Processing 120 film at home?

[Emma_Benson]

What kit would i need to process colour 120 film at home? I'm used to printing black and white 35mm.
Thanks

[Mojo_66]

Pretty much what you probably already have, though in larger quantities! If you have a 2 reel tank and plastic reels they should be adjustable to take 120 film. If not Patterson do lots of multi reel systems.

[Emma_Benson]

Ooo thanks, what chemiclas are best too use though for colour?

So when processing in b&w its the same i just need a larger reel?

[pilliwinks]

If it's colour negative, you'll need C41 chemicals - made by more than one maker. If colour transparency, E6, ditto.

Paterson spirals are adjustable to take 120 as well as 35mm; you just move the grooves further apart. There are click stops, but if you've never adjusted them, they may be stiff initially.

The reference to the tank size is simply because a tank designed for a single 35mm spiral won't take the same spiral when expanded.

[Malcolm_Stewart]

Both C41 (negative) and E6 (slide) processing is done at at around 36degC. So, some form of tempered water bath will be necessary if you want consistency from one film to the next. The first development time is quite critical, so accurate thermometers and timing is necessary. It's also recommended that E6 films are heat dried so as to help the archival qualities of your slides. So, whilst colour film processing does use much of what you already have for B&W, there are other factors worth bearing in mind. Shaking the bleach/fix shortly before use (to aerate it) is necessary to produce cleaner slides, and closer to the nominal speed rating.

Tetenal do kits of chemicals which seem to be well regarded. There was a lot of guidance on the web a few years ago, but much of that has now disappeared as equipment suppliers have switched away from home processing. PM me if you need more help.

[OneTen]

I used to use a Jobo CPE-2 processor for developing E6 at home. They appear on eBay every now and then at reasonable prices. Jobo also used to make a thermostat controlled water bath, there's bound to be other versions as well.

[PeteE]

I do a lot of C41 neg processing;I use free plastic pots which used to hold 500gms of photo chemicals ( hold up to 600mls solutions)and put them in a free Walls Ice Cream long container, then pour in the solutions into the pots, then heat up water in a plastic kettle to almost boiling and pour it into the ice cream container around the solutions until the developer is 104oF, pour in the dev into the loaded tank, agitate for every 30 secs. and the temperature stabilises at 100oF ( The dev tank is in another plastic container free from Tescos with warm water in it around the dev tank)Then I take out the bleach and fixer as they would get too hot and keep checking temperature as I make up warm water for the washing. (Don't forget to RINSE the thermometer in between chemicals!)