The new film development machine is a beauty. I just got my first films out of the machine last night around 1am in the morning, and I am delighted.
It has been around three weeks of problems. Mainly due to either me not knowing something rather critical, or just bad luck. I have spent a small fortune in wasted E6 chemical sets, but I had anticipated that I would mess up quite a bit, and probably will continue to do so for some time to come. There is a learning curve, and I have found that I always need to give anything new at least a year, before I can give a valid appraisal of it.
The Dev.a film development machine is extremely well built and thought out, but that does not mean you can just put the films in and not think about things. I have found that I have to be extremely methodical in what I’m doing. For instance, I have an independent measuring jug for each chemical. I do not mix them, as this is going to cause problems for sure……
As for mixing and pouring chemicals, it is paramount that no contamination happens. It has been surprising to me to find out how easily I can put something down on a workbench, into a pool of liquid, only to ask myself ‘what is that?’.
First I found that I managed to spill chemicals outside of their trays, and so I ended up going to the local hardware store here in Edinburgh to buy some giraffe watering cans. They have long necks, so I’m able to pour the mix into each tray without suffering spill over.
Then a crucial part of the machine broke on me. I appreciate that the Dev.a is very much a young product. It’s a small company and so I can appreciate there will be teething problems with the machine. It was good to find out that their support is excellent. Very quick response, and very quick solutions also. I was posted a replacement fix for this which is more robust than what came with the machine.
The biggest error I made was buying 5 litre processing kits, and assuming I could mix up 1litre at a time. No no no no no! You need to mix up the entire 5 litres, as the dilution of the 5 L kit is quite different from the 1 L kits. I had two weeks of seriously underexposed images and it was only when I did a 2nd process on one of the 5 L kits that I realised some of the bottles were more than 50% empty. It dawned on me that the mix I was using was incorrect.
I am also finding that when I am loading the films onto the reels in the little silver dark tent I have, that it is becoming much easier each time I do it. I had done several practice runs, just sitting on my sofa with my eye’s closed, and when things don’t work - it’s good to have a look to see why you’re getting stuck. There are a few little ‘gotcha’s that once you know what’s going on, makes all the difference when trying to fix it inside the dark tent.
So, I think my Christmas is going to be full of processing films. I have around 160 rolls to do from the past year.
This has given me a lot of inner peace. I sometimes feel that if you want to do something properly, you really need to do it yourself. I got sick of putting my trust in film labs to do a good job this past 8 years or so. I think Covid has knocked many businesses and supply chains to smithereens.
Off to process more films…..
Merry Xmas.