Storing used Tetenal C41 ?? Hints and Tips please

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Tricky69

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I've just received my 1st pack of C41 development kit.

Reading the instructions it seems I can re-use the mixed and used solutions for up to 6 weeks for the developer, and 24 weeks for the others. I presume , up until the max number of films have been processed .

Have I got that right ?

Does that mean you can get the chemicals separately ? if I go over 6 weeks, can I just get some more Colour Dev ?

Those that use it ... any hints and tips ?

Do the times need extending , the more films I have processed ?

Any help, much appreciated :)

Hopefully, I can add some pics the the 'film shots' thread later ! :D

Rich
 
Your manual will tell you the extra time you add on as you use the stuff, mine is not to hand right now. Storage in air and light tight bottles, as little airgap inside as possible, I have kept the first mix for 2 months and still been OK (and that included some serious messing with processing for effects). Err on the plus side rather than minus for dev times, remember to blix properly for the full time and make sure you get a decent rinse between each step - this will extend the life of your chemicals more than anything. *Keep Notes* on exactly what you do, times, temps, etc. This is the most important tip - colour is a bit of a bugger and the only way of getting consistent results is to be able to process consistently.

Chemicals are available seperately - but not in the kit-sized bottles (that I have seen - I could be wrong)

Arthur
 
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ahh ... that makes more sense now. I miss read the extended times, as if I were processing 16 films at once - DOH !!!:bonk:

Thanks Arthur

I'll have to get some smaller milk bottle for storage :) (we use 4 pint ones). and I'll keep them in a filing cabinet to keep the light out.

I have one of those processing tanks, that I bought a while ago in anticipation ... I'll have to have a look at it and see how much chemicals it needs to fill each tank/cylinder . They have floats on to keep the air out. and the whole lot becomes a water bath with heater and stat to keep the temperature constant.

It only cost me a tenner, and he threw in a couple of rolls of colour paper too :)

Thanks again :)
 
other thing to remember, when you're counting film numbers processed - the iso 400 ones deplete the dev/blix the equivalent of 2 normal 100 iso's. The BLIX times increase really sharply - starts of at 4 minutes, but by 13th film youre up to something like 15 minutes. My advice is to take the times in the book, draw a graph from 'em and use the line to interpolate the time you need to dev / blix for. Also - the quoted BLIX times are Minimums, and you can actually go up to 50% higher with no ill effects.
 
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Thanks BTY (sorry, dont know your name yet)

just been out for a wander , ooops .. they had ( "skull crusher????" 8.5% haha ... cant remember ! ) real ale on.

Used up the last of 3 rolls I had on various cameras.

Processing soon :)

Rich
 
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