Tetenal Powder Chem's

waynecrider · May 10, 2015

B&H sells a powder Tetenal C41 kit. Has anyone used one and can give a report? I'd like to try some color developing, but don't shoot a lot of color film and don't want to buy (and perhaps) waste a bunch of expensive chem's till I experience the process.

Rudeofus · May 10, 2015

I have no personal experience with this product, but most issue reports here on APUG that involved BLIX issues came from people using powder kits. If you can get a liquid kit, get the liquid kit, Tetenal makes one. The powder kits are IMHO mostly for folks for whom shipping liquids is not an option.

RPC · May 10, 2015

The powder kits likely use sodium thiosulfate instead of ammonium thiosulfate in the fix part. This could give slower, more incomplete fixing.

kd7vdb · May 10, 2015

I purchased a kit and found it to be kinda horrible. The negatives are left with a really strong redish orange tint (lack of bleaching?). I would love to get a better kit next time like one of the seperate liquid kits.

Rudeofus · May 10, 2015

RPC said:
The powder kits likely use sodium thiosulfate instead of ammonium thiosulfate in the fix part. This could give slower, more incomplete fixing.

If you look at the MSDS, these kits use Ammonium Thiosulfate, which does exist in powder form. They do use Sodium Ferric EDTA, though, since there appears to exist no powder form of Ammonium Ferric EDTA.

Kyle M. · May 10, 2015

I've used the Tetanal kit from B&H several times and have nothing but good things to say about it.

OptiKen · May 10, 2015

Ditto here.
I've used the Tetanal powdered kit several times and think it works great.

pentaxuser · May 10, 2015

Unfortunately I cannot swear this but I recall a U.K. retailer selling its own powdered "Press Kit" several years ago and I am pretty certain that it admitted that it was the Tetenal powdered kits. The real bonus of what I think was the Tetenal powdered kit(AKA Press Kit) is that it remains fresh until made up but the downside seemed to be that once turned into a liquid it needs using in a matter of days.

I used to wait until I had several films to be done than then use the 1L kit over maybe a week to 10 days. However it may be that the instruction to use it quickly was unnecessarily cautious but I never put it to the test.

What I can say is that it worked perfectly. The phrase "Press Kit" and the kit was allegedly a carry-over from the days when "Press" photographers were on assignment and needed to process themselves when there were no commercial labs nearby.

pentaxuser

Kyle M. · May 10, 2015

B&H's site says that 1 kit does 8 rolls of 35mm. I did 10 rolls of 120 in both kits that I used with great results. Though I did wait until I had 10 rolls ready to go and developed them all at once.

RPC · May 10, 2015

Rudeofus said:
If you look at the MSDS, these kits use Ammonium Thiosulfate, which does exist in powder form.

I figured they didn't because I believe PE has said powdered Ammonium Thiosulate powder has some problem, like it is very hygroscopic or something. Perhaps that is part of the issue with the blix.

Jeff L · May 10, 2015

I've used this kit several times and have had nothing but good results.
Follow directions exactly about time and temp and you'll be good. I would recommend adding a stop bath in between developer and the blix. Thanks to PE for suggesting this. It improved my results.

Paul Verizzo · May 13, 2015

Yes, Tetenal's powdered kit was marketed as a "Press" kit.

I have used the Unicolor powdered kit many times over the last thirty years. I've always had decent enough results, even playing with ECN films.

Ammonium thiosulfate is indeed a powder, which is what makes up the liquid versions. I have some in a jar. When Tetenal or Unicolor use it in a sealed mylar envelope, there are no issues. Just follow the directions.

Can't speak to the Tetenal, but the Unicolor comes with separate Blix A (fixer) and Blix B (bleach) envelopes. Unless PE or someone of knowledge can tell me otherwise, it seems that one could mix separately and use sequentially.

I have a Unicolor order coming from Freestyle. My intention is to mix part of it as usual, but keep most of the developer in powdered form and use it as a diluted C-41 per David Lygra's experiments. Can't do that? Maybe. Maybe not. It's just fun, not religion.

Rudeofus · May 14, 2015

Paul Verizzo said:
Can't speak to the Tetenal, but the Unicolor comes with separate Blix A (fixer) and Blix B (bleach) envelopes. Unless PE or someone of knowledge can tell me otherwise, it seems that one could mix separately and use sequentially.

I am not PE, but trust me you can't make separate bleach and fixer like that. A bleach needs both an oxidizer and a suitable counter ion for the newly formed silver ions. BLIX part A doesn't provide the counter ion, since the Thiosulfate from BLIX part B does that in BLIX. Some weeks ago I wrote an (there was a url link here which no longer exists) how to convert a BLIX kit into a separate bleach and fixer kit.

Paul Verizzo · May 16, 2015

Rudeofus said:
I am not PE, but trust me you can't make separate bleach and fixer like that. A bleach needs both an oxidizer and a suitable counter ion for the newly formed silver ions. BLIX part A doesn't provide the counter ion, since the Thiosulfate from BLIX part B does that in BLIX. Some weeks ago I wrote an (there was a url link here which no longer exists) how to convert a BLIX kit into a separate bleach and fixer kit.

You may not be PE, but you are sure some kind of kin or offspring! Thanks for that, I've posted a question on that thread.

Tetenal Powder Chem's

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