I'm doing an A level photography course and it's brill Have been developing my own film and photos which is quite exciting so just thought I'd show you a few results. These were taken with my Contax 167 MT with Carl Zeiss Planar lens, processed and developed by yours truly

they look better in the flesh though lol

Good stuff.

Are all those girlies in your class?

I've always wanted to process film.... digital is just too easy.

Yes thats the other students and me. Processing film is fun and quite satisfying really. Obviously it's not feasible to use all the time as it would be far too time consuimg, takes about 20 mins to actually process the film and then you have to do a test print for every individual photo you want to print to see what exposure to give it, then take another 5 mins or so to put each one through the fluids.

Meh, when i did photography its was full of ugly chicks :(

Processing film is fun and quite satisfying really. Obviously it's not feasible to use all the time as it would be far too time consuimg, takes about 20 mins to actually process the film and then you have to do a test print for every individual photo you want to print to see what exposure to give it, then take another 5 mins or so to put each one through the fluids.

How do you think photographers managed before digital cameras?

More usefully - do you know about Ilford XP2?

I presume they managed by using film? Thats a bit like saying 'how do you think people managed before cars?' well with horses and carts - it served a person, but isn't as practical as a car. What an odd thing to say...

anyway, no I can't say I know about Ilford XP2. I used Ilford 400 for those

Funny that all non-digital photos now get digitised to be shown on the web

I presume they managed by using film? Thats a bit like saying 'how do you think people managed before cars?' well with horses and carts - it served a person, but isn't as practical as a car. What an odd thing to say...

anyway, no I can't say I know about Ilford XP2. I used Ilford 400 for those

Sorry, it was just your "Obviously it's not feasible to use all the time" statement amused me.

Anyway XP2 (briefly) is a black and white film that uses the same chemistry as colour negative film so it's very convenient if you like the printing part of old fashioned wet photography but aren't too fussed about developing the film and proofing it. When you've finished your film you can just take it to your local supermarket/minilab to get it developed & printed (although the prints will normally look a bit strange as they'll be printed on colour paper and will have a colour tint), use the little prints as proofs and print out anything that looks promising much larger on proper black and white paper. Additionally XP2 is also fairly exposure tolerant - it's rated at ISO400 but you can use it from 200 to 800 without problems and even change the ISO setting mid film (much like having a digital camera ).

Looks like a dusty darkroom.

Sorry, it was just your "Obviously it's not feasible to use all the time" statement amused me.

It isn't. For a start you'd need a dark room, which most people other than enthusiasts wouldn't have. Nor would you want to waste a room in your house for it. Secondly it would be a royal PITA to have to process film then focus, test and print all 36 photos. It's just ridiculous when you can use digital. Sure it's fun and nice to try, but for everyday use you wouldn't bother.

Thats good that you can alter the ISO halfway through. That was one thing that bugged me about film, you'd have to do an entire film of night shots at once, seems a waste if you only want a few

Looks like a dusty darkroom.

Well, it is full of students to be fair

Secondly it would be a royal PITA to have to process film then focus, test and print all 36 photos.

Once you've set up the enlarger for one photo you should be all set with development and exposure times for the entire film. If you've taken them properly. Unless you're interested in burning and dodging. In which case you'd then compare that to time in Photoshop with a digital photo.

Developing film (Black & White for me) is so much more satisfying than using digital. Plus you end up with a print that is far more durable than any you'd get from a digital printer. If I had the space and equipment I'd shoot film far more often. Love it.

Plus you can never get digital to act like real black and white film. I really miss the portraits you can take with some Ilford 200 and a spotlight or two in a darkly lit room.

Enjoy it, as you said; once you've left college you don't get that kind of access to the equipment without a lot of space and money.