Originally posted by lithos The Lithos approved and patent (applied for) alternatives to the above:
Dark Gallon Jugs: Soft drink bottles. Try to use ones that held something that was citrus-flavoured; the ascorbic acid helps the developer. Rinse well, of course. Keep them in a cupboard, and they'll be fine.
Clearing agent - I don't use it. Just rinse the film well.
A good timer: I use the stopwatch on my mobile phone. Oven timers are also good 'n' cheap.
A clip to hold film: those metal coathangers that consist of a bar with two clips on either end. I think they're for pants or something. Use bulldog clips to weight the ends, if necessary.
Other tips:
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, get a Paterson Tank with the white self-loading nylon reels. There will be people who state that "real" men use the old-skool stainless steel reels, because that's what they used in the seventies when Ansel Adams was still breathing, dammit. I can only assume these people took some bad acid while inhaling potassium ferrocyanide fumes about the same time as NVA tanks (no relation to the Paterson Tank) rolled through Saigon and out the other side, and continued to do so as said tanks rolled on to Cambodia.
You'll thank me for this later.
There are other self-loading reels (SLR's - not the kind my Army field during the Vietnam Wa- I'm sorry, I don't know where all these references are coming from) that a weak and inferior to the Paterson reels. They are hard and inflexible, and shall snap like the proverbial oak tree in the storm of the loading of a particularly bad roll of film, not bend like the reeds that are the Paterson reels, as Aesop spoke of.
Paterson are, pretty much, the kings of darkroom supplies. They also make a nifty thermometer that's built in a stirrer.
A couple of notes.
While a changing bag is essentual if you don't have total darkness, you may also wish to make a "plug in" shade for the window. you can do this with a sheet of thin plywood or masonite, with dark foam at the edges to make a tight fit and light seal.
While the changing bag helps, getting the whole room dark prevents accidents.
Also, a washing agent is needed to prevent spots, not to clean the film. In effect it is really a very mild soap that changes the surface tension so that spots don't form
I would also re-consider the 1 galllon jugs as this is very large for the chemicals, and when partially used allows oxidation of the developer (not good)
Consider a developing tank that lets you do 2 or 4 rolls of film at a time and batch process. this will help you out quite a bit.
for hanging the film, there are 2 issues you will have, first is keeping them streight and untangled. I would suggest using the following.
- shower curtain hangers, so they can be hung off the curtain rod, plus the smallest spring paper clips you can find, These work on both ends, 1 to hold the neg's the other to weight them down. the pant hangers also would work as above but might distort the film
Your biggest emeny is dust. It will be everywhere.
Also note that once you have the film in the developing tank you can work in room light.
When I did developing 20 years ago, using Tri X and Kodak standard chemicals time and temperature were very forgiving. It was (from memory) 6 1/2 minutes at 21C, and the data sheet for the developer gave you time / temperature charts for different temperatures and push processing.
I'm not sure what films and chemicals are used today
You also need to consider counter space. You need this for stabalizing the temperature of your chemicals. I used a large developing tray, which I used to set the temperature of all chemicals (this was more important for cibachrome printing but did it for B&W also)
Also note that while you can get a stir stick with integrated thermometer, I wouldn't. there is too much risk of mixing chemicals and contaminating things.
the thermometer is only used in water. either the water prior to mixing chemicals, or in the tempoerature control bath, but NEVER in the chemicals themselves.
You should have one graduated cylinder for each chemical (again to avoid inadvertant mixing, as well as one stir stick per chemical.