C-41 kit - What color are the solutions?

[gkardmw]

Hi,

I bought a Freestyle type II kit several years ago (might be around 10 years) and had the urge to use it today. Mixed the blix and the solution is a deep red brown - mixed the developer, same color.

I am assuming they went bad - am I correct?

Yes, a newbie question.


Dave

 

[gkardmw]

I am surprised that no one has an answer to this? I was looking at another thread where the blix was shown in a soda pop bottle in a refrigerator and it was basically the same color as mine. Of course, mine was that color right after I mixed the powders with the water.

 

[warrennn]

I have no experience with the Freestyle kit (nor C41), but I noticed that the Kodak document Z131 (for Flexicolor C41) states that the mixed developer should have an amber color.

I have been doing a lot of RA-4 (similar to C41?) recently using the Kodak chemicals and I noticed that the developer started out light amber and eventually became quite dark (darker than the blix) after about 30 8x10 prints using the same 1L solutions. This is, of course, well outside of the recommended 16 prints per liter. There was a definite color shift and change in exposure, though by compensating, I was able to still get good prints. For C41 negatives, this wouldn't work.

Based on this, I would be suspicious of dark brown developer, though I might well be wrong.

Warren N

 

[Ottrdaemmerung]

I mixed up a Unicolor C-41 kit about a month ago and am still using it. Currently the blix is a deep blood-red and the dev is straw- or tea-colored, a light brown. Of course both were a little lighter when freshly mixed and before their first use. If you think your chemicals might be bad, by all means shoot and process a test strip. Although I'm no expert, I'd think that powdered chemicals stored air-tight and moisture-tight in stable conditions would stay potentially useful for many years.

 

[gkardmw]

Thanks everyone - yeah, I am going to put a test strip through it. The developer is not as dark or opaque as the blix, so perhaps it has some strength left to it.

 

[Ottrdaemmerung]

Yeah, my dev is rather translucent. The blix is intensely colored and nearly opaque: when I mixed it up I was paranoid about getting it on anything in the bathroom for fear of staining -- but it's not as evil as it looks. Just beware of flying droplets when you burp your tank.

 

[wblynch]

The blix is intensely colored and nearly opaque: when I mixed it up I was paranoid about getting it on anything in the bathroom for fear of staining -- but it's not as evil as it looks. Just beware of flying droplets when you burp your tank.

Yep, I've got dark stained splatter spots all over my bathroom wall from the blix. Time to repaint