Developing colour film.

OK, as some out there know, I've acquired a 'Rondinax' style tank for 35mm developing.

Black and white film, easy, why I didn't try earlier I'll never know!

But, has anybody tried the Tetenal colour kit or similar?

Or any other colour developing kit?

Are they complete and how easy are they?

I know it's a lot of questions, but if I'm to try it out I want to have my eyes open as to the problems.

I have never tried colour myself but from what I remember maintaining the correct temperature is much more critical with colour than BW which makes it more difficult. The colour tank here has built in temperature control.

Best wishes, Kris.

My understanding is the same - colour is a lot less tolerant of temperature than B&W. I can get away with pre-warming the Rondinax tank (stick it in airing cupboard for an hour or so before use) and then using a soil thermometer (only waterproof thermometer I could buy locally) to check the temperature of the water before I mix the chemicals, but I doubt colour would respond well to this approach!

Ok, so temperature is critical.

What about the chemicals?

any body any Ideas?

I found E6 slide processing quite easy, it involves washing with running water at a set temp. but I found the shower ideal, just unscrewed the shower head and stuck the hose into the dev. tank, the shower tray was impervious to the chemicals too

Unfortunately it will probably cost you as much or more for the dev. kit as it would to have them done commercially.

Hmm, the thing is I have a bag of C41 colour films and don't really want to pay 'Crappy Snap Klicky' or who ever to develop them.

Looks like I have 2 choices, sell the films and buy B&W ones, or experiment.

I could go for the second one if I had some idea what kit/chemicals to buy ad how they work.

The tank you have is not really suitable for colour film developing. As you already know, precise time, temperature and agitation are critical for colour processing. Black and white film will tolerate quite a bit of sloppiness and still give decent negs. A conventional tank is needed for consistent agitation and quick fill and drain. All that knob twiddling, combined with the fact that the film is not always totally submerged in a Rondinax type tank, is unlikely to produce the best results.

Better to get colour films processed commercially. My local Sainsbury's do a pretty decent job, and very cheaply, too.

Ah now that explain things

TBH I've never really had a problem with any processing lab (maybe once with a watermark on one neg) the problem usually arises with the shoddy printing, even if you get a poorly processed film with strange colour casts you could always rectify it afterwards.

Stick with a lab Dave, you wont really be able to compete with their poorest efforts with what equipment you have.

Points takem, I'll stick to labs for colour and play with the B&Ws myself.


Thanks guys.

You're not going to save any money but E6 and C41 are not really difficult. Unless you're prone to daydreaming the time and agitation are not a problem. The only tricky bit is keeping the temp spot on and it's not that bad - IIRC modern kits come with nice temp vs time graphs so you can work at a more convenient temperature rather than warming everything up and constantly checking if it's cooled down. Even the old slide process (E4?) with a million steps and the reversal stage in the middle wasn't too bad (just very boring).
Neal

That's interesting Neal, do you have any recommendations as to which kit to try, I still haven't ruled pot playing with colour...

...yet.

Last ones I used (2006?) were Tetenal Colortec C41 - which were fine (but not as cheap now as they were:shock though I only used a few as my 'usual' (more 'occasional' really) one got discontinued. Stopped doing it because of a deal I couldn't refuse on a DL2 which more or less coincided with the tiny ball bearing falling out of a tank spiral (again) while I was trying to get a film into it. I'd forgotten that - for me - the worst bit was always loading the spirals but that was the same for B&W.

BTW If you do it, be religious about washing and cross contamination.
Neal

Thanks Neal.

I'll bear in mind all the warnings and comments made, if I do try it out I'll let you know.

I have done C41 for years as I had to for the local Press when they 'went COLOUR' -- I have used Champion chemicals,now get CPAC developer from PhotoMart, Walthamstow, Kodak Flexicolor Bleach I was given and Agfa Universal Fixer from a lab in Basildon and the Fuji Stabilser I was given from the Echo newspaper Basildon years ago -- it all works well. For temperature I use a water bath from a free Walls Ice-Cream container I got from a shop in Weald Park that holds a row of three 500 ml containers I got free from chemicals I used up and kept the containers. I put nearly boiling water into the Walls Ice-cream plastic thing and the dev tank loaded with film into another pot surrounded by hot water, then when the Developer reaches 104oF I pour it into the Paterson tank,agitate immediately for 15 secs, then at 1 minute I qickly check the temperature and find it is 100oF exactly, then agitate every 30 secs until 3 mins,then on 3mins 10 secs pour out dev and pour in Bleach and agitate,(it has had the 3mins 15 secs dev time by then) and so on .For wash I get a jug of hot water at 100oF and use the 'Ilford Limited' method of washing. After 1 min 30secs in the Stabilise it is done and I hang up the 'Perfect' negs !