Developing Minox Film

Minox makes a beautifully designed, albeit very expensive, daylight developing tank which allows you to develop one roll of Minox film at a time, but since I find no great joy in developing film and prefer to develop multiple rolls at a time this tank did not seem such a wonderful accessory to me.  It also holds very little chemicals so is not well suited for the very dilute developers which I commonly use with Minox films.  There were also at one time Nikor stainless steel reels made for Minox format film, but they often go for as high as two hundred dollars on eBay (total insanity) and if they are not wound absolutely perfectly the wire spirals contact the image area on the negatives.

Since I am number one, too cheap to purchase either of the aforementioned products and number two, not convince that either of the two is actually the ideal way to develop Minox film I came up with my own ridiculously cheap and easy scheme to develop Minox film which I have been using successfully for several  years.  Here is how I do it:

Required

• At least one 120 stainless steel developing reel and appropriate developing tank.

• Two empty 1L plastic soda bottles.

• Razor blade and ruler.

First you have to slit open the soda bottle and cut off the ends.  Then you flatten out the plastic and cut a 6cm strip from the center of the material, using the full diameter, and then round off the sharp corners.  You now have made one support for your Minox film developing system.  Then make as many additional supports as needed.  You are now ready to develop film!

Developing Film

Here is the procedure to develop two rolls of Minox film using this developing system: 

In the Light

1. Thread one plastic support to the inside of the 120 reel.

2. Pre-cut four small squares of electrical tape and place in an easy to find place.

3. Lay out the second film support, the film cassettes and your developing tank. 

 In the Dark

1. Remove the film from the first Minox cassette.

2. Tape one end of the film (with the emulsion side facing outward) to the bottom of the support so the film is at an angle to the base of the reel.

3. Wind the film around the support and tape the free end to the support as illustrated in Figure 1.

4. Slide the second support into the outside of the 120 reel (this is very easy to do even in the dark because the plastic support already has a curved pre-form).

5. Repeat steps 1-3 again as illustrated in Figure 2.

6. Place reel into developing tank and close up.

I have had absolutely no problems using this system and doubt that there is an easier way to develop your Minox film.  I also used this set-up for developing 17.5mm Hit camera film.  For 16mm film I have stainless reels which work very nicely.

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