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The Easiest Way to Process Film at Home
Waiting for your film to return from the lab is exciting — for the first few days. After that, it’s just too long. Fortunately there’s a great home alternative for analog photographers. And it doesn’t require a darkroom.
If you have the following items, you’re on your way to processing film: sink with running water, thermometer, some type of glass vessel, funnel, and scissors.
Note about the funnel and glass — these will never be used for consumables again. They are now dedicated lab tools. Better yet, add the thermometer to that list as well.
Two additional things will need to be purchased. The first is a nifty item called Lab-Box. It’s available all over the Internet for $179. That may sound like a lot at first, but since most folks pay around $20 a roll for processing at a lab, you can see quickly that the math will work in your favor.
The second item is the developer/fixer monobath that goes in the Lab-Box along with the film. I realize that one-bath processing sounds a lot like single-wash shampoo and conditioner, but it works great. I’ve been using CineStill DF96 Developer and Fix Monobath Single Step Solution for my black and white film, mostly Kodak Tri-X. The Monobath runs $20 a bottle, and I get at least 10 rolls of film out of it.
