Revisiting photography C41 newbie questions

[Mr502go]

I am getting back into analog, specifically processing. As a kid I developed and printed b&w, but never color. Now I am getting into c41, and have a few questions. My results have been pretty satisfactory pricessing new film. . but I have tried developing some old film, and those negatives are very dark.. . .I can barely see images. After doing research, some have suggested bleaching the negs again for an extended period. My current chemistry (rollei) uses blix. Would it be okay to use rollei developer and flexicolor bleach, then fixer, thwn back to rollei stabilizer? Is it safe to expose film to light after bleach before fixer to see if it requires more fixing, or would it be better to blix, observe and then bleach. I have searched for books on the subject, but it seems the only really detailed books are for black and white. Some of the film I have is probably 20-30 years old. I can't remember what's on all of them, but I would like to know how to most effectively bring it back. Any advice or resources offered would be greatly appreciated. Please forgive me if this has been covered before, I did searches and came up with nothing.

 

[koraks]

The answer to both questions is "yes". However, I'm not very optimistic about the improvements you'll see, if any.

 

[foc]

All C41 chemicals brands can be interchanged. They are standard. If you can use bleach and then fix all the better but blix will still work.
I think the age of your films could be causing your problem. You have two problems. Old age can cause the film to fog, making the base of the film dark. Also you have a latent image (an undeveloped image) that is maybe 30 years old. It can degrade over that time.
Without seeing a sample of your negative strip it can be hard to be exact.
Why don't you send one film, as a sample, out to a lab and see how you get on?

 

[nickandre]

That won’t work. The cast your are seeing is from background fogging of the negative, not residual halide. All films slowly get fogged due to background radiation; it’s one of the aging related changes that make old film go bad. I think the only way to avoid this is to store it in a deep mine shaft.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I think the only way to avoid this is to store it in a deep mine shaft.

Sorry. The rocks in the Earth's crust are radioactive. Uranium and thorium are found in most granites and any sedimentary rock derived from a granite parent stock. That's why we have radon in basements in much of North Carolina -- comes out of the granite under the ground.

Best place to store film over a long term is in a freezer, the colder the better (liquid nitrogen?). You can't avoid background radiation entirely, but you can effectively stop thermal fogging.

 

[mshchem]

This can't be real? Is it April 1st? Someone is pulling a fast one.

Earth Years??

 

[nickandre]

Sorry. The rocks in the Earth's crust are radioactive. Uranium and thorium are found in most granites and any sedimentary rock derived from a granite parent stock. That's why we have radon in basements in much of North Carolina -- comes out of the granite under the ground.

Best place to store film over a long term is in a freezer, the colder the better (liquid nitrogen?). You can't avoid background radiation entirely, but you can effectively stop thermal fogging.

I'll count my blessings that Kodak is producing 4 different pro color negative films then and we still have Velvia 50 in 120 format XD