Omit stabilizer bath Adox c-tec-41 (C-41 development)

[elollo]

Hi

I get so much residue from the third and last bath of the c-tec-41 developing kit.
On BW i do the final rinse in water with a small drop of soap and get great result.
Am I loosing somthing when it comes to achival properties ?
Living in Scandinavia we have pretty mild climate and not much humidity during the summer.

thanks in advance

Olle

 

[koraks]

Everything you wanted to know here: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/the-definitive-word-i-hope-on-color-stabilzers.89149/unread

The TL;DR is that no, you're not really missing out on anything major except perhaps some protection against fungus, but proper storage conditions of your negatives will accomplish the same.
If you want to be very safe from the viewpoint of longevity of your negatives, you could do a final rinse in demineralized/distilled water with a few drops of formalin. If you don't want to mess with formalin, you could just dunk your film in photoflo (Adoflo etc.) with dilution as per the product's instructions.
I generally do neither and just wipe the film after hanging it to dry and call it good.

The archival stability of color negatives is IMO kind of an open question anyway.

 

[elollo]

Thank you, exactly what I wanted to hear

 

[Oldwino]

I was under the impression, maybe wrongly, that modern c41 films have stabilization chemistry built into them.

 

[MattKing]

I was under the impression, maybe wrongly, that modern c41 films have stabilization chemistry built into them.

They do, but they are still benefit from a fungicide.
Historically, the stabilizer baths did three things - stabilized the image, added protection against fungus, and provided a surfactant to aid in drying.
With modern films, the stabilization is unnecessary, so modern "Final Rinse" offers only the last two.

 

[Dr. no]

Puttiing on my actual mycologist hat, formaldehyde is a great fungicide, but as it is very volatile, it depends on "wet time". Thus it is only active in the first step of your film's archival life, though this is the time of most exposure to spores--while hanging in a warm/wet darkroom.
No controlled experiments, but I wonder if slides that traveled around in carousels but were occasionally blasted with intense light were more likely to grow mold than living in folder books in the dark.

 

[Samu]

I really doubt this kit has any real stabilizer. Most likely the bath included is a final rinse similar to those used in the commercial version of C-41, consisting of surfactant and biocides preventing bacteria and fungi growing on emulsion. This should not be omitted, although real stabilizer containing formalin is no longer necessary in C-41. The old name "stabilizer" still remains, although we are strictly speaking referring to a final rinse.

E6 simplified blix kits are a different question, because this kind of film needs a stabilizer, but during the standard process, this happens with the pre-bleach, "conditioner" reacting with bleach. This approach is not possible in the simplified process, which includes a wash step after each bath. Some manufacturers claim the bleach-fix includes some kind of stabilizer, but this is not probably true with all manufacturers. Some kits do have stabilizers for this reason. Of course, I don´t recommend the three-step E6 at all.