the 1980's color photos were fading in the 2000's and 2010's, while the 90's are good as new. Maybe it's the paper, Fujifilm may have made some advancements since then.
1980s was the height of low cost minilabs - shortcuts may have been taken.
And of course, they are also ten years older.
What could be the primary reason that my old color photographs from 1980's are fading while the ones from 1990's on fujifilm paper are just as good as back then? The 1980's prints went soft/yellow, and to my surprise the 1990's are super crisp. Just opened up an old photo album. I'm assuming the fading mechanism in RA-4 paper is similar to that of the film.
How do you regenerate the bleach, using own chemicals or a commercial replenisher?
used a developer solution for over a year in a plastic bottle full of air
Well, you could, but it would require that your 'own chemistry' is essentially a fully functional RA4 developer. And if you make that, you wouldn't even have to buy the initial RA4 kit (or, at least, the developer part). A replenisher typically very closely resembles the working product, but with some relatively minor modifications.I wonder if it's possible to buy a single RA-4 kit and keep replenishing it with own chemistry
What could be the primary reason that my old color photographs from 1980's are fading while the ones from 1990's on fujifilm paper are just as good as back then?
Koraks, who is on this thread I think, used a developer solution for over a year in a plastic bottle full of air. He replenishes it and adds potassium hydroxide to maintain the pH.
I wonder if it's possible to buy a single RA-4 kit and keep replenishing it with own chemistry, or if you need to keep buying new kits. Seems like a waste.
David Lyga mentioned potassium ferricyanide as a bleaching agent in C41. Could it also be used for RA4 instead of EDTA?
I've looked into SDS for the Arista RA4 kit, and it pretty much shows what the compositions are for different parts and the respective proportions. They all show EDTA, which I cannot find anywhere. The CD3 and CD4 (for C41) can be sourced more readily. So I was wondering if there's a substitute for EDTA and the differences it brings to the workflow. David Lyga mentioned something about potassium ferricyanide in C41 instead of EDTA as I understand.Well, you could, but it would require that your 'own chemistry' is essentially a fully functional RA4 developer. And if you make that, you wouldn't even have to buy the initial RA4 kit (or, at least, the developer part). A replenisher typically very closely resembles the working product, but with some relatively minor modifications.
The issue I have is sourcing the RA4 replenisher here in Toronto. B&H does not ship it, have to pick it up from NYC, long drive from me. I found a supplier of Tetenal RA4 kit in Toronto, but no replenisher. So maybe I can make up my own mix. Fujifilm does not reply obviously to my emails, but there's a Fuji office here that could also be a distributor for labs but not individuals.Interesting for me to see this thread revive and see PE and David Lyga’s posts again.
kfed1984, there is no need to make up your own replenisher for your RA4 kits. Just use the commercially made replenisher (Kodak, .
David Lyga mentioned potassium ferricyanide as a bleaching agent in C41. Could it also be used for RA4 instead of EDTA?
I'm thinking maybe the longevity/stability concerns of potassium ferricyanide could be verified with an accelerated sun exposure fading test, next to a conventionally-developed RA4 print for a comparative test.PE had some concerns about its use because the dyes were not developed with such a strong bleach in mind and it may affect their stability.
It certainly works and has a super fast action in RA4 (10-15 seconds would be enough). I used it for double development technique years ago.
an accelerated sun exposure fading test
It has to be Ferric Ammonium EDTA and not any other EDTA, correct? I cannot find it, even Alibaba. Yes Toronto is a major photography center globally, but doing an online search does not yield anything. Lots of RA4 chemicals in UK, USA, Vancouver, just not Toronto for some reason. Will have to ask personally I think, in downtown photography stores.As to EDTA - I haven't looked for it lately, but last time I did, it wasn't particularly difficult to source from major chemical suppliers,
It has to be Ferric Ammonium EDTA and not any other EDTA, correct?
I cannot find it, even Alibaba.
Will have to ask personally I think, in downtown photography stores.
One nice thing about separate bleach and fix for C41 is the better keeping properties. You can stretch the bleach quite far by regenerating it, making the most of the expensive ferric sodium EDTA.
Can this be done with RA4?
Only commercial blix I can find here comes in pre-mixed 10L ektacolor bottles. Well above my yearly printing frequency and I'm assuming it doesn't keep for super long after open.
Scratch mixing would be nice but if I have to keep dumping out precious ferric ammonium EDTA the math doesn't work that well.
PS: Could C41 bleach and fix work for RA4? I know that C41 uses a different EDTA salt but PE did once post an old experimental formula for RA4 blix with ferric sodium EDTA. I can live with experimental for paper.
Did a search by CAS # and found something with a price for ferric EDTA, also asked for a quote on AlibabaBe sure to search for CAS numbers; this tends to turn up more relevant matches in the industry.
Did you try making this already? Looks like EDTA is available at Alphachem near me, where I bought lots of other stuff.If you want to make Ammonium Ferric EDTA from scratch, you need EDTA free acid, Ferric Chloride and Ammonia. If you can't find EDTA free acid, you can make it from the more easily available Disodium EDTA or Tetrasodium EDTA.
I don't like being dependent on other's trade secrets too much and rely on their technology
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