Developing colour film...

karmagarda

karmagarda

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Ok... so I'm ok at developing B&W now. Time to try my hand at colour film. :nuts:. I'm considering going with with the C-41 Developer method... am I boring? :lol:. I am open to people talking me out of this. 1 reason is I want to try Ektar and will not be C-41-ing it. But I have 8 fuji superiors to go through as well so C-41 might be an option for that. Anyway, from reading bits and bobs the process sounds like this...

1. Put film in dev tank (while in dark room/aka wardrobe)

2. Mix the chemicals.

3. Heat chemicals to ~38 degrees Celsius. Although I hear this has to be as close as possible to 38? What's the consequences of going 2+ degrees above? and vice versa?

4. Put dev chems in tank, start stop watch.

5. Develop for 3 1/2 minutes. Agitate for ~3 seconds every 30 seconds.

6. At 3 minutes and 20 seconds, start pouring the developer out. (note to self, chemical is reusable... but add 15 seconds to the dev time)

7. Pour the blix solution in tank, start stop watch.

8. Leave the film in the blix solution for 6 1/2 minutes.

9. At 6 minutes and 20 seconds, pour the blix out (note to self, chemical is reusable)

10. Bring running water to 38 degrees. Wash the film for 3 1/2 minutes.

11. Pour in the stabilizer. Leave the stabilizer in the tank for 1 1/2 minutes. (Note to self: This chemical is reusable)

12. Wash film for about 10 minutes in water at 38 degrees.


That sound about right?

And where do I get chemicals and what chemicals would you recommend?
 
Sounds about right, Stand the loaded tank in water @ 38 as pouring warm chemicals into a cold tank will cause the temps to drop quickly & if you can, stand the tank in heated water between invertions & you should be ok. It's more important to be consistant than worrying about 1/2 degree here & there.Have fun

Regards Toonie
 
Wicked. Thanks. Gonna get the chemicals sorted and give this a shot next. Have a roll of B&W to finish off first.

Few questions too:

What happens if you process above 38? Like at 41 or 45 even?
What happens if you process below? Like 35 or even 30?
Finally, is normal colour processing much different/harder to the above (C-41)?
 
Processing @ higher or lower temps can be done but the dev times which is 3.5 mins @ 38 becomes to difficult to control at higher temps, @ 45 deg the dev times would be about a minute. just not controllable. The dev kit should come with variable temp table. I always used Tetenal C41 3 bath chemistry & would imagine is still available, they were based in Leicester & did mail order then but i'm not sure nowadays. By normal colour processing do you mean printing from colour negs using RA4 chemicals ?

Regards Toonie
 
Most colour chemicals come as a complete kit (rather than the mix and match approach we take with BnW), so i'd wait and read the destructions that come with it re:temp's etc. I'm going from memory from maybe 20 years ago mind, but normally it's the first stage that's the most critical, and i'd really try my best to get the temperature spot on to whatever the kit's info. sheet says for that.
 
Thanks for that. Have put an order in for chemicals and a few bits and bobs to help it along. Let's see what happens in this crazy home lab of mine :lol:
 
on my first rolls of slide I put in a warm water rinse before I started to make sure the temperatures were even, didn't seem to screw up my slides :D
 
Toonie said:
Processing @ higher or lower temps can be done but the dev times which is 3.5 mins @ 38 becomes to difficult to control at higher temps, @ 45 deg the dev times would be about a minute. just not controllable. The dev kit should come with variable temp table. I always used Tetenal C41 3 bath chemistry & would imagine is still available, they were based in Leicester & did mail order then but i'm not sure nowadays. By normal colour processing do you mean printing from colour negs using RA4 chemicals ?

Regards Toonie
Click to expand...

Forgot to say, when I say normal, I think that equates to RA4 chemicals. I think C41 is referred to as cross processing? Or am I incorrect? I have B&W processed colour which was interesting, but really needed a bleach phase because it came out somewhat... "thick" :lol:

david1701 said:
on my first rolls of slide I put in a warm water rinse before I started to make sure the temperatures were even, didn't seem to screw up my slides :D
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. I might keep the dev tank warm before putting in the first batch of chemicals to try keep the temp consistant. Good tip :thumbs:
 
RA4 Chemicals are for printing on colour paper from colour negatives (C41) ie Standard processing
Cross processing is developing Colour negative film in E6 chemicals or Developing Colour slide (transparencies) in C41 chemistry or indeed any which way you choose.Easy aint it.:bonk:

So colour negative film is deved' in C41 chemicals
Colour slides(transparencies) are deved' in E6 chemicals
Colour prints are deved' in RA4 Chemistry
Colour prints from slides were made using Cibachrome paper & chemicals (later called Ifochrome) & prob still available? but not sure. All these processes could be & were used to produce prints & slides @ home which usually involved quite a lot of swearing & wasted paper :D

Regards Toonie
 
I just had a bit of a brainstorm whilst thinkiig about home dev'ing E6 slides - my workroom is a bit drafty and cold at this time of the year - then it struck me - why not use one of those insulated picnic boxes as the warm water receptacle that I can leave the chemical bottles in? So - I started googling for some ideas, and found one that is actually thermostatically controlled and either heats or cools... would this be a daft idea?
 
I like it as an idea, I used a really big print tray and kept an eye on it (topping up with hot water) kinda worked I was tempted to get a fish tank water heater but I need a deeper bowl for that (print tray is v shallow)
 
Toonie said:
RA4 Chemicals are for printing on colour paper from colour negatives (C41) ie Standard processing
Cross processing is developing Colour negative film in E6 chemicals or Developing Colour slide (transparencies) in C41 chemistry or indeed any which way you choose.Easy aint it.:bonk:

So colour negative film is deved' in C41 chemicals
Colour slides(transparencies) are deved' in E6 chemicals
Colour prints are deved' in RA4 Chemistry
Colour prints from slides were made using Cibachrome paper & chemicals (later called Ifochrome) & prob still available? but not sure. All these processes could be & were used to produce prints & slides @ home which usually involved quite a lot of swearing & wasted paper :D

Regards Toonie
Click to expand...

Hah! Sounds bloody complicated! I never realised there were chemicals for different types... thank got I ordered the correct chemicals by pure fluke :bonk:

Thanks for the details though. It actually is slowly becoming a lot clearer to me :thumbs:

TheBigYin said:
I just had a bit of a brainstorm whilst thinkiig about home dev'ing E6 slides - my workroom is a bit drafty and cold at this time of the year - then it struck me - why not use one of those insulated picnic boxes as the warm water receptacle that I can leave the chemical bottles in? So - I started googling for some ideas, and found one that is actually thermostatically controlled and either heats or cools... would this be a daft idea?
Click to expand...

That sounds like a crazy but genius idea!
 
david1701 said:
I like it as an idea, I used a really big print tray and kept an eye on it (topping up with hot water) kinda worked I was tempted to get a fish tank water heater but I need a deeper bowl for that (print tray is v shallow)
Click to expand...

I'm still wondering what I'll use for my "heat" source. Bathroom is currently my development area but the sink is way too small. Have to have a think about it...
 
david1701 said:
fish tank heater would need calibration but could work
Click to expand...

I need to buy some fish for my girlfriend... and then make fish mysteriously die... and then claim the most practical use for the fish tank is photography purposes.... it's either that or a wok :lol:
 
Well - okay - maybe the heated one above is overkill, but I reckon that the insulated coolbox idea as a hot-water-bath is a decent enough idea. And as I've got one in the loft from my days of working at an Ice Cream Company, I'll give it a go, next time I try :)

I looked at fish tank heaters, but most of 'em seem to work to 32-34c probably a bit low for colour
 
TheBigYin said:
Well - okay - maybe the heated one above is overkill, but I reckon that the insulated coolbox idea as a hot-water-bath is a decent enough idea. And as I've got one in the loft from my days of working at an Ice Cream Company, I'll give it a go, next time I try :)

I looked at fish tank heaters, but most of 'em seem to work to 32-34c probably a bit low for colour
Click to expand...

Dam I hadn't thought of that, I could fungineer a new thermostat for one though :D
 
Ok, so I did it. Boy, it's bloody hard to regulate that temperature at a bathroom sink! I was a while waiting for my dev chem to catch up to 38, with the water at about 45+ and constantly refilling to keep the temp up! By the time I got to the bx I was still trying to get the temp of that up while pouring out the dev... thankfully, there's seemingly a 3 degree tolerance on this phase so I got it to about 36 and just plowed on :lol:... then I had forgotton to check my exact timings on the bleach :bonk:... anyway, all chems when in, and colour film came out which is the main thing. Few of the initial samples on my photostream here for anyone interested.

Thanks for the advice all!
 
karmagarda said:
Ok, so I did it. Boy, it's bloody hard to regulate that temperature at a bathroom sink! I was a while waiting for my dev chem to catch up to 38, with the water at about 45+ and constantly refilling to keep the temp up! By the time I got to the bx I was still trying to get the temp of that up while pouring out the dev... thankfully, there's seemingly a 3 degree tolerance on this phase so I got it to about 36 and just plowed on :lol:... then I had forgotton to check my exact timings on the bleach :bonk:... anyway, all chems when in, and colour film came out which is the main thing. Few of the initial samples on my photostream here for anyone interested.

Thanks for the advice all!
Click to expand...

Looks like you got it sorted pretty well anyway :thumbs:

Sounds like my insulated picnic box idea might be a go-er from the sounds of things.

So - what kit did you end up getting/using? I've looked at the Tetenal 1L E6 kits, supposed to process 12x35mm films for something like £36 posted. Only thing is, I've not managed to find any data-sheets / manuals I can download and read up on to answer a few questions I have, mainly regarding the shelf lives of the chemicals etc. I'd hate to buy the kit, and then only have a couple of weeks before I need to throw the chem's away, having only shot maybe 1-2 rolls.
 
I used COLORTEC C41 Negative Kit which cost under £16 from Silverprint (my order in total was over 100 so got a free delivery). Now looking at it the E6 chemistry looks far easier! It's just under £22 for the COLORTEC E6 1 litre Kit. Hrmm... might have to give that a shot next time.

Have to say though, colour developing is quite expensive. I will definitely reuse the chems as it would be quite an expensive 1 off develop! And my developing tank doesn't fit 2x120 rolls :thinking:
 
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