Impressed on Tetenal C-41 chems mixed 3.5 months ago

[hpulley]

I souped two more rolls this morning, oddly a Kodak Portra 160NC 120 (expired 2005) and a Fuji Superia 800 135-24 (expires Feb 2011) in the Paterson 3 tank. I'm now at 15 rolls processed in the 1L Tetenal Press Kit. 3 weeks since mixing the chemicals the results still look good though the blix continues to suck its gut in and the developer is starting to look dark.

 

[hpulley]

Another roll of Fuji Superia 800 135-24 though it and still getting beautiful red cardinals, clear blue skies and green pine needles so still doing well. I only have two more rolls of color film to shoot at the moment so I'll have to decide if I'm going to go and buy some more or if I should go back to B&W for a while. I am enjoying color at the moment and finally got a 6x7 enlarger for my Mamiya negs and it has a color head so if I could get some Fuji Crystal Archive paper and some RA-4 chems I could even print color again...

 

[hpulley]

A quick, cough, scan from the latest roll:

Cardinal 1 crop by Harry Pulley, on Flickr

 

[ChrisC]

This is really positive news. I have a 5L kit I opened and developed a few rolls around a year ago before sealing back up (after spraying protectan in) and I had considered them to be totally gone by now. After hearing this I'm definitely going to give them a mix up and try them out before turfing.

 

[wblynch]

Harry, that's a beautiful picture!

I don't know if Arista is related to Tetenal but I just developed a roll of Portra 160 in my Arista that was mixed in October, 2009. It came out great.

About 20 rolls have passed through that 1L kit already. No special storage beyond squeezing the air out of the color developer bottle each time.

 

[hpulley]

Thanks!

And that's great to hear about getting 20 rolls out of it since October. I'm starting to get worried about mine and it isn't a month old!

 

[pandabob]

My experience with the "Arista" kit from Freestyle (Is this the same stuff relabeled?) over estimates the additional dev time per additional roll. They say to add 15% more time per roll. I was doing this and was finding that my negs were coming out WAY too dense. Since I'm not developing anything I could get sued over ruining I've been sort of "limit testing" the stuff to see how many rolls I can get per liter (I bought the 4 liter kit - mixed one liter at a time)

I'm shooting a lot so I'm developing say.... 20+ rolls in batches within a few weeks of mixing up the chems. After I noticed that my negs were getting WAY over developed I decided a test was in order. I shot a whole roll of the same shot - awell lit page from a color design book in a product light tent. Basically made my own control strips. and cut the film into small chunks in the dark.

I mixed up a new batch of C-41 and held onto the "old" bunch that was well on it's way to it's 20th roll of film. For a baseline I developed the fresh stuff as prescribed in the instructions and in the old stuff with an additional minute or so.

What I found was that the stuff in the old chemistry was still really clear and had good color. It only had one real problem compared to the fresh strip. It was a little over developed. I haven't had a chance to run a second test, but I'm inclined to think that at the same times the negs might have been very close to each other in quality...

 

[wblynch]

oops!!! I made a mistake in that post...

I mixed that C41 in October 2009 and it's still going.

 

[hpulley]

The Tetenal instructions do not say to increase the time per roll. I have increased the time somewhat just in case though I did block some highlights on one of my last rolls, the other roll in the same tank came out OK so I think using spot metering AND some exposure compensation with Fuji Superia 800 just ended up overexposed. I've only been adding a total of :30 after 15 rolls, nothing like the 15% time per roll which would have me developing for many minutes by now.

This looks a little overcooked on the hawk right? The crow came out nicely however... once again please forgive the crummy neg scan. I need to get RA-4 to see if I can print this and get more detail out of the highlights or if I really did overcook it badly.


Crow and Hawk 3 by Harry Pulley, on Flickr

 

[hpulley]

Ok so mine have only been mixed for three and a half weeks but I put another Portra 160NC 120 (expired 2005, my last one) through it and it looks great again. I only have one more roll of color film on hand, might have to get some more to use up the kit ;-)

Actually I'm glad the 1L kit is lasting so long. I only have 1 kit left and B&H is sold out! Freestyle has 1L and 2L kits which I'd love to buy, being a sponsor and all, but unfortunately their shipping costs are too high to make it worthwhile (I did send an email to see if there is anything they can do). If I run out before B&H gets more in stock then I guess I'll have to pay it unless I can find another supplier.

 

[pandabob]

Shipping is always steep with FS or Adorama... Any of them it seems. I'm spoiled by Amazon prime I guess...

What I do is team up with friends and place a group order to defray shipping some. I've found that the first item seems to cost $11 to ship, but then additional (depending on size and weight...) don't seem to increase the shipping cost much, if at all. It seems to go up in steps. But even then splitting it among a few people really helps.

 

[Mark Antony]

I've also been using the Tetenal kit, this shot is the 16th roll in 5 weeks roll to go though the 1L chems (4 mins dev time)

Taken on Agfa Portrait 160 (exp 2007)
I've disposed of them now not wanting to push my luck

 

[hpulley]

That's why B&H are really high in my good books right now. They offer cheap Purolator shipping and from NY it gets here in 2-3 days to nearby Ontario Canada! At the moment B&H is sold out but I still have a kit that is working well and I have another 1L kit still unmixed so I can probably wait until they have it back in stock so I can buy it with $8 shipping.

From the latest roll, 15th full roll in 3.5 weeks (the advertised 12-16 roll capacity is for 135-24 rolls, not 120/135-36 rolls for which the advertised capacity is 8-12 rolls so I'm already well over the 150% capacity, nearly at 200%). The reds, greens and blues still look good to me, density still seems good. The developer and blix are starting to look very similar so I know it is a matter of time and rolls but it still seems good so I'm not going to dump it until it takes a turn for the worse:


Toys crop by Harry Pulley, on Flickr

Stained glass by Harry Pulley, on Flickr

 

[pandabob]

What I'm finding is that I I make a new batch when I start to run too low on Blix. For some reason it seems to leak out of the tanks that I use more so than the developer. So after a while I simply have too little Blix to make a go at it.

 

[hpulley]

Yeah, the blix is more viscous so it doesn't just leak more, it sticks to the film, reels, tank and containers so you lose some every time yo pour it. I can't do two rolls of 120 anymore but I can still do one roll of 120 or two 35mm.

 

[hpulley]

Got my bulk roll of unperforated Kodak Gen 2 (Portra 160NC) today. Loaded a test section (not even a full roll) into a 126 cartridge and put it in the Kodak Instamatic 500 for some tests. Shot through it, then warmed up the Tetenal 1L kit and souped it. Still drying but the color looks good! I will load another cartridge and take some better shots soon. 100' should keep me in business for a while, hopefully the Tetenal will last... then I've got a second kit to mix.

 

[hpulley]

Put two test rolls of the Kodak Gen 2 S016 (Portra 160NC) through this weekend and a roll of Superia 800 135-24 as well and the Tetenal still looks good. The first test roll I thought I was having some blix issues but in my impatience my pre-soak and wash water was too hot, perhap 45C or more and apparently the emulsion couldn't take it. I did the Superia 800 and the second unperforated Portra 160NC roll through with precise temperature control and both turned out great.

 

[Tony-S]

I'm getting ready to process my first roll (120 Fujicolor Pro160S) and I want to make sure that after the stabilizer it's a good idea to rinse once in FotoFlow, right? Then just hang and dry.

 

[Tony-S]

Damn, the blix blew the lid off my tank after about 3 min. Ugg...

 

[2F/2F]

Huh?

Your film should be fine, though.

 

[Tony-S]

I had my cap on the lid for inversions and apparently it's tighter than the lid itself. Lesson learned, though.

Negs look ok so far - a bit milky, but that's to be expected as I understand and will clear upon drying.

BTW - this is the Unicolor kit from Freestyle, which is rebranded Tetenal, according to Harry.

 

[hpulley]

No! Don't rinse after the stabilizer! It contains fotoflo already so there is no need.

I'm getting ready to process my first roll (120 Fujicolor Pro160S) and I want to make sure that after the stabilizer it's a good idea to rinse once in FotoFlow, right? Then just hang and dry.

 

[Tony-S]

Too late! Noted for next roll. (Or should I re-stabilize it?)

 

[2F/2F]

That is weird. I have never had anything like that happen with my bleach or fixer. Perhaps it is the combination of the two.

If they are milky, then they are not OK. I've never seen milky color film unless it was improperly fixed. I'd blix them as long as you need to to clear that away. Rewash, then re-stabilize.

 

[hrst]

If you washed after the stab, you can restabilize the film just to be sure.

Milkiness is perfectly normal in wet color film, but once it's dry it should be very clear.