C-41 Negative goop

[markrewald]

Has anyone experienced the white crap that is on your negatives after getting them back from the lab? I just spent an ungodly amount of time cleaning that sludge (or whatever) off one of my pics. By cleaning I mean spending hours with photoshop (since I do not have a color darkroom). Those that process c41 at home do you get this stuff? If you dont I am seriously thinking of doing this developing at home.

Thanks!

 

[hrst]

There shouldn't be any if processed well enough. It can be dust or it can be drying marks (calcium from tap water), or something else. Usually it cannot be completely avoided, but if you have to spend hours to digitally clean it, there's too much. Speak to your lab or find a better lab - or do it yourself... When you do it yourself, you are responsible for these problems and then you can learn how to avoid them.

 

[nickandre]

Find a new lab.

Yes I get it too. The gunk is stabilizer and water contaminants. I have begun to use distilled water for my stabilizer because I found that cleaning the gunk off led to scratches 100% of the time.

 

[markrewald]

Thanks guys. The place is a professional lab. I think it was a newbie that did my roll of film. I will give them another go and start pricing equipment to do this myself.

Thanks again!

 

[hrst]

C-41 is so quick process that you won't need any Jobo processor to do it yourself. Bucket for water bath, fever thermometer and normal BW spiral tank are all the equipment you will need. And, preferably a dry, dustless place to hang it dry. And maybe a film squeegee.

 

[nickandre]

The chemistry is what will cost you. $100 gets you a lifetimes worth, but it's hard to buy in smaller quantities.

 

[John Shriver]

The stabilizer also has Photo Flo in it. Photo Flo solution is very nutritious, scum very happy to grow in it. Same may be happening with their stabilizer bath. Should have been changed...

 

[nickandre]

Generally the C41 stabilizer has a bacteria death agent (used to be formaldehyde) which should prevent the consumption by bacteria. That's critical because the film is also very tasty and will get eaten if untreated.

 

[jrydberg]

The chemistry is what will cost you. $100 gets you a lifetimes worth, but it's hard to buy in smaller quantities.

Huh. Sounds a bit too cheap, or where do you get your stuff?

Here in Scandinavia a 5L Tetenal kit goes for roughly $150.

 

[nickandre]

My chemistry is the C41 Developer Replenisher 19 liters which runs about $25 plus the starter which will do many many gallons but costs $8 plus your bleach which I usually hunt ebay and found a third party selling Bleach III for $25 for 5 gallons. I use flexicolor fix which is also cheap plus the stabilizer which freestyle is selling on ebay. If you want to buy directly from kodak you can get the Flexicolor SM bleach in 3.2 liter containers. You'll have to hunt for it though.

Either way you need developer, bleach, fix, stabilizer/final rinse. I use developer one shot, fix and bleach two shot, and mix up stabilizer with distilled water, one shot as well. You can push them many many times that capacity but I prefer to get guaranteed good results than save money.

 

[pentaxuser]

jrydberg. I think you can forget about comparisons with the U.S. I think that C41 and RA4 chemicals are just much more expensive in Europe and that includes the U.K. It's like petrol/gas comparisons. Ask a U.S member what the fuel costs are for a vehicle for say an annual mileage of say 10,000 miles/ 16,000 kilometres and the costs would seem very low in European terms.

You could hunt all your life and still not find the chemicals at the costs tiberiustibz mentions

pentaxuser

 

[nickandre]

jrydberg. I think you can forget about comparisons with the U.S. I think that C41 and RA4 chemicals are just much more expensive in Europe and that includes the U.K. It's like petrol/gas comparisons. Ask a U.S member what the fuel costs are for a vehicle for say an annual mileage of say 10,000 miles/ 16,000 kilometres and the costs would seem very low in European terms.

You could hunt all your life and still not find the chemicals at the costs tiberiustibz mentions

pentaxuser

Sorry.

And we'd probably still whine about gas being way too expensive.

 

[naugastyle]

I've been getting this, and worse than the cheapest drugstore negs . I haven't been using distilled water though, but am going to pick some up before I process again. You aren't supposed to rinse AGAIN after stabilizer, are you? Is anyone finding it necessary to spray the negs with more distilled water after hanging to dry?

 

[hrst]

No rinse after stabilizer or final rinse! It's there to 1) stabilize the dyes and/or 2) prevent biological growth. Older stabilizer includes formaldehyde that has both effects mentioned, and newer final rinse, to be used with modern films (after about 2004-2005), has a less toxic substances to prevent biological growth, as the dyes don't need formalin anymore. But in any case, stabilizer or final rinse is the last solution, don't rinse after it.

It shouldn't leave any drying marks as it is designed to be the final solution to come contact with film. If you have problems, use distilled/demineralized water when mixing stabilizer/final rinse. And, I can't see how any spraying could help .

 

[naugastyle]

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the spraying but when I mentioned on Flickr that my negatives seem dustier/spottier than negs I get from even the cheapest drugstores, a few people said they spray their negatives. But that's almost like another rinse, which I guess you're not supposed to do...anyway, I haven't been doing anything after stabilizer I just notice a lot of teeny tiny spots that are a pain in the ass to PS out.