This past weekend, after watching several YouTube and reading the chemical instructions many times over I ventured into developing my own sheet film. After watching even more YouTube videos about development tanks, I settled on the Stearman Press SP-445. It processes 4 sheets using only just under 500mls of chemicals (once diluted). From the reviews, it seemed the simplest developing tank system to use and I need simple 🙂 You load the sheet film just like in the film holders so it’s not too fiddly, although I did scratch a negative 😦

I purchased the Rollei Colour Chem C-41 1 litre kit and then got my stuff ready – plastic jugs, bowl, thermometer, some bottles to place the chemicals in. I also downloaded the Lab Timer app to keep to the timings. Ran the hot water, chucked in the thermometer and then got myself all excited about mixing liquids… yeah I need to get out more.

So I followed the instructions and the timers, (near enough) agitated a few times and then hung them up to dry. The first time was better than the second, as I put in too much liquid and there was some leakage, but I know for next time. That was one of a few schoolboy errors I made… the more drastic one you will see below. Yes, pegs… the clothes pegs left marks on my negatives… but funnily enough not on all of them.

Anyway, on to the results and we have a very mixed bag. Firstly, the picture that came out properly

Lux001

And now the rest….. So we have:

  • focusing issues – camera technique
  • focusing cloth over part of the lens – sloppy camera technique
  • fogging – development tank not being sealed properly
  • light leak – issues with the dark slides?
  • discolouration – the chemical processing

As we can see there is a myriad of issues to contend with. But this has not put me off home development and in fact, I am more spurred on to take more pictures to get in more home processing experience. I already have my chemicals for the black and white processing, so just need to get out and take some pictures.

One thing I don’t understand is the mixed results within the same processing batch… food for thought… and answers are welcome.