Effort vs Enjoyment

[colda]

I love film photography and would love to use film over digital but the reality gets in the way, I suppose that I'm lazy but the whole developing and scanning part is effort, that said I have no desire to send my film off and do feel the need to 'own' the process

I've shot film a few times in the past and love the results, also I've got undeveloped film which is now about 3 or 4 years old, there's a load of unexposed film in my fridge, a few nice cameras for me to use (Nikon FM, F100, Mamiya RB67 and even a Sinar P), chemicals (which have probably gone off - the previous lot were given away about 6 years ago) and an Epson V700 stored away

What I need is the ability to put the film in magic box and then sit down and have the scanned images available ready and waiting on my laptop. I suppose (without sending away for develop and scan) how much can the process be simplified and if anyone else feels anything like I do how to rationalise things to tip the balance of effort vs enjoyment in favour of the latter?

 

[steveo_mcg]

Are you looking for a home sized mini-lab? That would be grand!!

 

[robhooley167]

So what you want is a magic box that devs and scans for you, am i right? Sounds like a job for a pro-lab, but as you don't want to be sending your films away, you're limited to basically shooting digital.
As you have some nice cameras, maybe look into acquiring a digital back for the RB67 and the Sinar P?

The dev and scan process is basically as simple it's likely to get, although there are some machines you can get to automate a lot of it. A Jobo Autolab can cover most of your developing needs, while a batch capable scanner can deal with that once it has been set up. It's not quite your magic box but it's as close as I can think of.

For me personally, the effort gives me enjoyment. There's no point doing things the easy way, that's no fun.

 

[colda]

Are you looking for a home sized mini-lab? That would be grand!!

indeed!

So what you want is a magic box that devs and scans for you, am i right? Sounds like a job for a pro-lab, but as you don't want to be sending your films away, you're limited to basically shooting digital.
As you have some nice cameras, maybe look into acquiring a digital back for the RB67 and the Sinar P?

The dev and scan process is basically as simple it's likely to get, although there are some machines you can get to automate a lot of it. A Jobo Autolab can cover most of your developing needs, while a batch capable scanner can deal with that once it has been set up. It's not quite your magic box but it's as close as I can think of.

For me personally, the effort gives me enjoyment. There's no point doing things the easy way, that's no fun.

Have seriously thought a few times about setting up a lab - could even use a room in our studio, just can't see how to make the numbers add up, small labs need a certain throughput to make them viable, would certainly be interested in some kind of co-op venture if the interest was there

The Jobo jobbies are very interesting/tempting - always said to myself that I would get one once I got into the swing of things with developing myself (chicken and egg situation) - i did my apprenticeship (many years ago) as a design engineer in automation, always kept an interest in such things - maybe I should consider building the magic box

 

[colda]

maybe look into acquiring a digital back for the RB67 and the Sinar P?

have done this (to a minor extent) - as featured on Photigy: http://www.photigy.com/the-dslr-to-large-medium-format-diy-build-nikon-d800e-on-sinar-p-camera/

problem is, since building it I've just not used it - I do have a bit of a thing with MF digital backs (don't get me wrong, I'd love to own a good one!) that they are basically 645 at best, if using the RB67 I like the idea of having 6 x 7cm not a crop thereof - using the lenses from the RB and the movements of the Sinar is a nice combination, in the tests I did with the contraption using LF lenses I was unhappy with the results and sold them all on except for a 65mm f8 Super Angulon that I still have which is rather nice