, successes, and resultant images with everyone here in the hoes that I will receive some good advice, tips, and others might also find it interesting and useful. Everyone is invited to contribute to this thread as they see fit.
Below is a photograph of my entire assembled kit ready to process and scan my first roll of Ilford HP5+ 400. It is a small kit, doesn't require a darkroom or any real installation. So far my Wife is OK with my using the guest/my (she never goes in there) bath as long as I clean up and store everything immediately on finishing each time.
p.1 #2 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
Enjoy!
I'll be curious to see if you find that your high-res TIFF files actually make much difference with B&W film. I scan my negatives as TIFFs for archiving, but I export JPEGs for editing; I find that reasonably high-res JPEGs (360 dpi, 2048 pixels) work fine for editing B&W, especially since my edits are mainly adjustments to black and white point, contrast, a bit of mid-tone detail, sometimes a tiny bit of sharpening, maybe some dodging and burning here and there, etc. along with the usual dust and hair removal edits.
But it all depends on what you plan to do with your files: if you're making large digital prints I'm sure the TIFFs are a better choice. I almost never print my photos (I have no place to store or hang prints) so the JPEGs work for my purposes; I mainly post my photos to Flickr and occasionally social media.
p.1 #3 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
It's a good kit to start out with even I have no personal experience with the temperature-controlled Lab Box Pro development tank. I am using an older std development tank (500 ml volume) with plastic reels for 35 and 120 films. I always control the water temperature myself with a thermometer, all B&W developments I do at 20 deg C and mix water and developer to adjust the temperature accordingly. Same I do for C-41 and E-6 developments - here I just pre-heat the developer and bleach/fixer storage containers to the required temperature in a vanity sink and water bath. Where I would be cautious to use is the squeegee - biggest con of it is that small debris particles can cause streaks on the film strip when swiping to rinse droplets off. Instead, I replaced the squeegee with a distilled water rinse and shake droplets off mechanically before hanging the film strip to dry. This works much better and leaves the film unharmed.
p.1 #4 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
retrofocus wrote:
Where I would be cautious to use is the squeegee - biggest con of it is that small debris particles can cause streaks on the film strip when swiping to rinse droplets off. Instead, I replaced the squeegee with a distilled water rinse and shake droplets off mechanically before hanging the film strip to dry. This works much better and leaves the film unharmed.
I let the wetting agent do its thing and never use a squeegee or my fingers; never had any streaks or scratches but I think it depends on your water (my water is not hard and I never bother with distilled water).
I use the Ilford method for the rinsing: fill the tank with water and invert 5 times and pour out, fill it again and invert 10 times, fill it again and invert 20 times, and then for the final rinse I use a wetting agent in water and invert five times, hang to dry, no squeegee. I've developed close to 200 films now and never got any streaking, but if our water was hard I'd use distilled water for that final rinse.
p.1 #5 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
bjhurley wrote:
I let the wetting agent do its thing and never use a squeegee or my fingers; never had any streaks or scratches but I think it depends on your water (my water is not hard and I never bother with distilled water).
I use the Ilford method for the rinsing: fill the tank with water and invert 5 times and pour out, fill it again and invert 10 times, fill it again and invert 20 times, and then for the final rinse I use a wetting agent in water and invert five times, hang to dry, no squeegee. I've developed close to 200 films now and never got any streaking, but if our water was hard I'd use distilled water for that final rinse....Show more →
I used wetting agent a few times years ago when I started out doing my developments. Made no good experience with it - every time I used it, it left residue behind on the negative which was difficult to remove in digital PP after scanning, so I had to wash the film again in dist. water anyway. I fully gave up on wetting agent, it did not work for me.
p.1 #6 · Learning the Leica M6,Leica IIIf and shooting film
retrofocus wrote:
I fully gave up on wetting agent, it did not work for me.
Totally understandable, it's one of the interesting things about developing film: what works perfectly for some people doesn't work at all for others. There are so many variables at play in home developing, it's far from a controlled environment and nobody's setup or practices are exactly the same.
