Where are you buying ra-4 chems (Canada)?

[51g1l0]

I've been having a hard time finding the RA4 developer/replenisher even in the US. Does anyone know of a reputable online US reseller with it in stock. Hopefully in a form where I don't need to buy a 55 gallon drum of it. I haven't had much issue finding C-41 chemicals but the RA4 developer seems elusive for some reason.

-Eric

Hi Eric, i've been buying silver pixel from https://www.photosys.com/. good price.

 

[Kilgallb]

Argentix has the Bellini kit listed right now. The also have the Kodak C41 kit.

 

[MattKing]

Argentix has the Bellini kit listed right now. The also have the Kodak C41 kit.

The "Silver Pixel" chemicals may be the same or similar to the ones that are currently being brought back/sold under the Kodak label. But that isn't all that clear.
Same manufacturer though.

 

[Jimskelton]

I live in Canada and RA-4 chemicals when I could find them were quite expensive. Fortunately, The Camera Store in Calgary sells chemicals manufactured by Flicfilm, which is based out of Longview, AB, just south of Calgary. They sell CD-3 powder in bottles, as well as sodium sulfite and potassium carbonate. The only other 2 ingredients you will need for the developer are Triethanolamine and pure salt (sodium chloride). If you can find a camera store that is a flicfilm dealer, you may be in luck.

The recipe to make 1/3 litre of developer:

2ml - triethanolamine
1.7g - CD3
13.3g - potassium carbonate
.33g - sodium sulfite
.17g - sodium chloride

The nice thing about mixing your own is that you can mix as much as you need and the dry chemicals last a long time.

The blix is not so easy to get. The fixer part is easy since that's just ammonium thiosulfate, but the bleach is hard to find (ferric ammonium EDTA). I understand you can use potassium ferricyanide as the bleach and fix in a separate bath, but that takes around 5 minutes to do instead of something like 30 seconds in blix. I found some Kodak 2 part blix in the Camera Store so am using that.

 

[GregY]

Here's the entire list of stores in Canada carrying Flic Films chemistry:

Where To Buy | Flic Film

flicfilm.ca

 

[koraks]

I understand you can use potassium ferricyanide

Technically, you can, but it has the drawback that this may (will) destroy preservatives inside the paper, which protect the dyes over the lifetime of the print. So the prints may fade and shift much faster especially when subjected to air, UV, non-archival storage materials etc. Btw, a ferricyanide bleach can be very, very fast, so time-wise, there's not necessarily much of a penalty, although for longevity of the chemistry you'll have to split the bleach and fix into separate process steps.

So far I've never DIY-ed an RA4 developer that gave the same results as a commercial one.