Jehu
26-Aug-2011, 16:30
I've never done any color developing myself before but I've always considered it. Even more so after the last 6 months since I have a Jobo CPP2 sitting in my office. After Colormark closed their doors I decided to give it a try rather than try to find another lab that I trust. The first thing I did was visit my local photo supply store. The owner, Gordon, knew more than most about film Chemistry so he advised me. His advice was "Don't try it." I guess I'm a little too hard-headed to listen to that kind of advice so I kept looking for a way to give color processing a go. I finally found Arista Rapid kits. They have both C-41 and E-6. The one gallon kits are about $70 plus shipping. I look at it as four, one quart kits each. That's about $20 per batch. At $1.75 per sheet plus shipping, Colormark was about the same price. I always seemed to spend about $40 for a batch of C41 and E6 sheets. I've now tried both and I can report that it's not as hard to do as I was led to believe. As a matter of fact, aside from the mixing of the chemistry, I would even say that it's just as easy as BW processing.
Pros:
-I don't have to wait for a week and a half to get my film.
-I can say that my work is done entirely by myself. (Rodney Lough says that's important)
-It's part of the experience. Taking the art from field to finished final product.
Cons:
-It's a real pain to mix batches
-Sooner or later I'm going to make a mistake and ruin a shoot.
Now that I've actually entered the world of color film processing, I'm wondering if there's a better or less expensive way than these Arista kits. Being the only method I've used, I don't know whether to say that they're particularly good or bad.
Pros:
-I don't have to wait for a week and a half to get my film.
-I can say that my work is done entirely by myself. (Rodney Lough says that's important)
-It's part of the experience. Taking the art from field to finished final product.
Cons:
-It's a real pain to mix batches
-Sooner or later I'm going to make a mistake and ruin a shoot.
Now that I've actually entered the world of color film processing, I'm wondering if there's a better or less expensive way than these Arista kits. Being the only method I've used, I don't know whether to say that they're particularly good or bad.