where to buy chemicals

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I plan to start processing my own B&W film....where is the best place to buy the chemicals??? And can anyone give me some ballpark figures for each ??? developer, stop, fixer etc etc....I plan on using D76..I've never purchased chemicals before, any advice would be great.

-- michael howser (mhowser@twcny.rr.com), July 08, 2001

Answers

If you don't have a local photo store, both B&H and Freestyle are good. Both have websites where you can check out prices. Do a search for photographic chemicals. You have lots of choices of brands, types, and sizes. Everyone has their favorites. I mix either a liter of XTOL, or a quart of D-76 and use it diluted 1:1. For stop bath some like plain water. I stick with good 'ol Kodak formula SB-1 which is about 29 ml of 28% acetic acid in 600 ml of water. Or buy a bottle of their indicator stop that turns color when it's exhausted. For fixer, I use plain Kodak powdered fixer 1 gallon at a time because it's cheap and works. If the fairly strong smell bothers you, there are various other choices. Note that new shipping regulations add a $17 charge for certain hazardous chemicals, so you might want to avoid those choices. There isn't much variation in pricing for any given product (like D-76), but different products (say, D-76 vs custom made pyro) can vary quite a bit.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), July 08, 2001.

www.bhphoto.com and www.freestylesalesco.com. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

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