Analog film photography and cameras

Thanks. Because you have to develop each negative individually, a single-shot developer is extremely wasteful. I ended up using an old Kodak formula known as D-23 and a so-called replenisher named DK-25R. You need to mix both of these up from the raw chemicals, but it's not difficult. Using these, I waste less that 2.3ml of developer for each of these 6x6 negatives. If anyone's interested, I can send the formulas - but there's info online about Kodak D-23 and Kodak DK-25R.

I use 500ml glass beakers to do the development and little stainless steel clips, designed to process dental x-rays, to suspend the negative in the developer, fixer and water/stop beakers.

To digitise I use a Pixl-Latr negative holder/diffuser on top of a LED light panel (the type that gets used in household lighting) and photograph the negative with a Nikon D610 camera with a macro lens and extension tube. I then invert the image and make level adjustments in free software called Darktable.

X-ray film is a bit fussy. I discovered that you have to pre-wash the negative in water for 3 or 5 minutes before putting it in the developer and that this water, the developer and the fixer should all be at the same temperature (roughly). I do this at 20°C. One also needs to be careful not to scratch the negative, especially when it's wet. Another tip is to use an acidic fixer (Kodak Rapid Fixer comes with an optional "hardener" bottle). This helps harden the negative once dry.

Edit: another thing, I expose the film at ISO 64 and the film is Fujifilm UM-MA.