Did I buy the wrong chems ?

[slm]

I'm questioning if I bought the wrong chemicals now.
This is my first time try at RA-4 printing. I bought Kodak Ektacolor developer kit to make 1 US Gallon (CAT 147 8817). I believe this is ok, but the bleach fix I bought is Kodak Beach-Fix and replenisher to make 5L (CAT 138 8701). I'm missing part B (I'll pick it up at the shop tomorrow) but is this ok to use for the blix ?

Also, I would like to mix small batches of the developer and blix as follows:

For the developer, I would take one fifth of each bottle (there are 3) + the required water to make up 760ml.

For the blix, the same one fifth of each part, to make 1L.

Is splitting the concentrates like this ok ? It would make things easier for me, for storing them.

Many thanks
Steven

 

[Mike Wilde]

yes, you can split the developer lots and the blix lots. I would recommend take the part B ( I think that is the one with the developing agent ) and transfer it to a glass bottle that leaves little air space, or top the space off with (nitrogen/butane/propane - research past posts on this issue). The developer kit that I bought was to make 5L, and stored this way it is still viable tat I continue to mixing up from 3 year old concentrate (stored in a cool dark place most of the time).

The bleach fix and replenisher is like it says. Yes, its ok. The dilution instructions are on the box. It too will last a long time, longer than the developer once mixed, but again, mix up partial quantities in the right proportions.

Google Kodak Z-130, and you will find more RA-4 information than you ever could imagine.

 

[Mike Wilde]

next thought - look at treck hall/mondrian hall, if you are going to do lots of ra-4 (they sold to me as a cash sale for a $250 order a few years ago, and I was allowed to pick it up to avoid the haz matl deliery fee) , or make friends with a local photo lab and add onto thier orders, and split on the shipping.

 

[hrst]

You can split concentrates. Fill the remaining developer bottles with inert gas because Kodak bottles are usually hard to squeeze. (They are not airtight enough to be able to keep the pressure when squeezed and take some air.) Someone might be able to tell which developer bottle(s) is/are sensitive to oxidizing.

 

[slm]

Ah great ! Thanks very much. I'm really anxious to try this out; got disappointed when I read Supra is being discontinued; then saw rolls of Edge paper don't seem to be too expensive. An up and down couple of days.

I don't have the color filtration viewing kit, so I'm hoping getting the color right *by eye* will work out.

Thanks again
Steven

 

[Mike Wilde]

Look for an old 80's vintage Koadk colour darkroom dataguide. They had a pretty good ring around poster to guide you for printing colour casts and exposure. Some included a page with 6 strips of 10cc colour filtration. There is also a great dial calculator to calculate new time for changing the head height after getting your eposure right at a different height.

Find a daylight balanced source to evaluate prints under. There are 5000K compact flourescents out now suited to the task.

I also have had good sucess with a thing called the ektacolour filter finder, or something like that. When exposing the film, on one frame you include a picture of a grey card (one is included with the guide) that should fill half the frame (in 35mm). then you print the frame to fill the easel with the grey with a special transparency from the guide in contact with the paper in the easel. Once dry you evaluate which frame is closest to neutral grey in density and colur balance, and apply the filter corrections that the squares you have evaluated on tell you.

Hit the thrift store and buy an old hair dryer for the darkroom; the wet prints are quite blue, and a waste to try to evaluate iuntil they are dry.