Just wondering if anyone did their own developing. I thought that if I could setup a basic developing lab and scan prints, that I would be encouraged to do some more film shooting (I'm thinking of primarily black and white stuff at first). It's been a while since I've been in a lab, so I'm trying to think about what type of investment it would be to set one up. I guess I'd need chemicals, canister for the chemicals, and a motorized water bath dealy. Am I forgetting anything and does anyone know where I can pick up darkroom equipment on the cheap?

what's film?

I develop my own black and white then scan the film. I sold my tanks and reels when I went digital, but recently purchased new ones.

The equipment is pretty simple, a daylight tank, some bottles to hold mixed chemicals, a thermometer, and a timer.

I use Rodinal developer for the most part, but got some Diafine from another photographer. I'll be trying it soon. I use water instead of an acid stop bath. This does away with the smelliest chemical and saves a little money. After having done it both ways I don't know why I ever used acid. Some Kodak fixer and photo flo and you are in business.

There is some very good information here:
http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html

Is a rotary processor necessary? I used to use a jobo at my school paper, and I just noticed they're pretty expensive, I didn't know if anyone else made that stuff

Ebay has the cheapest darkroom equipment. Seriously stuff is selling for 1/16th of the price it did even 6 years ago. You mention B&W at first - which is fine. But from experience don't even attempt to do color on your own. It's messy, difficult to get consistent results, expensive, toxic, the temperature has to be spot on.

Remembering all the days from college and doing all that stuff in a color lab for years myself I'm surprised I don't have a tumor growing out of my eye socket.

Please keep health concerns in mind- you have to have antiquate ventilation when working from home. Also, keep environmental issues in mind too. You can not just dump fixer down the drain. The silver needs to be recovered so be sure you know where you can drop it off for recycling in your area.

Also, check to see if you have any local artistic coops in your area who have darkrooms you can rent. New Orleans had a place called "the darkroom", and for a low monthly fee you had access to their sinks, printers, darkrooms etc. It was a really cool place.

For B&W no... for color - oh yeah.

Yeah, I developed color film when I worked for the college paper and there were definitely more steps to be taken, let's see if I can remember lol Developer, bleach, fixer, stopper? It's been too long.

I'll have to look to see if there are any local darkrooms I can use instead of having to handle all of that from home.

Well, I found a photo store that rents a darkroom out for $5 an hour, so that might be an option (the store is like 40 minutes from me though, and I hate driving lol)

A 40 minute drive is a lot of gas at $3/gallon.

A rotary processor is not needed for B&W. It would be nice if you are developing a lot of film, but for a few rolls at the time it's overkill.

It's tough to develop color at home because everything has to be so precise. There is a lot more room for error in B&W.

Cool, I guess I'll forgo the rotary processor if I do get the developing stuff, especially since I'll be doing small volumes, at least initially