LanceAn exposed roll of Phoenix Colour 200 is now speeding north on its way to Old School Photo Lab for processing!
The waiting is tough, but doing my own C-41 developing is impractical for how little color I'm shooting these days. #BelieveInFilm
tomnorthfilm@analogfusion I’m seriously considering sending my C41 processing to a lab.
@tomnorthfilm I used to do my own, but at my current slow pace it just doesn't make sense to buy a color kit.
@analogfusion The main thing I don’t like about C41 processing is that I feel the need to batch up 8 rolls before mixing up the chems due to shelf life issues. 8 rolls in one session is drudgery when you add in digitizing and converting. I prefer doing 2 or 3 rolls in a session.
Kaiser 📷🍺📮🤘🏻🥘🐧🐾💻🎵@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion This is my issue as well, although the shelf life I experienced with my first C-41 kit makes me think I could spread those rolls over a week or two. I don't shoot much color because of this...I need to get over it, start blasting through the color film that I have, and just put them in the fridge until I have 15-18 of them, and start doing 4-6 a night.
@kaiser_photo @analogfusion I agree that you’ve got at least a couple weeks to get the film processed. It just ends up being a lot of film to process in a short time period for me.
@tomnorthfilm I've stretched the chemistry out to several months without any obvious detrimental effects. The key is storing it in tightly sealed bottles with little or no air trapped inside.
I've gone as long as a year with it in storage that way, but admittedly that's really pushing it.
@analogfusion I use accordion bottles for my C41 chems. I have only been able to stretch them to perhaps a month at best.
Jon Bosak@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion I keep resonating to an old statement from Kodak that I ran across a few months ago: if you boil the water first to drive out all the oxygen and store the (b&w) dev in a completely full and sealed glass bottle, it will theoretically last forever. I wonder whether that would work with C41 chems.
@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion (I do seem to remember btw that plastic cannot work for this. There's no way to prevent oxygen from migrating through the plastic. But maybe I'm not remembering that correctly.)
@bosak @analogfusion I could believe it. I use amber glass bottles for my B&W chems with a vacuum stopper meant for wine bottles. Although with HC-110 and FX39II I decant into smaller 4 oz amber glass bottles. That has worked well for me.
@tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion these are all interesting to read…I also used accordion bottles, being sure to squeeze them down every time I capped them, and I mixed the chems with distilled water. Got roughly a month before the developer was brown and ineffective.
I’m intrigued by the glass bottle/wine vacuum stopper idea. I’ve also read about some kind of air-duster-looking thing with a non-O2 heavier-than-air gas in it to spray on top of the liquid before sealing. Butane, likely?
ChrisR@kaiser_photo @tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion I heard bad things about accordion bottles, being hard to clean properly, and getting fragile with use.I used glass marbles in my Infosol 3 bottles when I started, helped a bit but generally went bad after 6-8 months, suddenly!
HC-110 is very forgiving I did use marbles in my HC-110 bottle, mainly to keep the syrup reachable, but it was a bad idea. Lost quite a bit when I had to drain and decant- into small brown bottles. But I opened it in 2018!
@carusb @tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion I have yet to use Ilfosol or HC-110. I was using replenished XTOL for a while, and the 5L wine bladder system worked a treat. Now I’m mostly using Rodinal, and my understanding is that stuff is damn near foolproof and has almost infinite longevity.
I do wonder if it would work if I combine the two methods - perhaps mix up 5L of 1+25 Rodinal solution and keep in a wine bladder to dispense when needed… 🤔
@kaiser_photo @tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion I've never used #Rodinal, so this is just rumour, but I've heard that, while the original Rodinal was bulletproof, some of the modern formulations (not all) are prone to sudden complete failure.
Which actual brand have you got?
@carusb @tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion ADOX Rodinal. It was listed interchangeably with Adonal at the site I get my film stuff from generally, my limited research said that the brand name between the two differ based on where it is sold. This is the only one I’ve seen clearly labeled “Rodinal” which is why I chose it. Curious to learn if it’s a different formulation.
@kaiser_photo @tomnorthfilm @bosak @analogfusion I think that may be one of the good ones. See also this Talk Photography post and the one immediately after: https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/rodinal-instead-of-ilfosol-3-can-i-use-ilford-stop-and-fixer.720516/post-8867119
Rom | Tapas in the sun@tomnorthfilm @kaiser_photo @bosak @analogfusion I use Protectan, made by Tetenal, mostly on developer concentrate, which has a limited shelf life, and working solutions of colour developing chemistry. I also store the bottles in a fridge as a further precaution (mainly because it’s so hot in Spain during the summer). I have stored colour chemistry in this manner for up to 9 months.
@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion It so happens that I do have a bunch of very nice 4 oz amber bottles used for tinctures. I really should do that with the HC-110. Thanks for the reminder! (In U.S. units, that amount is called a gill, btw. Rhymes with Jill. Not that anyone knows what that is any more.)
@bosak @analogfusion That's a new one on me.
@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion I wrote a book on the subject.
@bosak @tomnorthfilm The Jobo bottles I've used are plastic.
Tim@bosak @tomnorthfilm @analogfusion Yes, gas can and will permeate through plastics. It does through glass (and metal!) but at much slower rates.
A few years ago I ordered a bunch of 8oz amber bottles coated with a safety layer (to prevent them from shattering if you dropped it). Qorpak was the brand.
@tomnorthfilm I've used 1 liter Jobo bottles to store mine. I just squeezed out the air and capped them tightly. I could easily get 6-12 months out of the batch.
Maybe the type of chemistry makes a difference. I mostly used the Unicolor C-41 kits sold by the FPP.
Tristan Colgate-McFarlane@analogfusion @tomnorthfilm does that use a blix, or separate bleach and fix?
@tmcfarlane @tomnorthfilm Unicolor kits had blix.
James@tomnorthfilm @analogfusion I still have my JOBO, but I’ve never managed to dial in C41. It all goes to the lab now.