Color developer formulas collected: C41, ECN2, RA4

When using the formula in post #18 for 1L of developer, how many films can you process with it?

Nehalem501 said:

When using the formula in post #18 for 1L of developer, how many films can you process with it?

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It's hard to put a definitive number to it, because there are several processes through which developer is "used up". One of the main things that happens is that halides from the film dissolve in the developer and this affects its activity. This will be the dominant factor affecting its capacity provided it's used relatively fresh, stored properly etc. Therefore, I'd stick to the more conservative numbers that major manufacturers recommend. Personally, I usually run 6 films (135/36) through a liter, with a maximum of 12 - but usually only 6.

For years I developed 35mm C41 film using home brew C41 and actual Kodak C41 (5 litre package from memory) when I had lots of C41 developing.

Using Jobo rotary processing with the Jobo 1540 tank (4 rolls of 35mm film in 500ml of solution) either on a Jobo rotary processor, or hand rolled in the sink, I was able to do one shot processing getting 8 rolls per 1 litre of chemistry.

It's been about 10 years since I've done C41 developing, but I seem to remember a Kodak publication suggesting 4 rolls of 36 frame C41 film per litre as the maximum.