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Home Development With the LabBox
Developing Kentmere 100 with DF96 monobath in the LabBox
When I first saw the Ars-Imago LabBox on Kickstarter, I knew it was something which I needed to try. I’ve been shooting film for years — both personally and for commercial projects — but I’ve always relied on professional darkrooms to develop my film. Part of my reason for outsourcing development was that I currently don’t have room for a traditional darkroom in my home or office.
The LabBox was exciting because it promised daylight development for individual reels of 35mm or 120 film. Yes, you could do this with a traditional Patterson tank — loading it in a dark bag, then developing with normal chemistry. But that felt like an extra step in the process that would be a deterrent to developing at home — even if it’s just a small one.
Daylight development also has a long pedigree. It’s something that photojournalists used to do in the field routinely, especially war correspondents and others on assignment in remote regions. Fitting with this pedigree, the LabBox is really just a reboot of a very old device — the Agfa Rondinax, which was originally created in the 1930s. A beautiful photo from Film Photography Project shows a family in the 1950s using a Rondinax to develop film while on a family vacation (the father is smoking a pipe, of course).
