Thinking about RA4.... Wondering whether I should bother...

[sepiareverb]

Sad really.

 

[David Grenet]

Hi Mick, I would be quite interested in these kits if postage to Sydney is possible.

I bought one a few years back from Foto Riesel in Sydney but it had been on the shelf too long and the developer had turned to tar. I regret returning it though as I was given some dev shortly afterwards, and blix is difficult (impossible) to get unless you want 25L!

 

[Mick Fagan]

David, Sydney is a possibility.

Hoffy has sent me a pm and we have been conversing via email, he has first dibs.

Interesting regarding the developer going off.

I just went to the darkroom and checked all bottles in all of the three kits, they all look good.

By the way with the bleach/fix chemicals, I generally mixed half up at a time to make 2.5 litres, which is what my Durst Printo roller transport paper processor takes per bath.

The developer I mix up as a whole five litres and store in tightly sealed glass bottles with glass marbles inside to eliminate as much air as possible. RA4 developer does have a remarkable life span. However once it has been used, it will start to go off sooner rather than later.

Mick.

 

[Halford]

Hi all,

Just want to say that this thread could not have come at a better time for me too.
Now that I'm busily printing for the first time in years, I find that I have all the hardware I need to give RA-4 a try, and would very (very!) much like to do so.

The main question now is that, living in South Africa, which is probably in a similar-to-slightly-worse situation to Australia in terms of chem availability, how I source the chemicals and paper.

I'm pretty sure that the worst case, in terms of paper, would be persuading a local lab to order an extra roll of Endura or Crystal Archive, and hand cutting it. A nuisance I'm sure, but there are worse fates.

I'm more concerned about chemicals. It looks as if I'll either need to import a couple of kits at absurd expense, or else try to get the smallest quantities I can of minilab chemicals and carefully make them up.

Does anybody know whether the Fuji Hunt Print X-Press kits are any good, or indeed still available? I see a notice on Fuji's website announcing that they would be discontinued mid-2009, but I also still them still stocked on some online stores, mainly in Europe.

Anyway, thanks again all for generously sharing expertise!

 

[pentaxuser]

Hi all,

Does anybody know whether the Fuji Hunt Print X-Press kits are any good, or indeed still available? I see a notice on Fuji's website announcing that they would be discontinued mid-2009, but I also still them still stocked on some online stores, mainly in Europe.

!

Yes and Yes. I think the news about discontinuance in mid 2009 has to be wrong. AGphotographic in the U.K. sells this kit at a very good price with no mention of buy while stocks last or discontinued line.

If you can find a good mini-lab then unles you do a lot of C41 developing it is debatable whether home developing is cheaper. The real issue is RA4 chemicals. Again AGphotographic sells the Kodak kits but I don't know if S.A. is on the list of countries exported to and it will be quite high postage as it is liquids that are being sold.

Have a lool at Silverprint in London, U.K. It used to sell powder C41 kits which keep indefinitely until mixed as liquids. Might be cheaper.

Frankly if you can do a deal with your mini-lab on RA4 chenicals this is probably the best bet. It can probably sell you what you need in the quantities you need.

However just be aware that these days some of the more modern labs have machines that use "cassettes" of chemicals in specialy designed plastic containers that the operator simply "plugs" into the machine. It is not a case of them receiving say 10 gallon containers and pouring into tanks and simply pouring you say half a gallon into you own container for use at home.

You have a bit or research to do but I hope that one of these options can be arranged.

Best of luck

pentaxuser

 

[hoffy]

Just a side note on RA4 chems and mini labs. I was talking to my local. While he said that he would readily give me C-41 chems, he said that RA4 was pretty much out of the question. Most modern machines have chems supplied in pack form (basically like wine cask bladders) and are simply "plugged" in.