While it’s quite possible to develop both colour and black & white film at home, in fact in the golden days of film, journalists and photographers used to develop film in their car boot after an event, before ‘wiring’ the pictures, you probably first need to decide whether the outlay on the materials (spirals, developing tanks, squeegees, chemical storage containers etc) and the necessary chemicals would be worthwhile. The chemicals themselves only have a limited shelf life once open which is another point to consider.
Advantages of developing film at home
The main advantage would be the speed, there’s no need to entrust your negatives to the post. As the chemicals themselves may go off before you have finished using them, unless you are shooting and processing a lot of film, there is unlikely to be a cost saving.
Disadvantages of developing film at home
The quality of the negatives is probably the main disadvantage. Over time and with practice and patience, you can get great results at home, but there is a learning curve and you’ll certainly lose some of your negatives, so unless you have taken reels of test film with unimportant pictures, you do stand to lose some of your images, at least in the early days.
It’s also worth considering you’re going to need to purchase a scanner too, though if you need your processed negs scanning, either individual frames or a complete roll of processed film, we can do that too and the prices can be found here