To develop film at home you need a tank, a changing bag, a thermometer and a few bottles of chemistry. No darkroom. The only minutes in the dark are spent loading the film inside the bag, and everything after that happens at the kitchen counter.
There are two processes to learn, and the film in your camera decides which one. Black and white develops at 20°C, room temperature, and is the forgiving place to start. Colour negative film all goes through one process, C-41, at 38°C. Each has its own step-by-step guide. This page is the short version of both, so you can pick one and go.
Black and white, step by step
Three bottles of chemistry at room temperature and about 40 minutes of hands-on work. The guide to read first.
Read the B&W guide
Colour (C-41), step by step
Portra, Gold, Fujicolor and CineStill all run the same baths at 38°C. The kits we stock and the times for each.
Read the C-41 guideWhy develop film at home?
Money first. A lab in Europe charges €10 to €20 to develop a roll of colour, before scanning, and €7 to €12 for black and white. At home the chemistry costs €2 to €4 a colour roll and under €1 a black and white one. The tank and the rest pay for themselves inside a year if you shoot a roll a month. The savings calculator at the bottom of this page works it out for the film you shoot.
Then speed. A roll shot in the afternoon can be hanging to dry that evening, and seeing the negatives while you still remember the light is how exposure gets better.
And control. You pick the developer, which changes the grain and the contrast. You can push a roll you shot at a higher ISO than the box says, or rescue one shot at the wrong ISO. A lab runs every roll the same way.
What you need to develop film at home
The hardware is the same for black and white and colour. Buy it once and it does both.
- Developing tank and reels. Paterson Super System 4 is the usual choice. The reels adjust between 35mm and 120, so one reel covers both.
- Changing bag. Total darkness for the couple of minutes it takes to load the reel and close the tank. Works in any room.
- Thermometer. Digital, reading to half a degree. Black and white wants 20°C, colour wants 38°C.
- Measuring graduates and storage bottles. A large graduate for the working solution, a small one for measuring concentrate, and bottles for the chemistry you reuse.
- Film clips, one weighted, for hanging the film to dry.
- Chemistry. This is where the two processes differ. Each section below says what to buy.
The kit builder puts it together part by part and tells you if anything is missing.
Black and white film development
Start here if you have never developed a roll. The developer runs at 20°C, so there is no water bath to manage, and a degree either way only shifts the contrast a little.
The chemistry is a developer, a fixer and a few drops of wetting agent for the last rinse. Between developer and fixer, two fills of plain water stop development well enough. A stop bath does it instantly and is optional. Rodinal, Ilford ID-11, Ilfosol 3 and Ilfotec DD-X are all good first developers. Developer is mixed fresh for each tank and poured away. Fixer goes back in its bottle and lasts for dozens of rolls.
Times depend on the film, the developer and the dilution, and the free Massive Dev Chart lists them. A session is 30 to 40 minutes of hands-on work, then an hour or two of drying you do not have to watch.
The black and white guide has the full sequence, how much developer to mix for your tank, a video of the whole process and a table for when a strip looks wrong.
C-41 colour film development
Every colour negative film is developed in C-41. Kodak Portra and Gold, Fujicolor, CineStill 800T and even Ilford XP2 go through the same baths for the same times at one temperature. The baths are a developer, then bleach and fixer (or the two combined as blix), then a stabiliser or final rinse.
The temperature is the hard part. The developer has to sit at 38°C for about three and a quarter minutes, and a couple of degrees off shows up as a colour cast. Most people hold it with a sous vide stick in a basin of water. Everything else is the same tank and reel as black and white, and a session takes about 20 minutes once the chemistry is warm.
The four kits we stock are CineStill CS41, ADOX C-TEC, Bellini C-41 and Kodak C-41. How many rolls a litre does depends on the kit, from 8 to 16, and the guide has the table. Per roll it comes to €2 to €4.
The C-41 guide compares the kits, explains both ways to hold 38°C, and gives the step times for each kit.
By hand or with the AGO
Developing by hand means turning the tank over four times every 30 seconds for the whole developer step, and in colour, watching a thermometer while you do it. For a roll or two a month that is part of the fun. Developing most weeks, it is the part that gets tedious.
What the AGO takes over
The AGO Film Processor clips onto a Paterson tank and turns the reel for you. It does not heat the chemistry. You still bring it to temperature, and the AGO measures it inside the tank and lengthens or shortens the development time to match as it drifts. It times every step and tells you when to pour. Because the reel turns lying down, two rolls of 35mm need 350 ml of each bath instead of 590 ml. For black and white you enter the time from the chart and the programme makes the rotary adjustment itself. The same machine runs C-41, E-6, ECN-2 and RA-4 prints. The best way to develop film at home compares the two routes in detail.
See the AGO Film ProcessorWhere to start
| Your situation | Where to go |
|---|---|
| Never developed a roll | Black and white first. The B&W guide |
| Black and white works, ready for colour | Same tank and reels, add a C-41 kit and a way to hold 38°C. The C-41 guide |
| You only shoot colour | Starting with C-41 is fine. Practise loading the reel with a spare roll first. The C-41 guide |
| Developing most weeks, or tired of the thermometer | By hand or with the AGO |
Common questions about developing film at home
Do I need a darkroom to develop film at home?
No. Only loading the film onto the reel needs darkness, about two minutes, and a changing bag does that in any room. Once the tank is closed, every step happens in normal light.
Is developing film at home cheaper than a lab?
Yes. A lab in Europe charges €10 to €20 a roll for colour and €7 to €12 for black and white, before scanning. At home the chemistry is €2 to €4 a colour roll and under €1 a black and white roll. The equipment pays for itself inside a year at a roll a month.
How long does it take?
Black and white is 30 to 40 minutes of hands-on work. Colour takes 15 to 30 minutes to warm the chemistry to 38°C, then about 20 minutes of steps. Both need an hour or two to dry.
Which process should I learn first?
Black and white. It runs at room temperature and forgives small mistakes. Colour is the same handling with one extra job, holding the developer at 38°C.
What film formats can I develop at home?
35mm, 120, 127, 110, 220 and sheet film. 35mm and 120 are where most people start, and one Paterson reel adjusts to both.
Do I need an AGO to develop film at home?
No. A tank, a changing bag, a thermometer and the chemistry are enough, and in colour a sous vide stick or a sink of hot water holds 38°C. The AGO takes over the agitation, the timing and the temperature correction, which matters most when you develop often or shoot colour.