C41 developing...

Ambermile

Ambermile

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Arthur
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Is Tetenal the easiest/quickest/cleanest out there? I note a full kit for under £27 and good for 12-16 rolls of 36, I assume that's about right? Is it a toughie after BW? Timewise, what's the additional over BW?

Arthur
 
i'll scan the instruction manual and save the .jpgs on my website for you to d/l later this evening if you like Arthur... I looked al over the place and couldn't get the instructions anywhere, so just bought a box and gave it a try...

Off top of my head (processing at 38c) it's 5 minutes pre-soak in water, 3'15" in dev, Optional stopbath (not in kit), 5 minutes (ish) in Blix, rinse and a stabiliser bath - to be honest I found it a little fraught last time I tried it at that temp, but there are times for a cooler processing temp, approx double processing time, but less critical with the agitation etc. I think the kit is really primarily intended for those motorised jobo tanks etc. to b honest, though it works prety well with a normal paterson put-the-lid-on-and-shake-it one too :)
 
Cheers BY, I have a few books here but somehow I ... well, I think they are a bit... what's that word? Like zonal but spelt with an a instead of zo? When I read about BW stuff I have to giggle, I mean it's not rocket science but those people would love to pretend! OK I guess, no problem there but it does make for some tough going on the reading side!

Looking at this ... ebay 250553115495, am I right?
 
I'll PM you with the link when I've got 'em scanned - might be a while though - i've got a film from today to soup (and the utility room to clear beforehand, as per usual :LOL:)
 
Know what you mean, Mrs A knows instictively when I have a film nearing completion and begins to fill up the sink ready for me to wash up first!
 
Ambermile said:
Know what you mean, Mrs A knows instictively when I have a film nearing completion and begins to fill up the sink ready for me to wash up first!
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:LOL::LOL::LOL:

And they say they're the fairer sex, what's fair about that?
 
Well - i'm still struggling a little with the Tetenal Kit. Followed the instructions to the letter with last reel, only to get washed out colours, and a slightly milk-ey negative. Bumped the processing time (hopefully to boost the colours) and time in the Blix (cure the milk-ey look) by 30 seconds extra. But they still came out a little washed out and with a blue-ey caste... I'll be damned if I let it beat me though :)

My take on a Daffodil shot... Sorry, no skips to be seen :)


Allinsons Mill, Castleford


Both shots are pretty much straight from the scan, square crop on the daffys, and a tiny amount of high-pass filter sharpening (as I didn't sharpen in the scanning software) Rather than mess about with curves etc, to get rid of the blues, I'll keep on working on getting the developing right instead :shrug:
 
I'd be happy to get that BY - even if the daffs are too yellow :D
 
I should have positioned them behind a skip :LOL:

Looking at the neg's, compared with a commercially processed film, my film has definitely a deeper brown caste to the base areas, so it's looking like another 30 seconds of BLIX. I love using the lemon method* of photo processing :)





* suck it and see...
 
I'm just hoping that I get my timings sorted before the chemicals expire - I bought the 1 litre kit, mixed up half (I'd only got 500ml bottles :shrug:) which should be good for 9 x 100/200 iso films (or 6x400 iso). I was kind of expecting to use the first half as a learning curve tbh. and bought some cheapish short dated fuji so that I could just shoot away and not worry too much, especially as my shooting opportunities have been cramped a bit by my knee problems.

And on a brighter note, speaking of knee problems - it appears to be responding to the equine strength medication that the quack put me on last week - for the first time in 3 weeks I can actually see the outline of my kneecap, under the comedy swelling! Might avoid the big needle and stirrup pump treatment at this rate!
 
I just dug out my "Paterson Thermal Bath" with the big roller on top and two sets of three chemical bottles all colour-coded! I think it will be about the only part of the dark room kit that gets used to be honest... looks like the rest will be on Ebay!


Good news on the knee, for the sake of the camera and the bike!
 
Tetenal kit is easy, but I am not sure if it is the easiest.

Blix time can be as long as you like, but try to do it at the same temperature as the dev and for at least the minimum stated time.

As for temperature regulation, I got good results using a water bath mixed up from boiled (kettle) water and cold tap water using a thermometer. If it starts getting too cool, you can just top it up with more boiled water.

The chemicals will last a LOT longer than advertised if you can find some airtight bottles for keeping the mixed solutions in (the bottles where you can squeeze excess air out of are best). Compensate for sludgy old chemicals by increasing dev times.
 
mustanir said:
Tetenal kit is easy, but I am not sure if it is the easiest.

Blix time can be as long as you like, but try to do it at the same temperature as the dev and for at least the minimum stated time.

That's good to hear - i'll just give it plenty of time then. Was worried about over-cooking things, but not now

As for temperature regulation, I got good results using a water bath mixed up from boiled (kettle) water and cold tap water using a thermometer. If it starts getting too cool, you can just top it up with more boiled water.

I didn't have problems tbh, just ran a (big) sink full of water at around 50c, plonked all 3 bottles in there, and went off up into the loft to load my film onto the spiral (can't get on with changing bags :shrug:) By the time I came back down, water was at 39c, as were the chem's. Used a scoop of tempering water to pre-soak film, and popped the tank into the sink. I'd a kettle by my side, and just kept pouring a drop or two in to keep temp at 38c.

The chemicals will last a LOT longer than advertised if you can find some airtight bottles for keeping the mixed solutions in (the bottles where you can squeeze excess air out of are best). Compensate for sludgy old chemicals by increasing dev times.

Again, good to hear - i've got some chemical bottles that are squeezeable, hold about 530ml in total, but I just put 500 in there, and squeeze out the airgap before tightening the cap.
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My other worry is agitation - As the kit seems to be biased towards processor systems like the one Arthur described, there's no real instructions for the old Paterson shake-tanks. To be honest, as the lid on mine is a bit difficult to get on and off quickly, and only having 3-4 minutes to play with, I've been using the "swizzle stick" and giving it 5-6 spins every 15 seconds - seemed as close as I could get to the constant rotating drum, while still allowing me to keep the tank in the tempering water and giving me the odd couple of seconds to catch my breath and wipe down the worktop/open/cap off the chemicals :shrug:
 
the only real problem with agitation is making sure there are no bubbles on the film while its developing,a gentle tap on your work surface usually removes these. hth mike
 
dinorock said:
the only real problem with agitation is making sure there are no bubbles on the film while its developing,a gentle tap on your work surface usually removes these. hth mike
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Presumably that would show with bubble shaped (i.e. circular) dots on the neg's ? If so, it looks like my regime works on that score at least! Only thing dotty chez BigYin is me :nuts:
 
Regarding the Daffs I cannot see what the point of sharpest focus is. Must be a p*** poor lens.
 
LOL Arthur, why dont you get some decent lens instead of the rubiish things you use. :D

And Classcams, cant you see the point of sharpest focus....its the skip on the left. You need to upgrade your computer and the VDU. :bonk::bonk:
 
classcams said:
Regarding the Daffs I cannot see what the point of sharpest focus is. Must be a p*** poor lens.
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Andrew - cheers for your comment. As helpful as ever I see. Beeep - Wrong, but thankyou for playing.

Two points

1 - images weren't posted for purposes of technical critique, just to illustrate problems i'm having in colour balance.

2 - it depends upon your opinion of canon L glass... I personally think that it was probably more to do with me being a "**** poor" photographer.
 
that's where I got it from, cheapest I could find (y)

It's a pain about the delivery - especially for a 6" by 4" box! Mainly due to Royal Mail not carrying liquids in parcels, so having to go by courier :(
 
Ambermile said:
... eh? Did we get a C+C section without anyone telling me? To be honest, may be best leaving that sort of comment to someone that actually understands what DOF is, no?

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=2459636#post2459636



Arthur :D
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I think I could give you a lesson on DOF. Even using macro which may have a DOF of a few mm, there is a point of sharp focus which does not show up on that shot. You know what they say about people with limp wrists :LOL::LOL:
 
classcams said:
I think I could give you a lesson on DOF. Even using macro which may have a DOF of a few mm, there is a point of sharp focus which does not show up on that shot. You know what they say about people with limp wrists :LOL::LOL:
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And once again, you miss the point. I took the shot, I've admitted that it's a lousy shot, Out of focus, and only posted to illustrate the colour balance problems I'm having. You then start slinging personal insults. I'm not going to lower myself to your level - instead I'm going to ask you to please restrain your comments to the subject at hand - i.e. I'm having colour balance problems with my developing - if you've nothing helpful to add to this discussion then please do not contribute further.
 
play nice please kids
 
TheBigYin said:
And once again, you miss the point. I took the shot, I've admitted that it's a lousy shot, Out of focus, and only posted to illustrate the colour balance problems I'm having. You then start slinging personal insults. I'm not going to lower myself to your level - instead I'm going to ask you to please restrain your comments to the subject at hand - i.e. I'm having colour balance problems with my developing - if you've nothing helpful to add to this discussion then please do not contribute further.
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I shall contribute to this thread. Home developing of color film is a non starter. The problem is the acidity of the water. Around the country it varies so much. For instance London water is very alkaline but lake district water is slightly acid. Unless you have an accurate meter to test, its a no go.
 
classcams said:
I shall contribute to this thread. Home developing of color film is a non starter. The problem is the acidity of the water. Around the country it varies so much. For instance London water is very alkaline but lake district water is slightly acid. Unless you have an accurate meter to test, its a no go.
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Why do you persist in being a pain in the proverbial? Clearly you are demonstrably wrong (or just misguided/misreading) in just about every post you make here. As for the alkalinity of the water do try and keep up - there are now alkaline-based developing kits to allow the user to determine which level of acid:alkaline solutions would suit.
 
Ambermile said:
yeah... but he started it :)
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You do not know me, so how can you say I know nowt about DOF. I searched the internet for developers that let you select the correct one for your locality. Not a sign. I think you are in cloud cuckoo land. :LOL:
 
Indeed :p
 
classcams said:
I shall contribute to this thread. Home developing of color film is a non starter.
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Well I half agree with you........home development for colour neg 35mm is madness unless pushing film or whatever, but I did my own home 120 colour developing and chemical printing for about 15 years in the London area, but Paterson/Johnson stop supplying my favourite cheap chemicals "Photocolor", Jessops continued for a while then stopped, so that was that.
Tetenal and Kodak chemicals were always more expensive so avoided them, and for 120 film I'd rather send off two or four rolls of 120 to be developed for £5 or £10 +£1.20 postage with free postage back, unless I can get the Tetanal kit for half the price.
 
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