How can I minimize the cost of developing Medium format film?

[haring]

I just love my old cameras. I am just wondering what are the tricks to minimize the cost of developing medium format film? I would like to have professional quality.

1. I guess the first is to buy expired film? (Which is the best source to get the film, ebay?)
2. I guess I need to develop my own film on my own.
3. I need to scan the negatives with my own scanner.

Which is the best scanner to scan medium format film? Do you use one or you send it away to scan it?
BUT probably the most important question: Is it worth it to develop and scan your own film?

[zachary]

Im not shooting medium format right now (my shutter needs to be repaired) but I do develop my own 35mm.

Its pretty affordable really.

I use a Canoscan 8000f, it does both medium format and 35mm and it only cost me $15 at Goodwill.

Though honestly, if its something you enjoy the little costs shouldn't bother you. I just enjoy shooting film so much more than digital.

[haring]

do you get a CD at the end?

[ronocnikral]

what are we talking about here...b&w? c-41? e-6? 120? 220?

b&w, do at home. scan all your self. don't over complicate. c-41, take to wally world. e-6, bring the vaseline.

[zachary]

Originally Posted by haring

do you get a CD at the end?

Huh? Not when I do it myself.

I develop my own b&w, which accounts for 98% of all my shooting. When the mood strikes me to do color (usually at a family members request or when the wife and I are on vacation) I take it to Walgreens. Say what you want, but the one in Wharton does pretty good work.

When I develop my own b&w, I cut it into 5-shot strips and put it into archival sheets which then goes into a 3-ring binder.

My plan is to take good care of my binders, and they should long outlive me. Id like to see anyone say that about digital "untitled.jpg" files on a hard drive.

[haring]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

what are we talking about here...b&w? c-41? e-6? 120? 220?

b&w, do at home. scan all your self. don't over complicate. c-41, take to wally world. e-6, bring the vaseline.

120 or 220.

[haring]

Originally Posted by zachary

Huh? Not when I do it myself.

I develop my own b&w, which accounts for 98% of all my shooting. When the mood strikes me to do color (usually at a family members request or when the wife and I are on vacation) I take it to Walgreens. Say what you want, but the one in Wharton does pretty good work.

When I develop my own b&w, I cut it into 5-shot strips and put it into archival sheets which then goes into a 3-ring binder.

My plan is to take good care of my binders, and they should long outlive me. Id like to see anyone say that about digital "untitled.jpg" files on a hard drive.

I don't think Walgreens develop medium format (120 or 220) film.

[zachary]

Originally Posted by haring

I don't think Walgreens develop medium format (120 or 220) film.

No, they dont. Neither does Walmart. They just send it off.

If your shooting for yourself, just try b&w. The film is cheap and so are the chemicals. Its super easy and alot of fun. Pick you up a good used scanner and your in business.

[Anthony Martinez]

Originally Posted by zachary

My plan is to take good care of my binders, and they should long outlive me. Id like to see anyone say that about digital "untitled.jpg" files on a hard drive.

I'll say it: my digital files will outlive me, my children (should I ever have any), and grandchildren (see previous). My film on the other hand quite probably will not, but then it's a good thing I scan all my negatives.

As Zachary said, developing your own B&W is both easy and inexpensive. If you want to get E-6 film developed by a lab your options vary from expensive to uncomfortably expensive as far as I've been able to tell. Since turnaround isn't important with the rolls of E-6 I have now, I'll be sending them off via Wal-Mart in hopes of decent slides in return without the ~$12 a roll cost of having AZ Photo do the processing here in Houston. They do excellent work, but that's a lot money I don't necessarily have.

C-41 can be done at home, but unless your temperature/time control is very good it seems that the results can vary pretty significantly. That is, of course, based on my own limited experience and should probably be taken with a grain or nine of salt. If I'm not mistaken KJ Smith and maybe The Philosopher have been known to develop their own C-41 (and maybe even E-6?) with good results.

For film, check out Freestyle (Freestyle Photographic Supplies - Traditional Black & White Film, Paper, Chemicals, Holgas and ULF) they run pretty good deals sometimes and keep a nice stock/variety of film.

Enjoy!

[zachary]

Originally Posted by Anthony Martinez

I'll say it: my digital files will outlive me, my children (should I ever have any), and grandchildren (see previous). My film on the other hand quite probably will not, but then it's a good thing I scan all my negatives.!

You and I have two very different opinions. I think negatives will last longer than 1's and 0's. Why do I say that?

A negative is a physical, tangible, object.


Digital files are on your hard drive. Hard drives go bad. They crash. Media becomes outdated. Keep em' in the cloud? Who's to say that cloud will be around in 20, 30, 40 years?

Flickr may not exist. Why rely on Yahoo to keep your memories?

I bet 25 years ago people thought their floppies were a great way to keep their data. 10 Years ago everyone was backing up to CD's.

Where are they now? CD's scratch. Floppies get lost or become demagnetized. Do you have a floppy drive? I dont.

External hard drive? Sure, that will last forever. How long will USB be around? I dont know. What about the formatting? Expect NTFS partitions to still be the standard in 30, 40, 50 years? I doubt it.

While your grandchildren are trying to get your archaic 1TB NTFS usb hard drive to mount, mine will be holding up my negatives to the light and seeing pictures of their once-youthful grandparents.

Digital hasnt become popular because its the best archival system. Its become popular because people are suckers for instant gratification and are generally lazy.

That's my opinion. FWIW

[Anthony Martinez]

A strange opinion from someone boasting the location of a dark server room, but you're entitled to your beliefs. Film degrades with time, just as the optical backing of an archival optical disk does. There's very little you can do to eliminate that, and by very little I mean nothing. You cannot make an absolute exact copy of a negative, you can make many exact copies of 1's and 0's. The law of probability is not in the favor of a single piece of optical media.

Who uses Flickr as a backup anyway?! Photo sharing? Sure. Backup?

For what it's worth, my Grandfather still uses the same scripts he wrote at NASA when landing on the moon was our mission as analysis tools for appropriate fluid dynamics problems on his Windows 7 machine today. Microsoft, quite clearly, did not exist when he wrote them - magnetic tape was the bleeding edge. So, that data made it from punch cards, to tape, to magnetic disk, to hard drive, to optical, etc - and across several operating systems all the while maintaining data integrity and functionality. I could rewrite the whole thing in more modern FORTRAN or in MATLAB, but the fact remains that the original code can still be executed and return the same values it did half a century ago. Heck, if he wants he can just ask Wolfram Alpha to solve the same problems but you'd have to know him to understand why he won't do that. Despite being a rocket scientist it took 45min to explain to him how to use Google Latitude on his phone so he could see my Dad's location. Maybe not despite, more like because! Incomplete explanations are not acceptable in his world.

[zachary]

Yes, I am an IT pro by trade. But I still hold to my belief in things analog.

I do not own a cell phone, and I shoot film. And always will.

[venchka]

Back on topic:
Affordable film & processing.
1. I have had good luck finding fresh to slightly outdated, cold stored, film in all sizes and varieties from members of various forums. TPF, Rangefinder, Large Format, Leica users Group. The price is generally at least half of retail depending on age. I would never ever trust ebay for film.
2. craigslist and forums are a good place to find the hardware for B&W film developing. A tank or two, reels to fill the tanks, a good thermometer, timer, funnel or 2, & a graduate for measuring liquids are about all you need. You may find complete darkrooms for the taking. I store chemicals in empty Arizona Tea amber plastic containers and empty wine in a box bladders. Works for a year or longer.
3. Xtol, Rodinal, Diafine, etc. are cheap. Freestyle Photo "Arista" brand products (film, paper, chemicals) are inexpensive and very good.
4. Scanner: Complete, low mileage scanners aren't too hard to find. Make sure they are complete. You need the film holders & software to make them work. Epson is the most common brand. Any Epson scanner designed to scan medium format film will be good enough for prints up to 16x20. To my eyes' standards. YMMV.
5. Computer & storage space & software: Medium format, 1600 DPI, 16 bit TIFF files are ~50Mb & up. 48 bit color files will be much larger. Don't make smaller files. You're wasting your time. An external hard drive is a good place to keep your files after they have been processed. Lightroom 3.x will do anything most folks need to do to a decent scan of a decent negative. I get by with Windows XP (32 bit) and 4 Gb of RAM. YMMV.
That covers the big chunks.
Good luck. Go for it!
ps: If you don't mind waiting 2 weeks, placing color negative (C-41) film in a processing envelop at Walmart to be sent to a Fuji lab is the least expensive way to get useable negatives. Especially if you give them 220 film. Most of the time, they charge $0.84/roll for developing. 120 or 220. Very occasionally they may charge a little more. Pay and be quiet. Don't upset the apple cart.
pps: Back in the Dark Ages, all film went in an envelop to be sent to a lab somewhere. I know. I worked in a place that sent the envelopes and I worked in a place that opened and returned the envelopes.

[venchka]

Zachary & Anthony: All this 'puter talk is making my head hurt.
"De film, boss! De film!"

[zachary]

Sorry to the OP, didnt mean to hijack the thread. like most photographers, im very opinionated.

Here is an interesting essay which lead me to think the way I do. Please give it a read.

Light and time may not be endangered species but we are still always losing them. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!