ordinary B&W in C-41 bath?

KenD

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Does anyone know what ordinary silver film (tri-x, agfapan, neopan, pan-f, etc., whatever) does when developed or (as the case might be) simply going for a ride through the local minilab c-41 machine?

KenD
 
Long ago I used C-41 dev for Tech pan.
Cold 20 degC C-41 first developer followed by B&W fixer worked better than Technidol.
Cold it would act as a very low contrast developer for conventional films.

But what happens when a hot C-41 dev and color bleach-fix is used: Not good I would guess. Most lab would catch the mistake and not develop unmarked or clearly non C-41 films.
 
It will likely get developed, at least in the first step. After all color film is just three layers of black and white film, sensitized for different colors.

The only question is what would happen when the silver is replaced by the C41 dyes. I don't know, I've run C41 through B+W chemistry (for cross processing) but never the other way around.
 
I used to use C-41 chemicals to develop C-41 film (xp2) and it worked really well.

I have used Tetenal C-41 Press kits a lot. I was able to do 16 rolls in each batch. I used regular tap water but if in doubt use distilled water.

I don't do much C-41 anymore so:

I have two 1 liter Tetenal C-41 kits left if anyone is interested, make me an offer.

Leo
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C41 has no couplers in the soup, so the film will be blank after the bleach except for minor staining from coupler traces bled from previous colour film runs.

But as long as you use the developer only, you would get some image - not particularily good, but not worse than the average large scale lab would deliver. Indeed, one large lab I knew did their b/w film batches in their regular E6 primary developer (which is quite straightforward b/w developer), with a dedicated b/w stop and thio fix afterwards.

It won't damage the C41 process either - if any, only strongly wrong color stock (which doesn't occur in suitable volumes today) would. The only thing labs are scared of is back-coated movie stock, and that not because it damages the chemistry, but because the back coating (used for anti-halation and as a discardable surface which protects the film base against scratches) will come off as bits and pieces of goo all over the processor if that is not set up with a special backing stripper for movie stock.

Sevo
 
In my experience B/W film in C41 will delete/blank out your negative... happened to me when I took it into a lab and they made a mistake. I've heard the other way around (C41 film on B/W chemical) works and there is a group on Flickr with their photos done this way.
 
It works if you skip the bleach step; dropping it off at a minilab will result in blank negatives (it happened to a friend of mine).
 
Consider that 'blix' is shorthand for 'bleach/fix'. In properly processed C41 (colour or chromogenic mono) there is no silver, just a dye image.

As there are no dye precursors in normal mono, that means no image at all -- silver or dye.

Tashi delek,

Roger
 
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