Question about processing film
Why so serious?
effron wrote: Its costly. Just processing film is simple, then you'll want to make prints, no? Cha ching. I still have a basement full of film processing equipment, a couple Omega D-II enlargers, (one B&W, one Color) out of date chemicals and paper, etc. Its not a "dip your toe" endeavor. I am happy with digital and will never do film again, but to someone that never did, it could have a certain enchantment......
Or not...
DSRay wrote:
effron wrote: Its costly. Just processing film is simple, then you'll want to make prints, no? Cha ching. I still have a basement full of film processing equipment, a couple Omega D-II enlargers, (one B&W, one Color) out of date chemicals and paper, etc. Its not a "dip your toe" endeavor. I am happy with digital and will never do film again, but to someone that never did, it could have a certain enchantment......
Or not...
I have to agree that when I first started doing my own processing it was a magical kind of thing. But then that magic wore off after a few years. I still did it myself, because for one I was a control freak, and I had a processor ruin a roll of film for me once. As Barry stated B&W is the easiest since it is the cold process. Colour on the other hand is well a total PITA in your bathroom, which is where I did my work most of the time. I used to do it sometimes but shot a whole lot more B&W.
Then there is printing anything past a contact sheet. More costs as Ernesto pointed out. Then there is the absolute joy of finding a really good place to store all of those extra fun toys, along with your regular fun toys. Then if you were like me when I was young, and moving a fair amount, jamming all of those toys, chemicals, papers, and boxes of negatives every time you move.
Oh I so love digital. I do not miss it at all. Am I glad that I did it? Yes in that I can fully appreciate how great digital is, and how nice digital processing is over film. My advice is see if any of your local colleges are doing film photography classes than include a lab for processing to see how far we have come, and whether it is for you.
Use somebody else's darkroom for this. Making do without a proper darkroom is not fun.
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