Couple of C41 developing questions

2 questions
Does adding time make the negs thicker?
If my developer came out of the tank bubbly, or soapy (maybe it had a little leftover photoflo from B&W or something?) Is the developer ruined? The negatives from that developing session are fine.

details:

I am using the Rollei kit from freestyle that uses BLIX, not the digibase stuff you can only get in Europe. Boo.

Anyway it seems to be working fine but the negs on some of my expired stuff are a bit thin, and the regular non expired stuff comes out slightly thin. I have added a lot of time, like two or three minutes over on the developer stage. Last rolls #7 and 8 were done at 19 minutes at 23 C (the book says should be 15 minute at 25, so I added a little more time for the low temp and thinish negs but they look very good to me!

I have compared test rolls of fuji superia 200 that were done at a pro lab in town and they seem the same in terms of grain and the color shift is not something I can see if there is one. I have some very expired Portra 160 NC that comes out a little thinner but outdoor brightly lit shots are comparable to the pro lab as well. Indoor shots are aweful...exposed at EI 80.

Just wondering if adding even more time will get thicken the negs more or am I just making them thinner by adding more time.

Oh, I tried the process at 100 C and the results came out the same. It doesnt seem like its worth the effort to go high temp.

The expired film was expired. The expired film was under exposed.

The best results for C-41 processing is maintaining the development temperature at ~100 degrees F [~37 degrees C]. Lower the development temperature, you will enter a world of hurt and we will see an endless series of posts asking about what is wrong with your C-41 negatives.

trythis said:

Oh, I tried the process at 100 C and the results came out the same. It doesnt seem like its worth the effort to go high temp.

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100C Really? Were you trying to 'cook' the film?

oops !!! 38 C 100 F Ha!

Sirius Glass said:

The expired film was expired. The expired film was under exposed.

The best results for C-41 processing is maintaining the development temperature at ~100 degrees F [~37 degrees C]. Lower the development temperature, you will enter a world of hurt and we will see an endless series of posts asking about what is wrong with your C-41 negatives.

Click to expand...

The OP's experience would seem to contradict this if we assume that his problems stem from (a) expired film and (b) not giving the film enough time at the lower temperature. In neither were his problems that of colour casts/crossover which seems to be the problems cited as being the ones characterising development at less than 100F

Of course one swallow if that is what it was does not make a summer so key to this question may be how many films had he developed satisfactorily at these lower temps.

If it is dozens or maybe high single figures then this would suggest that it does work, wouldn't it?

How many have you done OP?

pentaxuser

9 rolls at ~25 C and 1 at 38 C. The instructions give 3 times and temps of 45 C. For 2min 38 C 3:15 and 25 C at 13:00.
Times go up for more rolls used up to 16 rolls.


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If you scan your negs anyway, some colour cross over can easily corrected in post processing, that's why you don't see much difference between room temperature processing and processing at correct temperature of 38°C/100°F. For many scenes colour cross over won't show up even if you wet print. It's amazing how far off a process can be and the results still look ok to us.

My experience with printing paper (both B&W and colour paper) is that when it is long expired it does not only become foggy, it also loses contrast. Judging contrast of C-41 negs may be quite difficult, because C-41 is already a low contrast process, and the orange mask does not exactly help either. If you are 100% sure you have lower than normal contrast, extending CD time is the way to go. Underdevelopment means you lose shadow detail, whereas overdevelopment will increase grain, so it's up to you in which direction you are more willing to err.

About foam: some C-41 colour developers contain a wetting agent, which will show up as foam when you pour out the dev. Unless it's way out of control I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks rudeofus, thats helpful. I am scanning and certainly just good enough for me. More time seems to improve things for most of my film. I just did a roll of found film (sainsbury 400, a store brand roll I found in Europe). And it must have been quite old. The code OE5229 was the film type so maybe its Eastman 5229 sans remjet? It came out much denser and a much darker orange mask than my Portra 160 or ektar in 120 or 135. I am 5 rolls behind on scans and do not have my darkroom finished yet. It will be a few days before the last few come out.

An interesting thing about the Sainsburys film is that when it was wet it looked like the brown emulsion was still on the film but as it dried it disappeared.


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