Tentenal C41 kit supersize

blockend · Oct 25, 2015

It looks like the 1 litre kit is no more and 2.5 litre is the smallest available. Maybe the 50 rolls from a litre guys have forced the change?

AgX · Oct 25, 2015

At their website they only list the C-41 Rapid kit for 5L solution. (And there still are their modular large volume kits.)

railwayman3 · Oct 25, 2015

If smaller C41 and/or E6 kits become unavailable, I shall certainly abandon home processing of colour. At the moment, a Tetanal kit used for the full recommended capacity of 12 films works out marginally less expensive than sending films for lab processing. But, costing in one's own time, and allowing for wastage, it's really a no-brainer. I could never use a larger kit to its capacity, and, so far as time is concerned, I'd rather spend this on scanning colour and making finished prints, and processing and printing B&W.

sagai · Oct 25, 2015

I have a rather positive experience with this 5 liter kit.
We don't have to dilute all of it!
Even diluted concentrate lasts forever more or less, the only reason a mix a new batch is the increased development time rather than any discrepancy of the developed negs.
Also, there is a spray that eliminates oxidation of the concentrates if someone like me is super super suspicious.

blockend · Oct 25, 2015

railwayman3 said:
If smaller C41 and/or E6 kits become unavailable, I shall certainly abandon home processing of colour. At the moment, a Tetanal kit used for the full recommended capacity of 12 films works out marginally less expensive than sending films for lab processing. But, costing in one's own time, and allowing for wastage, it's really a no-brainer. I could never use a larger kit to its capacity, and, so far as time is concerned, I'd rather spend this on scanning colour and making finished prints, and processing and printing B&W.

I originally used a 5 litre kit but my colour print shooting is sporadic and the kit went off before I had the chance to maximize the throughput. I had more success with the 1 litre kit which fitted my tank perfectly with no extra measuring involved, and I got 20 films processed perfectly before quality began to drop. After the large kit I had a couple of years using Asda which was good value at £2 a roll for processing only, but depending on who was running the machine, the negatives might be covered in dirt. I asked them to roll the film to minimize handling but it failed to cure the dirt issue. The end of the 1 litre kit leaves no clear way forward without changing my kit (tanks, concertina bottles) and shooting regime (8 films at a time for maximum longevity rather than as few as two):
http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/tetenal-c41-kit-1l-681-p.asp

As I have over a hundred rolls of colour print film in the freezer, the next step requires some serious thought.

OptiKen · Oct 25, 2015

Unicolor and Tetanal C41 1 lt kits are still available at both Freestyle and Photographers Warehouse (UltraFineOnLine)

sagai · Oct 25, 2015

I am not really getting the problem.
Is it about that you cannot measure small volume of concentrate?

blockend · Oct 25, 2015

sagai said:
I am not really getting the problem.
Is it about that you cannot measure small volume of concentrate?

Once diluted the clock is ticking on the chemicals. 1 litre kits lasted much longer than the 12-16 recommended film limit if processed in groups, and fits standard sized bottles and tanks. One Flickr member is up to 50 films from 1 ltr and many pass 30. Why kill a standard size? Postage also increases.

Lachlan Young · Oct 25, 2015

New packaging/ labelling regulations are the reason according to Silverprint. Instructions are detailed on quantities for partial mixing and shelf life of chemistry once opened.

Personally I prefer separate Bleach & Fix stages.

sagai · Nov 2, 2015

Quick update,
my diluted mix of 1.2 liter still running nicely after having 13 canisters processed, further it was mixed in June for summer c41.

From the original 5 liter kit there is one batch of concentrates that I intend to mix next march or so.

TheFlyingCamera · Nov 2, 2015

The Rollei C-41 kit comes in 5L concentrate size too, but everything is easy to mix and the directions give you very clear instruction on how to mix 1L working solution at a time. Shelf-life of open concentrate is over 1 year. I don't know where you're getting your C-41 processed that it's only marginally cheaper to run yours at home vs. a lab - even when I would run just 8 rolls of C-41 120 through a 1L kit of Tetenal, that works out to about $3 US/roll. The local pro-lab would charge me $8/roll, and it would take me a week to drop it off and get it back. If I run 16 rolls per 1 liter kit, it's $1.50/roll. That savings is phenomenal, plus I can run it whenever I feel like it and get my results that same afternoon rather than drop it off and wait a week, and even if I dropped off 30+ rolls, they'd not give me any worthwhile volume discount (I think they offered me at most 10%, might have been 5%) - if I do that volume myself, I get a MUCH bigger discount

Tentenal C41 kit supersize

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