From film to digital and back: A photo blog

March 07, 2024

1st Time colour developing at home: photos of Cuba

Developing colour film at home was not something even remotely on my radar, ever, until I started developing black and white in our kitchen, using first a changing bag then a tent.

It was not as a result of any dissatisfaction with the quality of the development services I have been using. It’s more an extension of the experience of getting back into film photography, and the sense of satisfaction of completing the entire process myself. As well, the process of developing film requires a certain level of mindfulness and a need to be entirely “in the moment.” So, once I got comfortable again, after more than 40 years, with the process of developing my own black and white film, I began thinking about whether I could experience the same with colour: the focus and concentration on the process that leads to that magical moment when you pull the film out of the developing tank to hang dry and you see that there are indeed images captured on the film.

Once again, YouTube proved to be a treasure trove of info on how to do colour film development. The tricky part, compared to B&W, is maintaining constant temperature. With black and white, the standard temperature for development is basically room temperature, and temperature variations can be dealt with by adjusting time. With colour, the approach is very different, unless room temperature where you live is 39 degrees C.

There are many YouTube videos and instructional pages describing how to use a sous-vide device to warm and maintain the temperature of your chemistry. But I eventually stumbled across a description of the Flic Film Precision Temperature Water Bath.

There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence, so I will start with Flic Film.

Flic Film is a Canadian company, based in Longview, Alberta. They began by producing chemistry for photography, including environmentally friendly formulations, and now also produce and /or package a variety of film and accessories.

Among their accessories is a water bath system, that seems to be something manufactured for a different purpose, but adapted for use as a device to heat and maintain the temperature of film chemistry, within 0.1 degrees C. It comes in a handy kit, which includes four containers for the chemicals that require constant 39C temperature.

They do not ship by mail but through retailers across the country. My device was purchased online through Latency Labs, and was a Christmas gift from my wife. The chemistry I used for this batch is also from Flic Film, their C-41 Home Processing Kit that I picked up at Photo Service in Old Montreal.

A word about the chemistry kit: available in both 8 and 16 roll kits, i.e. chemistry to process 8 or 16 rolls before the chemicals are depleted, these are different that some other colour (C-41) kits, in that they do not combine the bleach and fix chemicals and steps into a single “blix” step. So the 5 chemicals used are, developer (@ 39 degrees C), stop bath (@ 39 degrees C), bleach (@ 39 degrees C), fixer (@ 39 degrees C), and a stabilizer, at room temperature.

What I found interesting is that while there is an additional step, this is actually a faster process than much of the B&W I have done because of the speed of the developer: 10 seconds with constant agitation, then only three and a half minutes with inversions every 30 seconds, at least half the time of many of the developing times for B&W.

Given that the chemicals, once mixed, have a limited shelf life, I waited until I had a sufficient number of rolls of film to run through the 8-roll kit in short order. I had some rolls I took at my daughter’s wedding last fall that have been waiting to be processed and a half-roll a took in Quebec City in January. Add to that three rolls I shot on vacation in Cuba in Late February, and I was ready to process.

The chemicals mixed-up with no surprises. They require specific temperatures for the water for mixing, but that’s easy enough with the high tech kettle we have, which produces water at any temperature you dial-in. The water bath’s instructions are not great, it’s a bit confusing, but there are some resources online from folks that have gone through the process as well, both on YouTube and Reddit. And while it did take some time for the chemicals to get up to the correct temperature, I regularly checked the temperature with a digital thermometer, and it was spot-on.

I didn’t need any additional gear. I used my existing Paterson tank and reels for 35mm and 120.

A word about the camera I used: most of these were shot on a Nikon N-80. This is a very inexpensive camera, but one of the best values I have ever come across. It was produced at that inflection point between film and digital photography, and as a result has a foot in both the past and the future. It can use older legacy lenses, but also all the autofocus lenses I have for my digital Nikon cameras. The camera I have has a vertical grip, which means it uses common and cheap AA batteries, and the ability to use manual threaded shutter release cable, of which I have many for my medium format cameras. It also has the latest tech when it comes to metering, with great matrix metering, and the ability to run manually, in program mode, shutter priority and aperture priority. Basically, this is a cheap, light camera with nearly the same functionality of the much more expensive Nikon F100 or the professional F5. For comparison, the N80 was in pristine condition, with the battery grip for less than $100, and the two Nikon F5s for sale right now on Ebay in Canada are $999 for one in good condition, and $1,800 for a mint condition camera, with the original box.

For the trip to Cuba, I kept it simple: N-80, 50mm f/1.8 autofocus lens, set to aperture priority most of the time, and Kodak Ektar 100 film, though when we arrived, I had a half roll left of Popho Luminar 100, a film a raved about last summer.

Negatives scanned on Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner using Silverfast software.

Photos in and around the resort, the Paradisus Rio De Oro, near Guardalavaca, in the Holguín region of Cuba.