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| Standard 8 - test film 1 |
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| Test film 1 |
Having made the decision to purchase B+W chemistry I looked online for
suppliers and came across First Call. Whilst I had used ID11 in the college
darkroom and read a lot about the Rodinol formula (rodinol was an Agfa product
which is no longer manufactured). I finally plumbed for first calls own brand
developer and fix which were economically priced. I also bought Kodak photo
flow and some stop bath as I thought that this might make snip tests faster by
performing multiple tests in the Dinky Dark Room at the same time in open trays
and placing the snips in the stop bath at the appropriate time.
I had filmed and demonstrated the Lomo tank loads and Bolex
loads and the majority of the Dinky Dark Room manufacture myself but I required
help to film an intro for the Dinky Dark Room and iwanted to document the B+W
processing but keep my attention on the job in hand to allow me to concentrate
on the task without filming to consider. I made arrangements with Kyle who had
been good enough to offer his help if necessary previously, to come over at the
weekend and give me a hand.
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| Standard 8 - Test film 2 |
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| Standard 8 - Mystery film - Glastonbury |
Double 8 again?
It had occurred to me that my judgement on the double 8 film I had tried to
develop in college may have been incorrect. I wondered if the snips that I had
taken from the film could have been just the leader as due to the film being
ran through the camera twice that the snips may have been just from the leader
required to load it and therefor fully exposed to light. I thought that it was
worth trying again. The developer and fixative where mixed up to the lowest
recommended ratio which slows down the chemistry and would make the situation
more controllable for a first attempt (there are also obvious economic
considerations). These were placed in a large bucket that was going to be the
water bath. Snip test strips were cut from several films (if the double 8
failed again I wanted to process some colour stock tests in B+W to check the
process being used was working) making sure to cut past any leader that may be
present and made the ‘dark room’ ready with trays to develop them. Once again
waiting for the correct temperature took an awful long time and slowed down the
experiments.
Processing
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| Mystery film - Glastonbury |
Once at temperature we began the snip test development with the same double 8
film as used in college following the instructions on the bottle concentrate
along with the basic process used in the college film developing room. I had to
keep my hands inside the sleeves of the box once started in order to prevent
light from entering the box and spoiling the tests. Once complete with no real
idea of what to expect the box was opened. I’m sure we both had a look of joy
on our faces as on the snips, image cells could quite clearly be seen.
upon this the other snip tests were abandoned and I set about loading the Lomo
tank with the rest of the same film. This was the first time that the tank had
been genuinely loaded with film to be developed, due to my test loads it was a
straight forward process in the dark room box which was then set aside and the
film tank was placed inside the large under bed box. We ran through the process
once again, with the full tank. The used Borax came out of the tank black from
the remjet, so did the rinse water and also the developer. The fix didn’t.
Chemicals should be removed from the tank in anticipation of the timer going
off. Ideally the timer should be going off as the next liquid is entering the
tank. Upon removing the lid of the tank once complete the remains of the remjet
could be seen on the film. The reel was opened and the film emptied into a
bucket of water to be washed across its length by hand. The remjet removal was
not a big problem and should not be seen as the daunting task that it has been
made out to be, it’s just another step to take if you want to develop motion
film. It does not need to be scrubbed as was commented on a forum. Once clean
it was given another wash including wetting agent and hung to dry on a clothes
rack. The images could be seen over the full length of the film. I think both
me and Kyle were buzzing by this point. Upon inspection of the film ends under
the scanner the images appeared quite grainy
but my brother and nephew could clearly be seen. Kyle had been over my
house for twelve hours at this point but it was a good end to a long day for
both of us.
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| Kodak Brownie 8mm movie camera 2 |
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| Shot - test film 1 & Mystery film |
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| Meopta admira 8f - Test film 2 |
The following day
I got up and set about developing the other test double 8 that I had shot on
the Meopta camera. Using the same process as before only increased the
development time by 30sec as recommended online, I developed the second film.
This also developed fine although I preferred the images that the Brownie gave
better.
Following the second success I immediately followed on by developing my mystery
double eight film that started this whole film development thing off. Again the
processing went without a hitch the film that came out of the tank was the best
yet. Well exposed and looking like…real negative. I could not work out the
images on the fil itself. It wa not until the film was under the scanner that
the mystery was solved . It was of Glastonbury as I had originaly thought, I just didn’t
remember shooting two films there. Excellent!
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| Test film 1 |
B+W 16mm
Processing the two films took the day up and that night feeling on a role I set
about developing the colleges own mystery film 16mm film left in the Donated
Bolex. I worked on this into the night, and only when the tank was opened did
it reveal its secret…it was blank. There were
some images of something (maybe the camera rolling with no lens?) at the
very end which proved that it had developed fine. This was a let down. The
other half of the film is still there to be developed but judging from the
second half of the film I wont be getting excited about it soon. Once
again
the actual process went off without
a hitch.
16mm - On the rack drying and Scanned image
