Blog #25 – Breaking Into Home Film Development

My birthday fell last week and brought the usual mix of everyday life and a bit of spare money from family. Instead of letting it drift into the Home account I put it straight into something I’ve wanted to try for a while. I ordered an Ilford and Paterson starter Home film development kit, a changing bag, and a few basics to set myself up. When it all arrived it felt more serious than I expected, like I had signed up for a new part of photography rather than another accessory.

Once the boxes were open I did the same thing everyone does when they get their first film development kit. I rushed through a full roll before I lost momentum. I loaded Ilford HP5 into the Olympus OM-1n and worked through the last few frames with more urgency than sense. I had rugby shifts coming up and wanted the roll finished before life took over again. Then a second idea surfaced. A few days before I had taken the Lubitel 2 out and wandered round a garden centre with a roll of Ilford XP2 120. XP2 is usually processed in C41 chemistry, not the black and white chemicals I had just bought, but I kept that thought for later.

This morning I decided to get on with it. I cleared space in the hobby room, laid out the kit, and sat with the changing bag. Working blind sounded stressful when I first read about it, but once your hands are inside you realise it is more about patience than panic. I opened the OM-1n canister, felt the lid give way, and let the film curl into my hands. Trimming the leader without seeing what I was doing felt slow but steady. Feeding it onto the Paterson reel took a few attempts until the spiral finally gripped. When I clipped the end and sealed the tank there was a quiet moment where I hoped everything was actually in place.

The chemistry came next. The starter kit instructions are simple enough but the small details matter. I mixed everything to the right temperature, lined it up on the table, and took my time. Developer went in first. I inverted the tank on a steady cycle, tapped the base, and watched the timer roll on. Then came stop, then fixer, then the wash. Each step felt controlled in a way that digital work never quite manages.

Opening the tank for the first time was the moment I had been waiting for. The film was loaded properly. Real images sat along the strip. The frames from the OM-1n were right there, curled and wet, and somehow more rewarding than anything I had shot all week. I clipped the strip, ran it through the squeegee, and hung it to dry in the warm corner of the room.

Since the chemistry was mixed I decided to take a risk with the XP2. Everything online said it can be processed in black and white chemicals as long as you adjust the timings, so I settled on something sensible and repeated the whole process with the 120 roll. Loading medium format film blind felt like a different skill. No perforations. Wider film. A softer feel in the hands. But it wound onto the reel cleanly and went through the steps without any trouble. When I opened the tank the strip looked good. Two rolls processed on the first attempt. Both drying side by side.

The whole process felt calmer than I expected. You move slowly, trust the timings, and let the work build up one step at a time. Shooting film already slows you down, but developing it brings the same pace into the rest of the day. It sits somewhere between craft and routine. It felt like a nice change after the week I had.

Both strips are hanging now and I keep looking over at them with a small sense of achievement. They might dry with streaks or dust or uneven edges, but that doesn’t matter. They’re the first rolls I’ve developed myself. From loading the cameras to hanging the film, it’s all part of the same run of work.

Now I just need to figure out how to scan them...