Quick C-41 self-developing question

[clayne]

B&W developing experienced here. Is it a safe assumption to think that I can pick up a simple C-41 kit from Freestyle, etc. and a hotplate for temp control and be good to go?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Do not use a hotplate for temperature control of processing solutions. Use a water bath.

PE

 

[Neal]

Dear clayne,

Find a couple of old fish tank heaters at a garage sale. C-41 only runs at around 100°F so you don't need that much heat once the water bath is at the right temperature.

Neal Wydra

 

[srs5694]

What the others said. FWIW, I don't even use a fish tank heater; I just fill a dishpan with water at the right temperature (40C works for me), then put my solution bottles in there for a few minutes, along with my developing tank filled with water at about the right temperature. After a few minutes, the temperature in the developer bottle comes to 100F (38C), and I start processing. I return the developing tank to the water bath between agitation cycles. The temperature in the bath drops, but as the most critical step is the developer, that's OK; in the 3:15 it takes to develop the film, the temperature stays pretty stable. An aquarium heater or similar measures will of course help keep the temperature a little more stable, and if you're a perfectionist this may be important to you.

 

[clayne]

I just realized a direct hotplate to dev is probably a bad idea. How about hot plate to water bath?

In all honesty, as others mentioned, I bet it probably won't make a huge amount of difference to just pre-heat the bath and go from there.

 

[Svitantti]

Pre-heat and just water bath should be fine. The times aren't too long and actually I would say from my experiences and hear-say from friends, that the even the temperature is not THAT critical for a hobbyist.

Sanner will anyway fix smaller color shifts and you can fix them in the darkroom too if you make your own color prints. Sometimes a little "mistake" is more interesting than a photo that fully fits laboratory tolerances.

 

[domaz]

I think all the Freestyle kits use Bleach-fix (BLIX) which the resident experts around here seem to have a low opinion of. IMO if you are going to do it yourself do it right and get a kit which seperates the Bleach and the Fix.

 

[mtjade2007]

I used Freestyle Arista paper chemicals before. I won't use it again. I now use only Kodak. Recent processing of a roll of 400VC at home once again showed me how beautiful the colors are produced by 400VC films. There is really no point of using after market chemicals. They are not cheaper and are definitely not better.

 

[digiconvert]

Just had my first results from the Tetenal C41 kit , two films consecutively processed at 30 degrees C . The scans are attached (the wedding shot is from a roll of instamatic film my Mom couldn't get developed easily) .
If I can do it anyone can !
I have scanned these but wil try to print good ones using the Tetenal RA4 room temp kit which I have used before - much more fun than scanning

 

[Svitantti]

Blix works quite well judging from my (& my friends) experiences. No problems - at all. Another thing is how long will the negs be good if some silver stays on the emulsion, which is what some say blix might do compared to bleach + fix separated... But does this affect badly on the stability if the silver is fixed anyway, just not bleached away? Colour negs wont keep as long as slides or B&W anyway though.

You wont see the difference too easily on a neg film anyway, if there is some, because you will process it with a scanner or through RA-4 process etc.

Not saying theres something wrong with bleach and fix separated, but I dont think people should make things too complicated if they cant see the difference with their own eyes (but maybe with a densitometer).

 

[Photo Engineer]

Blix works quite well judging from my (& my friends) experiences. No problems - at all. Another thing is how long will the negs be good if some silver stays on the emulsion, which is what some say blix might do compared to bleach + fix separated... But does this affect badly on the stability if the silver is fixed anyway, just not bleached away? Colour negs wont keep as long as slides or B&W anyway though.

You wont see the difference too easily on a neg film anyway, if there is some, because you will process it with a scanner or through RA-4 process etc.

Not saying theres something wrong with bleach and fix separated, but I dont think people should make things too complicated if they cant see the difference with their own eyes (but maybe with a densitometer).

I think that unless you made a direct comparison of the color rendition and overall image quality (sharpness and grain) you might miss the distortion by retained silver. In fact, I would suggest that some of the complaints about bad grain in color images or other problems such as this might be due to retained silver.

Don't be too quick to dismiss a good bleach and fix over a blix until you have made that comparison.

PE

 

[Svitantti]

Might be true... But I am not too eager to start making test shootings etc. I am one of those people, who usually doesn't care about slight color shifts and minor errors like that... or some grain. I tend to shoot low-light anyway mostly, where there arent usually that much colours and there will be grain anyway.

But maybe some day...

So far the image quality has been great, also on RA-4 prints up to 24x30 size. Mostly 400 ASA film.
With E-6 we (at our schools club) have been planning to try a 6-bath too. But so far I see no reason with C-41.