Old C41 color print film and B&W chemistry?

I find myself with seven unexposed, old 135 C41 color-print film, from various sources.
That is, Kodak GOLD 200, MAX 400 and one Fujifilm 100.

I don't have much interest exposing and sending out for color negatives, but would love to play with B&W chemistry.
No high expectations.. unpredictable is good, in this case!

Two issues:

- best, and second-best low-fi developing courses of action?

- compensating for expired film?

Other option: put the rolls out for free giveaway to a more capable person?

I had a few rolls of old Fuji C200...shot normally and developed in diafine. I gave it a little extra time in each developer bath and fixer...worked better than I had expected.

My method:
Rodinal 1:50 for 15 minutes. Fairly brisk agitation 1 minute continuous then 4 or 5 brisk inversions per 30 seconds. Follow with typical black & white stop, fix & wash. I’m usually a little generous with the fix - like 4 or 5 minutes with rapid fixer.

The results are usually high grain and fairly low contrast which can make for some rather impressionistic scenes.

Because of the color mask it’s very difficult to print optically but scanning works fine. I like to scan in color because the Rodinal will sometimes partially develop some of the color dyes, leaving the negatives with a color cast that results in slightly sepia or magenta images.

Have fun!

Oh, yeah... I’d try either box speed or maybe overexposed one stop. Development time is the same either way.

Check out David Lyga's prescription for developing C41 film in B&W chemistry. Gives very good results.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/developing-c-41-color-film-w-d-76-b-w-chemicals.156712/

See post #3.

When developing C41 in B&W chemistry, you encounter two problems - 1) orange mask 2) colloidal silver. It's the latter which makes the negative dense and difficult to scan/print. Lyga's method removes the colloidal silver giving you bright negatives that scan/print nicely.

A crucial factor for getting good results is appropriate extra exposure.Two stops of extra exposure generally works well with films that I've tried.

jay
what print developer do you have lying around ? any coffee ?
i haven't sent c41 or e6 film out to process in years
because it is expired and i really don't want to deal with the expense
so this is what i do ,,
i make teaspoon based non exacty caffenol c
its supposed to be 8oz of water 4tsp of instant coffee, 2tsp washing soda, 1/4 tsp vit c
it doesn't need to be exact, if you have baking soda instead of washing soda add a little more
.. anyways spke it with a tiny bit of print developer, dektol, ansco130 it does't matter...
then take your dektol or ansco 130 you have on hand, dilute it 1:10
and put your film into it. agitate it like you would any film .. first full min, then 10 sec each additional...
for 5 mins, pour it out ... THEN put in the caffenol c spiked .. agitate continuously for 5 mins
your film will look nice.
you could also just process it for about 9-10 mins in the caffenol mixture or 10 mins in the 1:10 print developer
but the split process gives a nice stain on the film to cover up the orange mask you will get ...
it prints OK traditionally and scans fine.
good luck!
john
ps as mentioned this is my regular routine, and it's for every film i shoot, and all i shoot is expired.

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

Check out David Lyga's prescription for developing C41 film in B&W chemistry. Gives very good results.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/developing-c-41-color-film-w-d-76-b-w-chemicals.156712/

Click to expand...

This is great!