High ISO Film and Tetenal kits...

[Meow7]

HI, I've searched for answers to this online but haven't found much. In the Tetenal kit it states that users of high ISO (400 and up) can only expect to get 3 rolls per 1L of (working) developer. I have just done 1 Portra 800, 1 Ektar 100 and finally a roll of Natura 1600. The Natura came out fine and I used the times for 5-6 films (3:30 and 6:00 for Blix.). Am I done with that bottle? I don't want to do another roll and have it not be good. Also, is it only the developer that exhausts or do also the blix and stabilizer exhaust at the same rate? They do seem to have a longer shelf life though. Thanks!

 

[pentaxuser]

HI, I've searched for answers to this online but haven't found much. In the Tetenal kit it states that users of high ISO (400 and up) can only expect to get 3 rolls per 1L of (working) developer. I have just done 1 Portra 800, 1 Ektar 100 and finally a roll of Natura 1600. The Natura came out fine and I used the times for 5-6 films (3:30 and 6:00 for Blix.)./QUOTE]
As a matter of interest what does it say about how many rolls you can do which are less than 400? I wonder why higher ISO such as 400 and above exhaust developer quicker.

pentaxuser

 

[Meow7]

I think you are supposed to get about 10-12 rolls per liter of working dev.. It says nothing of say 200 ISO which is twice as high as 100... Hence my question. 10-12 rolls of only 100 ISO? 6 rolls of 200 ISO? 3 rolls of 400 ISO? If that is the case then I've gone way over quota with 1 roll of 800 and 1 roll of 1600. I think I will have to call Freestyle...

 

[Rudeofus]

C-41 CD deterioration depends on exposure on your film, since strongly exposed parts will use more developer than unexposed or weakly exposed parts. I don't think a vendor can give you exact numbers for how many rolls you can develop in a given amount of developer, the best you'll get are overly conservative estimates which will work under all conditions.

C-41 CD deteriorates smoothly, and overuse will not drop you off a cliff. As you overuse it, your negs will look a bit underdeveloped, but you won't pull out blank negs even if you heavily overuse your developer. See this thread for an example of extremely overused C-41 CD.

Conclusion: don't worry, your negs will be fine.

PS: there are some reasons I could think of why more sensitive film rolls use up more developer: they arev high in Silver Iodide and maybe also DIR couplers which deteriorates developer with use. It could also be that more sensitive film simply uses larger silver halide grains and therefore uses both more developer and puts more load on bleach.

 

[Meow7]

Thanks! That is good information. I'll just keep an eye on it when developing... Looks for signs of overuse. Maybe err on the safe side, I think the Porta 800 and the Natura (for sure, sadly the last roll I had.) won't be used much and it will be mostly 100-160 ISO. Developing C41 at home is fun.

 

[pentaxuser]

Meow7, so Tetenal actually states that you can get 10-12 rolls of ISO 100 film but only 3 rolls of 400 but doesn't give any reasons? Have I got this right?

Rudeofus, if I have this right then does your theory as to why this should be, explain why such a drastic reduction in the capacity or does this seem strange to you as well. It does to me

pentaxuser

 

[Rudeofus]

Here are the instructions for Tetenal Colortech C-41, kindly provided by Freestyle. Tetenal states (page 4 of the booklet, page 2 of the PDF file) a process capacity up to 16 rolls of low ISO film, or up to 12 rolls of high ISO film per liter of process liquid.

PS: I have no affiliation with Tetenal and can therefore not make statements regarding their products or documentation. I have stated some theories why high ISO film gets less capacity than low ISO film, but the real answer can only be had from Tetenal themselves.

PPS: Since Tetenal's process specs are considered quite conservative by many experienced users of their chems, and since the difference between 12 and 16 rolls is well within that margin of error, I would not worry one bit about the slightly out of spec conditions you put your film through, it will most likely be just fine.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks, Rudeofus. Your statement on Tetenal instructions make sense. I was just curious as to where Meow7 got his 3 rolls of ISO 400 from.

pentaxuser

 

[Meow7]

I got it from the book that came with the kit. It does say 3 "runs" but a run could be 1 roll orultople rolls. That is what confused me.

rudeofus, thank you for that info. Will have to download it. Better than what comes with the kit

 

[Rudeofus]

Meow7, since every process run dilutes process liquids with carryover water, Tetenal is rather conservative with the number of process runs you're supposed to make with a given amount of process liquid. This said, you can still run a lot more than three rolls through a whole liter of CD and BLIX. If you develop 135 type small format film, you can mix the kit in batches of 250ml, which gets you four batches with three runs each, which means 12 rolls of film processed per liter. If you have 120 type medium format roll film, you can wind two rolls on a spindle. With two half liter batches and three runs per batch and two rolls per run, you again get 12 rolls per liter.

 

[mshchem]

Buy this. 5 liters of Kodak Flexicolor Developer Replenisher for 14 bucks, the starter is around 8 bucks, but the starter is enough to make gallons of working developer.

https://www.uniquephoto.com/product/c-41-dev-repl-lorr-tm-5l-ek-kodak-xhaz-hazsp1-832-0608-8231672

You can use your blix.

Unique photo sells 5 liter batch sizes of Kodak Flexicolor C41 RA. Bleach, Fixer and Final rinse. The good stuff!