I ask because I never shot color film with enough volume and regularity to keep my chemicals fresh and economical. After a couple of kits and a good bit of discarded solution, I just went back to B&W and some form of Rodinal development. How do you make it work for you?
If I have a roll of C-41, the local lab charges seven dollars to develop it. I ask for them not to cut it then scan it myself.
One option is to wait until you have enough exposed rolls to make a kit worthwhile.
I use the Bellini kits. I keep the working solutions in amber bottles and use Vacu Vin stoppers that remove the air from the bottles so the chemicals stay fresh for a very long time. I really like the Bellini kits and I recommend them as they keep for quite a while. The bottles and Vacu Vin stoppers make the difference in my practice.
You could also try splitting the developer into 500mL volumes and only use one 500mL set at a time until they are exhausted (between 8-10 rolls). Keep the other 500mL bottle sealed until needed. The bleach and fixer have longer lives and don't need to be portioned out.
When I was an AP stringer in the late ‘80’s we used Unicolor kits while on the road. Easy to use with good results. I remember all the strange places I set up darkrooms. Photos were then tranmitted by Lefax scanner/transmiters. Before this, and my time wit AP, shooters also printed on the road and then tranmitted their photos. It would take 30 minutes to send a scanned negative .
Freestyle still sells Unicolr kits.
madNbad wrote:
If I have a roll of C-41, the local lab charges seven dollars to develop it. I ask for them not to cut it then scan it myself.
One option is to wait until you have enough exposed rolls to make a kit worthwhile.
I live in one of the fastest growing communities in the U.S., but my local lab isn’t particularly local. My not so local lab’s prices are in line with your quote, but the drive is an hour each way. I guess it is gas/time vs shipping costs. Anyway, that is why I asked the initial question.
You need to save up your rolls of C41 film until you have enough to process. Each quart/liter kit does 8-10 rolls (regardless of what the claim is, that's really all the developer can do before you start getting color shifts). When you have the 8-10 rolls, mix up your chemistry and start processing. Once mixed, the chemistry has a limited shelf life. Fresher is better. Old chemistry = weird colors.
Also, invest in one of the sous vide devices to keep your chemistry at the proper temperature. The temperature is critical for the developer, less so for the bleach and fix (or blix, depending on the kit).
Once you get everything set up, its really pretty easy to do, and pretty fool-proof, as long as the temperatures and times are followed exactly.
Oldwino wrote:
You need to save up your rolls of C41 film until you have enough to process. Each quart/liter kit does 8-10 rolls (regardless of what the claim is, that's really all the developer can do before you start getting color shifts). When you have the 8-10 rolls, mix up your chemistry and start processing. Once mixed, the chemistry has a limited shelf life. Fresher is better. Old chemistry = weird colors.
Also, invest in one of the sous vide devices to keep your chemistry at the proper temperature. The temperature is critical for the developer, less so for the bleach and fix (or blix, depending on the kit).
Once you get everything set up, its really pretty easy to do, and pretty fool-proof, as long as the temperatures and times are followed exactly....Show more →
Ditto + I have a shoe box with E6 and C41 rolls. When I get enough rolls I mix the chemistry and soup the film.
I have the same location to lab problem as you, bwcolor. First roll of film I had developed was mailed back to me me. The lab was local but it still took a week to see my film. I’m now using another lab in town that gets my film done in a about an hour or so.
This lab gets a lot of younger people bringing in 35mm color negs to be developed, scanned, and emIled to them in a couple of hours. Very few of them want the negatives!
I used to just take it into the lab ,and have them develop the negatives only. Even B&W I sent it off to get developed.
Seemed like temperature control a much bigger deal on C-41 so one reason I never got into it. Probably harder to get film developed today you might check local grocery stores and drug stores though. Kroger used to send to kodalux, might send it somewhere decent
