Colour film developed with B&W chemicals?

[Hallsy]

I have a few rolls of 120 Fuji 400H that I haven't had developed as yet.

Decided I might give home developing ago. Can I develop colour film in B&W chemicals? What would the effect be?

Obviosuly from then on I'll use a B&W film, but wondered how it would turn out with the colour film.

Also, thinking on a budget, what's the cheapest way to get into home developing?

I've seen some kits on ebay, Ilford ID11 (iirc), fixer & stop for about £30 delivered. Is that a reasonable price?

Where is a good place to buy the other necessities like dark bag, developing tank? Stuff like beakers, etc I'll just get from anywhere cheap.

Also, I've read a few guides on developing negatives, but what about if you wanted to try home printing (not scanning & printing from PC)?

 

[joxby]

I have a few rolls of 120 Fuji 400H that I haven't had developed as yet.

Decided I might give home developing ago. Can I develop colour film in B&W chemicals? What would the effect be?

Nope, not very effective, you might get an image you might not, either way its unlikely to be worth scanning, milky white very low contrast with an orange hue

Also, thinking on a budget, what's the cheapest way to get into home developing?
I've seen some kits on ebay, Ilford ID11 (iirc), fixer & stop for about £30 delivered. Is that a reasonable price?
Where is a good place to buy the other necessities like dark bag, developing tank? Stuff like beakers, etc I'll just get from anywhere cheap.

You can pick everything up fairly cheaply on Ebay, chances are it will be second hand, £30 seems fair enough shipped.

Also, I've read a few guides on developing negatives, but what about if you wanted to try home printing (not scanning & printing from PC)?

You'll need an enlarger

 

[Freester]

In my darkroom handbook it states that if you process colour film in B&W chemicals you will end up with an orange stain. It states then you can either print it on Panochromatic paper or remove the stain by soaking in wetting agent for 1 min then and then bleaching the film for 7-14 minutes in a solution of rapid fixer and citric acid!!! Sounds like a lot of hassle to me. Maybe sending them off to a developer may be easier?!

Checkout Silverprint or Nova for chemicals. They both charge and only offer courier delivery though so if you are near one them picking up is cheaper. Saying that on Silver print 5l ID11 + Ilford Stop + Ilford Rapid Fix comes to about 25 quid so you're not saving that much even if you pay postage.

Ebay seems to be best for Dark Bags and Dev Tanks. I got my dev tank 2nd hand off ebay. Silverprint sell it all new as well. As well as beakers etc. You will need a proper thermometer and a measuring cylinder as well as a minimum. I bought some cheap measuring jugs from Wilkinsons.

Best guide for developing negs is on the Ilford Website.

Home printing could get expensive. You need a darkroom and enlarger and trays. And a bit of room.

 

[Hallsy]

thanks for the replies! thinking about it, i had heard something about bleaching to get rid of staining. i'll just drop them in to my local developer's and buy some b&w film for home developing.

hmm, i'd guess that an enlarger might be pricey. perhaps i'll just go with a scanner and print digitally.

off to check ebay for 2nd hand bargains!

 

[Chappers]

You can develop colour film in B&W chemicals, BUT>>>>>. As said you'll end up with an overall orange cast. You can print through this but it puts the exposure up a hell of a long way. Plus you've also got a load of colour couplers , uncoupled which could effect the image quality. Plus the image will be a bit off as far as contrast is concerned.

Don't bleach the image. The Bleach part of the colour process was to remove the silver image to leave the colour one behind. The last thing you'll want to do is bleach the silver image.

Processing colour film in B&W chemicals was a technique used to recover important images (usually sentimental ones) from C22 films when these chemicals were no longer available. ( The film was usually fairly old anyway).

You may find that with the world going digital you could find an enlarger availabel for a very good price. Nobody really wants them nowadays. But as Freester says you need room to work in.

 

[ifotou]

sign up for freecycle and ask, i got an enlarger and full darkroom kit for free from someone who no longer wanted to do darkroom stuff and it was just cluttering up their loft