The title pretty much says it all.
I get quite a bit of e-mail and PMs on these 3 subjects. I love trying to help, but I wanted you all to know about these items.
1. Stand development: This probably generates more than its share of mail due to streaks and other defects and the person wants help. I'm glad to give it as always, but... Stand development is hard to master and tricky. It is not for everyone. And, at this remote distance, I usually cannot diagnose problems and give good accurate advice except to say "it looks like bromide drag" or some such. If you use stand development, be prepared for problems.
2. Stabilzers: There are 2 generations of color film stabilzers. One type contains formalin and can be used with all color films. The other has no formalin, is more modern, and can be used only with modern color films. The E6 process has formalin in it in the pre-bleach and therefore cross processing E6 films in C41 using a modern stabilzer may result in very poor image stability. This pretty much summarizes it. Non-Kodak or Non-Fuji chemistry may or may not be suitable. (see below)
3. Color film blixes: Many people use blixes for color films. At Kodak, our R&D proved that only one blix removed all silver metal from the image properly. All other blixes left some residual silver metal in the film resulting in changes to sharpness, grain and color reproduction. The problem is that the Iron complex is too dilute in a blix after mixing with the hypo and therefore does not do its job properly. Also, stability of the blix goes way down because it is a mixture of an oxidant and a reductant. Yeah, I know how to make a blix for color film, but no, there is none out there that really works! The most useful blix is a combination of a powder part and a liquid part.
So, keep the notes coming if you wish, but if it is in regard to one of the above, please keep my comments in mind before you write or post. These seem to be coming up over and over again. So, I thought a summary might be useful.
PE
I get quite a bit of e-mail and PMs on these 3 subjects. I love trying to help, but I wanted you all to know about these items.
1. Stand development: This probably generates more than its share of mail due to streaks and other defects and the person wants help. I'm glad to give it as always, but... Stand development is hard to master and tricky. It is not for everyone. And, at this remote distance, I usually cannot diagnose problems and give good accurate advice except to say "it looks like bromide drag" or some such. If you use stand development, be prepared for problems.
2. Stabilzers: There are 2 generations of color film stabilzers. One type contains formalin and can be used with all color films. The other has no formalin, is more modern, and can be used only with modern color films. The E6 process has formalin in it in the pre-bleach and therefore cross processing E6 films in C41 using a modern stabilzer may result in very poor image stability. This pretty much summarizes it. Non-Kodak or Non-Fuji chemistry may or may not be suitable. (see below)
3. Color film blixes: Many people use blixes for color films. At Kodak, our R&D proved that only one blix removed all silver metal from the image properly. All other blixes left some residual silver metal in the film resulting in changes to sharpness, grain and color reproduction. The problem is that the Iron complex is too dilute in a blix after mixing with the hypo and therefore does not do its job properly. Also, stability of the blix goes way down because it is a mixture of an oxidant and a reductant. Yeah, I know how to make a blix for color film, but no, there is none out there that really works! The most useful blix is a combination of a powder part and a liquid part.
So, keep the notes coming if you wish, but if it is in regard to one of the above, please keep my comments in mind before you write or post. These seem to be coming up over and over again. So, I thought a summary might be useful.
PE