C-41 first time

pbromaghin · Dec 30, 2013

Wow, talk about stressful. Laostyle17 and I did C-41 for the first time! We had 4 rolls that he shot and I messed up and ruined 1 of them. The 2nd came out with some errors, but 3 and 4 looked real nice. CATLAB's instructions were all in liters but my equipment was in quarts so we had to revise the ratios and go with it. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. I am a complete color beginner and highly recommend his kit. The Phototherm worked like a champ. It kept chemicals at the right temp for over an hour. I think we did the bleach for too short time and the Portra turned out a little blue. Laosytly17 ought to be able to fix that in post. Other than that, it was good. I think I'm ready for more c41 processing. Boy, this will save a lot of money. $2 instead of $15-20. I can do my own scanning for that. It took a long time because we were mixing the chemicals and waiting for them to get up to 101f. Next time they will be ready and waiting to go so it will be a lot faster.

It was a lot of fun and will only get easier. I have a whole pile of color film waiting for this. Thank you, Omer.

RattyMouse · Dec 30, 2013

Way to go! Now on to E-6!

wombat2go · Dec 30, 2013

Good to hear of your success.
I am using the Rollei Digibase on 120 film,
It takes me about 3 ~4 months to accumulate enough (8 ~ 12) rolls for a batch development session.
So with two of you, you should get results more frequently.

Gerald C Koch · Dec 30, 2013

I hope the two rolls that got messed up were test rolls. Never a good idea to attempt something new with important films.

Truzi · Dec 30, 2013

Cool. Do you intend to eventually print them yourselves as well (RA-4)?

I will be doing c-41 very soon - unfortunately not in a Phototherm. It will be in a bathtub with a couple homemade water baths/aquarium heaters.

My best friend and I have slowly acquired enough rolls to use the kit to capacity - she just finished the last two. None of ours are important as we know there will be mistakes with our first foray. Some is fresh film, some expired.

All I have left is to expose two identical rolls; one for me, and one for a pro lab. We'll compare and see how awful a job I do

fotch · Dec 31, 2013

Congrats

pbromaghin · Jan 1, 2014

I wanted them to be test rolls, but Laostyle17 wanted to risk it.

Printing will have to wait a few years until a)the darkroom gets buit and b) I dare attempt color. Until then it's hybrid processing.

The 5 liter kit from CatLabs will do 60-100 rolls, I think. I have almost enough film waiting to use up the quart we mixed up.

CatLABS · Jan 4, 2014

pbromaghin said:
Wow, talk about stressful. Laostyle17 and I did C-41 for the first time! We had 4 rolls that he shot and I messed up and ruined 1 of them. The 2nd came out with some errors, but 3 and 4 looked real nice. CATLAB's instructions were all in liters but my equipment was in quarts so we had to revise the ratios and go with it. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. I am a complete color beginner and highly recommend his kit. The Phototherm worked like a champ. It kept chemicals at the right temp for over an hour. I think we did the bleach for too short time and the Portra turned out a little blue. Laosytly17 ought to be able to fix that in post. Other than that, it was good. I think I'm ready for more c41 processing. Boy, this will save a lot of money. $2 instead of $15-20. I can do my own scanning for that. It took a long time because we were mixing the chemicals and waiting for them to get up to 101f. Next time they will be ready and waiting to go so it will be a lot faster.

It was a lot of fun and will only get easier. I have a whole pile of color film waiting for this. Thank you, Omer.

Awesome - you are welcome! Post some results on our FB page when have scanned them.

C-41 first time

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