Tetenal acted quite surprised when I contacted them a few years ago, they didn't expect many new people enter the field of color processing, and their instruction manual seems to reflect this.
Here is what I would now pass on to newcomers:
First, find out, how many rolls you want to process in a short time frame (about two weeks). Prepare only the minimum amount of chemistry needed to process these rolls. For 35mm film you need 250ml and can process three to four rolls. If you have 120 format roll film to process, you need to prepare at least 500ml in order to completely fill the tank, and you can process six to eight rolls with this amount. Since few people shoot eight rolls of film in two weeks, it is advisable to collect a few exposed rolls before starting a dev run. You do not have to process all these rolls in the same dev run, you can reuse your process chemistry as often as needed to get the number of rolls processed, but you need to do this within two weeks.
Next thing is setting up your process chemistry. Color developer as working solution would not be stable, therefore it is provided as a set of three concentrates which are long term stable. Tetenal 1l kit ships with three bottles of CD concentrate, called CD part 1, CD part 2 and CD part 3, each of which contain 100ml. It is trivial to calculate how you mix 250ml or 500ml of color developer:
- In order to make 250ml color developer working solution, you prepare 150ml water (regular tap water will do), add 25ml CD part 1, 25ml CD part 2 and 25ml CD part 3, then fill up with more tap water to make 250ml.
- In order to make 500ml color developer working solution, you prepare 300ml water (regular tap water will do), add 50ml CD part 1, 50ml CD part 2 and 50ml CD part 3, then fill up with more tap water to make 500ml.
After that, it's the same story with the BLIX, except that the mixing ratios are a bit different:
- For 250ml BLIX, you mix 100ml tap water, then add 50ml BX part 1, 50ml BX part 2, then fill up with more tap water to make 250ml.
- For 500ml BLIX, you mix 250ml tap water, then add 100ml BX part 1, 100ml BX part 2, then fill up with more tap water to make 500ml.
The measurements don't have to be uber accurate, a simple graduated cylinder is all you need.
Finally you mix your STAB. Since unlike CD and BLIX, STAB lasts forever, you can mix the whole liter at once and save some hassle. It is absolutely imperative that you mix STAB with distilled water, or you get nasty chalk stains on your negatives.
Since your bottles with the concentrates are now half empty, they will contain air and as a result Oxygen, which will attack your concentrates. It is therefore advisable to protect these opened bottles with some inert gas. This can be Nitrogen from a gas cylinder, it can also be lighter fuel, and if you don't want to mess around with these, you can get Tetenal's Protectan spray, which isn't cheap but lasts for many years of color processing in my experience.
You now have three bottles with working solution: CD, BLIX and STAB. Make sure you get the temperature absolutely right with your CD, BLIX is a lot less critical and STAB can be used at pretty much any temperature. If you have a stop bath from B&W processing, I would recommend you use it between CD and BLIX step.
Your process is now very simple: Use 38°C/100°F tap water to prewash your film and at the same time bring film and tank up to the required process temperature. Take a bucket with hot water to bring the bottles with your CD and BLIX up to 38°C/100°F. Once the correct temperature is reached (use an accurate thermometer and give it a minute to show the correct temperature), pour out the prewash water and pour in the color developer. Once you are 15 seconds short of the CD time, swiftly pour the CD back into its bottle and pour in the stop bath. After about a minute, pour out the stop bath and wash your film with several water changes. Then pour in the BLIX and let it work for at least the time given in the manual, more BLIX time is better. Don't forget to agitate!
After BLIXing do a very thorough wash of your film. Since the film is no longer light sensitive at this stage, you can open your film tank in order to speed up water changes. Wash with warm water for at least 10 minutes, and change it at least every minute. Then pour in one final tankful of warm wash water and let the tank sit for 5-10 minutes. If the wash water has a magenta/pink stain, repeat this step as long as needed, until it pours out without any visible color cast. This will take longer and longer the more you reuse your BLIX!
Finally, after your film is thoroughly washed, shake off all the wash water from your film, from the spindle that holds it and from your film tank. Then pour in your STAB and leave it in the tank for about a minute. Pour the STAB back into its bottle and put on latex gloves if you don't wear them already. Take the film off the spindle, hold it on one end and gently wipe off the STAB that's still on your film. Do not overdo this or you risk nasty scratches on your film, but try to at least get all the foam off your film. Do not wash the film after STAB, or you remove its bactericidal effect and risk the long term stability of your film. STAB is always the last fluid that touches your film.
