Developing color negatives
Theodore Karadimitris
Hi,
For the past 5 years I haven't used my darkroom, mainly due to the lack
of time. For my come back, since time is still a problem, I plan to
focus on developing my own negatives, at least for now. I know that for
B&W films that's easy, cheap and fast. On the other hand, I know nothing
about developing color negatives.
Can someone tell me if this can be done in home darkroom using not so
expensive equipment (the low, average and high prise for this kind of
equipment is something that I am totally unaware of, so don't ask me how
much I want to spend - propably something average), and if it can be
done, do you have any suggestions on the equipment needed?
Thnx
Theodore
Darrell A. Larose
The main problem with C-41 and E-6 is temperture control. You can do
them in a sink-line using a water bath to maintain tempertures. What
this is a sink with a "stand-pipe" that maintains a water bath around
your tanks at the 100 degrees =/- .5 degrees. You can also use a tank
and a roller, as long as you can maintain the temperture control for
the length of the processing. Colour just requires you be be consistant
and cleaner in your work habits. The low price method is the water bath
where the sink is full of running water at 100 degrees, a mixing valve
and a couple good accurate thermometers, and your tanks. I prefer the
stainless steel as they transfer heat pretty well. (Some swear by the
plastic as it retains heat! your call) The standpipe is a length of
plastic pipe that fits your sink drain that allows the sink to hold
the water deep enough keep your tanks at temp.
Darrell Larose http://www.newforce.ca/darrell
Photo Technician
Ottawa, Canada dar...@newforce.ca
Rich Satterlee
Darrell A. Larose (ad...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) wrote:
: Theodore Karadimitris (tk...@infodyn.gr) writes:
: > Hi,
: >
: > For the past 5 years I haven't used my darkroom, mainly due to the lack
: > of time. For my come back, since time is still a problem, I plan to
: > done, do you have any suggestions on the equipment needed?
---------------------------<snip>--------------------------------------
: >
: The main problem with C-41 and E-6 is temperture control. You can do
: them in a sink-line using a water bath to maintain tempertures. What
: this is a sink with a "stand-pipe" that maintains a water bath around
: your tanks at the 100 degrees =/- .5 degrees. You can also use a tank
: and a roller, as long as you can maintain the temperture control for
: the length of the processing. Colour just requires you be be consistant
: and cleaner in your work habits. The low price method is the water bath
---------------------------<snip>--------------------------------------
: the water deep enough keep your tanks at temp.
: Darrell Larose http://www.newforce.ca/darrell
: Photo Technician
: Ottawa, Canada dar...@newforce.ca
Good afternoon-
As Darrell points out, the temperature control is one of the key
critical issues of the color processing. I have successfully used a
fish tank heater as a heating element using it in a regular 8X10 photo
tray. The one that I have is a full imersion model. Looks like a large
test tube with a rubber cork and a cord coming out of it. The 200W
version that I use cost me about $20.00 at a local pet store. It comes
with a couple of suction cups that work quite well for sticking it to
the bottom of the tray. The claim is that the heater is accurate to
+/- 0.25 degrees C. Close enough for me.
I calibrated it with a water bath (this is adjustable) and having since
set it, don't have to worry about it. There is a little bi-metal thermostat
that you can watch and a neon light that lets you know when the heating
element is activated. I set mine for 41C and did both my C41 and E6
processing at this temp.
I usually pre-heated my chemistry, preheated the water, and waited for
the neon light to just come on. Of course, you have to provide the agitation
yourself, but the inversion of the tank works pretty well all by itself.
If you noticed the past tense, you're right. I found a decent local
one-hour lab and I use them for the C41 processing, just the negatives
only please. Except they don't do 4X5 sheet film........
I hope this helps,
Cheers,
Rich S.
BobS
I've had no luck with aquarium heaters, they are designed for a temp. range
not to hold an exact temp. However the DevTec heater works very well (about
$100 from B&H). You may be lucky and get a good aquarium heater, but I
wouldn't buy one again unless I had a return previlidge (I tried a $25
heater not one of those <$10 fish cooking ones). Note that I tested this
heater extensivly, I didn't just calibrate it once and assume it was
repeating accuratly. The DevTec however holds very well, it's also 600
watts and so heats up fairly fast.
Rich Satterlee wrote in message <6e6unb$jd3$1...@ocean.cup.hp.com>...
BobS
Ok here is the cheap meathod and it works for both C41 and E6.
Use your current tank and reels (I assume you are doing 135 and or 120 not
sheet film). Get a good accurate thermomter for color processing.
Get a good sized ice chest (the more water you can hold the easier it will
be to hold a given temp.). You will only put in enough water to come up to
the lid, most tanks leak so you don't want water leaking in. Note that in
C41, only the developer temp is critical (+- 1/4F for Kodak or +- 1/2F for
Tetenal) after that all the rest of the chemicals can be any temp from
75-105F. For E6 the temp tollerances are a little greater, but since you
have two developers (assuming you use 6 step, I only used 3 step once and
didn't like it) you will have to maintain the temp longer. Fill the ice
chest with water to about the correct level and then adjust by adding
hot/cold water to 100F. Now wait for the time it takes to develop the film
(about 3.5 min for C41 or 6 for E6). And see how much temp drop you have
experianced. Say the temp drops to 95. Subtract to get the diff (5F) and
divide by 2 (2.5F) add this to the start temp of 100 and you should start
with a temp of 102.5F. Your temp for the whole process will average 100 --
this is called the drift by method. For E6, while in the Reversal bath,
warm the water back up to 102.5 so you are ready for the color developer.
You can preheat the chemical bottles in a microwave (once you know the time
required to heat them to 102.5F -or whatever temp you need- it should be
consistant, but you may need to do a bit of adjustment by holding the
developer bottled under a bit of hot or cold tap water).
I did this for many years and it works very well (be sure and follow the
times and adgitation reccomendations for the chemicals you use, for C41 I
now use Tetenal, the stabilizer is formaldhyde free and it's easy to mix 1L
batched from the 5L kit).
About 2 minutes before any required rinse I turn on the tap (this time would
depend on how far you are from your water heater) and adjust the temp and
leave the water running until I'm finished with it (I turn it off between
washed to conserve water).
However, if you are processing a lot of heat I recommend you get a DevTec
heater (B&H sells it for about $100, Adorama also has it under their own
name). Now I just stick the heater in the ice chest along with the chemical
bottles (allready callibrated to 100) once the pilot light goes out every
thing is at 100F and stays there (+/- less than 1/2F) until I unplug it at
the end of the developer step (or color developer for E6). Makes life a lot
easier.
As for C41, if you do screw up badly you may get a slight color cast, but
usually you can compensate for this, some films if run way out of the
correct temp (like 15 deg or more) can experiance color cross over...but
you'd really have to screw things up to do this. E6 while not as sensitive
temp wise, can be more of a problem if you get a color cast as the
transparancies may be your final product....of course you could make prints
from the E6, then you can comensate. I wouldn't worry about this though, as
long as your are reasonably careful you probably won't have any problems, in
fact you may find you are getting better quality than having someone else
doing the processing.
Also remember that color chemicals have a very definate shelf life. Also
the speed of the film can effect the number times you can reuse the
chemicals, the instruction sheet will tell you how much film you can run
through a given amount of chemicals before you dump them (some people do
their C41/E6 one shot...this is rather expensive and a waste of
chemicals...with reasonable care you can reuse the chemicals to ther max.
rated capacity).
Theodore Karadimitris wrote in message <35068E38...@infodyn.gr>...
>Hi,
>
>For the past 5 years I haven't used my darkroom, mainly due to the lack
>of time. For my come back, since time is still a problem, I plan to
>focus on developing my own negatives, at least for now. I know that for
>B&W films that's easy, cheap and fast. On the other hand, I know nothing
>about developing color negatives.
>Can someone tell me if this can be done in home darkroom using not so
>expensive equipment (the low, average and high prise for this kind of
>equipment is something that I am totally unaware of, so don't ask me how
>much I want to spend - propably something average), and if it can be
>done, do you have any suggestions on the equipment needed?
>
>Thnx
>Theodore
>
Rich Satterlee
BobS (b...@psln.com) wrote:
: I've had no luck with aquarium heaters, they are designed for a temp. range
: not to hold an exact temp. However the DevTec heater works very well (about
: $100 from B&H). You may be lucky and get a good aquarium heater, but I
What can I say. The auarium heater worked just fine for me. I did stick
a thermometer in the water bath for awhile but found that I didn't need it.
I don't think that it was "luck" for the heater, the little bi-metal
thermostat is clearly visible, and quite responsive. As for the temp.
range, yes, 41C is a little hot for fish, but I still had plenty of range
for the temp. adjustment. I used the system extensively for class assignments
when I was taking classes at the local Jr. College, even did some 4X5
sheet developing in it as well without any problems.
Cheers,
Rich S.
BobS
Perhaps you could divludge the brand of heater you are using, as there could
be a difference their too, the one I tried that didn't work is aThermal
Compact 200 watt IP 60 from Askoll. I still recommend the DevTec as it was
designed for photography, but whatever works for you it still the best way
:). And I certainly understand the desire to save about $75, however since
mine didn't work I ended up being out the $25, but I figured the risk was
worth it...oh well. But unless things have changed since I was into
aquariums, the fish can actually be more healthy (or at least not less
healthy) when the temp cycles trough several degrees...salt water fish a bit
more finiky though.
And I do remember that awful day when all my fish got cooked by a stuck
thermostat...but that was long ago with a pretty cheap heater.
(The DevTec is also not glass, looks similar to the elements in a water
heater, and so is a bit less fragile...of course NOVA procesors -- at least
ones with the old style heaters -- also use glass tubes, but the warranty is
void if you break the glass). I also use the DevTec for sheet film, though
now that I have a NOVA, I'm going to experiment with it (I usually develop
sheet film one at a time, often with the camera still set up...sort of a
poor man's poloroid :) -- doesn't work in the field of course (well I have
thought of bringing along a generator and a portable dark room <bg>).
Rich Satterlee wrote in message <6e8vom$1f2$1...@ocean.cup.hp.com>...
Rich Satterlee
BobS (b...@psln.com) wrote:
: Perhaps you could divludge the brand of heater you are using, as there could
: be a difference their too, the one I tried that didn't work is aThermal
: Compact 200 watt IP 60 from Askoll. I still recommend the DevTec as it was
Good morning-
Well, I found the fish tank heater you were interested in. Of course,
the box that it came in is long gone. However, this was on the side
of the tube:
Akva Stabil
Denmark Combi 110V 200W
Not too much to go on, but this thing has worked for me. If I remember
correctly, it's been about 10 years or so, the saleman wasn't sure if the
heater would go to 41C, however, I took a chance and it did. The thing that
was so assuring was the cycle time of the thermostat was rather quick as
long as you kept the water adgitated. Anyway, that's what worked for me,
YMMV.
Cheers,
Rich S.
George Starr
I have a Jobo doulab and it works great, I still use a thermonitor in the
chemicals to check the exact temperature. I do however send my negatives out
to a one hour minilab and when I can get a good price break I let them do a
set of cheap proofs for me. I can get negatives for 2$ per roll, and my last
prints with negatives included were only 3-4$ per roll with a coupon.
George
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