I recently went over my expenses for the
Leica Year, and my development costs were rapidly approaching the cost of the Leica and lens. This was of course to be expected (and pointed out by Mike in the discussion following his original post, but the turning point was coming quicker than I expected.
Part of this is due to the fact that my lab charges more for B&W development than they do for colour (slide) development. (Or their contact sheets are very expensive). Costs run to over 10 EUR per roll. At over 2 rolls a week on average, that gets to over 100 EUR a month.
Luckily, when I chose my film, I went for a classic B&W film, so I dug up my parents’ old developing equipment and ordered some chemicals. This weekend, I developed my first few rolls. It was easier than I expected.
I used Agfa Rodinal, since it’s very cheap and lasts forever (reportedly). I used a 1+45 dilution and developed for 11 minutes, with 30 seconds agitation every 3 minutes. Followed by a water stop-bath and 6 minutes in RXA fixer (rapid, non hardening). Temperature was around 19 degrees, which is the temperature of the tapwater in my kitchen.
I also caught up with my scanning this weekend, so from now on, I can develop and scan each roll in a reasonable time. Who needs digital?