I managed to process my first roll of film successfully on Christmas day. It is now the 29th, and I’ve processed around 40 rolls of film.
There hasn’t been a lot to figure out, but one bit of advice I would give anyone who decides to give film processing a go, is to read the documentation thoroughly. I noticed some of my films weren’t as vibrant as others, and when I looked into this, there are a couple of points to understand:
Each kit processes around 12 rolls. As you get towards the end of the process run, the chemicals are getting tired, and the manufacturer tends to have a range of process times. The chemicals most critical for this as the first developer and colour developer. It took me about 3 days to figure out that I need to have 2 separate programs for my automatic film processor. Since I do two processes, each with 6 rolls loaded into one drum, I needed to use the times for 6 rolls, and for 12 rolls chemical exhaustion. Once I figured that out, the films are all looking really nice :-)
Fuji films require a bit more processing that other films apparently. Something like 15% more. I haven’t gone anywhere near this as yet - I am quite happy with what the Bellini E6 kits are doing, but I am going to experiment. I’ve been advised to add a further 30 seconds on to each of the programmed processes I have. So this is interesting, as there is no documentation about this - I just found it on a forum, and someone pointed to a JOBO instruction manual which claims most Fujicrhomes require a bit more processing.
You need to go do a bit more research, and understand that you’ll be on a learning curve for a while.
There is something very special about opening the lid of the drum to take the films out once processed. I have to go stick them in a stabiliser chemical mix for around a minute before I can go and hang them up to dry. I have noticed that sometimes the film curls and can end up touching the other parts of the film, so the stabiliser does not get to cover the film 100%. When that happens, I can end up with a streak in the middle of the film. It is recoverable by simply putting the film back into the stabiliser (a soapy bath) for another minute and make sure it’s evenly distributed. The streaks disappear.
But as I say: something very exciting seeing my films come out and get a glimpse of them before I leave them to hang.
Rather than feeling this is a chore that I’d prefer to hand off to someone else, I really enjoy processing my films, and it’s really nice to be involved now, with all parts of the process: Capture, Process, Edit and Print. Something very special and engaging about being involved all the way through that I can’t explain.
Delighted with where things are going, and I just need to order up a few more process kits, as I still have quite a few rolls to do !
The Dev.a film processor
Just a quick word on the film processor by Analogico. There are a few ‘gotcha’s that anyone approaching film processing has to be aware of. Being methodical, and doing a proper ‘reset’ before each new chemical mix is advisable, irrespective of whether you buy an automatic film processor or doing it manually. The Dev.a machine takes a lot of pain out of the process, is extremely well built.
I’ve had a few questions to ask about it over the past week and the support team have been extremely responsive. I normally get a reply within an hour or so, and the support is very knowledgeable. I’m still such a newbie to all of this and I really want to support any company that goes into making a film processing machine in this day and age. It is quite an undertaking, and I think they have taken the right approach to be as proactive as they can on any after sales support. This is in my view, going to help the machine be a success.