C41 Cross Processing in Diafine

I screwed up. What I thought was Fuji 1600 pan film turned out to be 1600 color film. I was tired and it was late. The cassettes look somewhat alike.

Now that I got your interest... the question is...

So I process the 1600 C41 together with a couple rolls of B&W. Have I screwed up the Diafine?

Further questions about what to do with this negative roll I'll post elsewhere.

tim in san jose

k_jupiter said:

I screwed up. What I thought was Fuji 1600 pan film turned out to be 1600 color film. I was tired and it was late. The cassettes look somewhat alike.

Now that I got your interest... the question is...

So I process the 1600 C41 together with a couple rolls of B&W. Have I screwed up the Diafine?

Further questions about what to do with this negative roll I'll post elsewhere.

tim in san jose

Click to expand...

This is a very way out suggestion, and assumes that all of the 3 imaging layers were developed properly in the diafine (not assured at all), but here goes.

Bleach the film in a rehal ferricyanide bleach bath and then wash well and then run the film through a complete C41 process.

This will give you a silver halide record of the original image which is then converted into color. You can leave out the bleach step and just fix (bleach bypass) and this will give you the option of reclaiming your original B&W negatives reinforced by some dye image if all else fails.

Sometimes it works and sometimes not. It depends on the B&W developer and the film and the way they interact.

One thing is sure, under the best of conditions you will not get the intended color reproduction or image structure.

PE

k_jupiter said:

So I process the 1600 C41 together with a couple rolls of B&W. Have I screwed up the Diafine?

Click to expand...

Won't hurt the Diafine a bit. I've done it a couple times, and I've talked to people who do it routinely (they only scan their negatives anyway, and color film is cheaper than B&W for them).

Thank you both. That's the answer I was looking for Donald. I really didn't want to screw up a half gallon of Diafine with my stupidity. How are those cameras working out?

PE.. Interesting ideas. I have a C41 Tetenal kit sitting around. I also have some ferricyanide and an old photo formulas book...

I think that has a blix step which might make the bleach step irrelavent. I need to think this one out. Perhaps I'll scan them first before I do anything else. Not that there is anything important on the film. Be nice to see all the different options as I go through this weird process.

tim in san jose

Tim;

PM me if you need more information or help, or I can post additional information here.

This is called a rehal color process BTW and is used commonly in the design of photo products. It can also be used multiple times to adjust the contrast of a color material upwards. There is another post on this that I made recently.

PE

I would leave them alone. I did some color in Diafine recently...my thread on it is actually here. It was ISO 400 film, though. I didn't really see grain any larger than normal ISO 400 black and white in most shots, but some shots were ruined...if you scan you're going to see some enormous grain...don't know if anything would really recover the roll anyway.

k_jupiter said:

How are those cameras working out?

Click to expand...

The Baldixette is my first choice when I grab a pinhole camera -- compact and unequaled image quality, pretty much flare free thanks to that baffle behind the shutter. The Nettar is (suddenly) the only adjustable 6x6 folder I have; I gave up on the leaky bellows in my Speedex and traded it to someone who'll probably make a super-wide pinhole out of it by removing everything inside the door, gluing the door shut, and cutting a hole in it to mount the original shutter with a pinhole. And the Ikomat is sitting next to my Wirgin Auta, but I don't shoot as much 6x9 as I'd like -- got out of the habit when I was running low on film; need to get back into it now that the freezer's a little better stocked.

Recently, though, I've been shooting my Signet 35 and Bantam RF more, just because they've still got the "new" feel.