C-41 at home - am I crazy?

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XAos

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I usually take my 35mm c-41 to sams, and my 120 to a local guy. Unfortunately my local guy was killed in a traffic accident. The only other place in town I know of is horrendously expensive. This really puts me in a pickle because scanning 6x7 isn't something I'm set up properly to do. (I can usually get a crop out of it. David Whatzzisface doesn't make a holder for my scanner -Epson 2480 - but the transparancy section is large enough for 120.)

So I'm wondering about doing C-41 at home. I've done B&W at home. I know it's a much warmer bath and temperature is critical. But is it practical? I'd likely be taking over my 35mm as well if I take this up. I guess I'm mostly concerned about chemistry - costs, shelf life, disposal. I suppose it's too early for the mini-labs to start showing up on ebay :)
 
It's been a long time since I processed C41, by hand. It was in a school lab, and was kind of a pain to do, but it is doable, provided you have all the controls in place. Practical? I wouldn't think so, but that's just my gut feeling.


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Yeah, it's a PITA, but easy enough if you make sure you're set up right to begin with. I find my time valuable enough that dunk and scan w/out prints at Walgreens ($5.14 plus tax) is cheaper.

As for the 120, I'd suggest getting mailers. It's probably the best answer to your situation.

William
 
The biggest problem you face is not temperature (your latitude is +/- .25 degrees F, so use a water bath and a very accurate thermometer) nor times (just practice) nor toxicity (do it in the garage and wear gloves) but the shelf-life of the chemicals. Once mixed, C41 chemistry expires much faster, relatively, than the chemicals you use for the normal b&w process, I think within days or weeks. Probably the only way to make it economically worth your time is to save up a bunch of color print film, and then do it all at once. BH has a classic, liquid C-41 kit by Tetenal for $55, which does 60-80 rolls (BH# TEC415LK)

And therein lies the problem: can you do 60-80 rolls before the chemicals expire? Or actually, to break even, you probably only need to do 10-15.

Disposal is another question, my guess is you should check with your local lab to see if they'll accept your spent chemistry.
 
I send my 120 to Dwayne's Photo in Kansas City. They're the same people that still process Kodachrome. Takes about a week to a week and a half, but they do a good job at reasonable rates.
 
Wow, I am very lucky. I have a c-41 lab on the route I take to work where I can drop off 120 and get the negs back in one day.

Prints take longer, but now I have a HP 7960, I'll do a lot of printing at home
 
I hear you Jon. My FLCS can do my 120 C41 & E6 without question. When I'm doing 4x5 it get's really messy... :eek:

William
 
For handling small-volume runs, you can order "press kits" made by Jobo or Photocolor from big suppliers such as B&H. These mix up into a small one-shot batch of chemistry. It costs more to buy this way than in large quantities, but it solves the shelf life problem -- so if you only need to run a few rolls occasionally, it's less expensive than buying a larger-size kit and having to throw away most of it.

Beyond that, it's not so much difficult as simple but exacting. You have to be sure to do everything exactly the same way every time to get consistent results. Temperature control is important, but you can handle that with a good thermometer and a foam plastic cooler to use as a water bath. I used to process quite a bit of C-41 this way because it was the only economical way to get pushing, and it took only a couple of rolls of practice for me to get uniformly good results. Obviously, if you've processed b&w film before, this helps a lot!
 
C-41 at home is very simple if you pick up a used Jobo Processor and lift. I'm sure they can be had for less than $100 used as people are dumping them left and right.

Tetenal do a C-41 chemistry tab kit which I buy and it's a great way to process when you are not doing enough within a short timeframe to justify the big kits. Each box comes with enough tabs to process 12 films (or 24 at a push if you reuse chemistry immediately with increased dev times). You simply dissolve the number of tabs you need for that session. The rest effectively keeps indefinitely until you next need to process.

I couldn't understand what you were thinking of doing for prints though. You mentioned that you couldn't scan 6x7. Were you thinking of RA4 printing? That's a different thing altogether and requires a bit more effort along with a colour head for your enlarger. For occasional prints the Jobo could still be used although you can also now get room temperature RA4 kits where temp control is not critical.
 
Brett, yep I use Star Photo for all of my 120 processing. Which reminds me, I have a roll of 6x6 E-6 to pick up :D

William
 
I used to use the kitchen sink as a water bath and one shot the chemistry for 120. Used to be cheaper than my local. Temp is important for the dev only at 3 mins 15 secs IIRC. after that the stop (if used, I do) and bleach fix can drift by a degree or so without too much of a problem. As has been stated, you need to be consistent, temp and time. If you've got the hardware might be worth trying it out.

RA4 printing is possible but can take a long time and a fair bit of paper to get the filtration right. colour enlarger heads are qhite cheap used also.

I used to do all my 120 colour neg and RA4 print but I've not really used the Bronica for C41 and prints for over a year now. I drifted to E6 trannies.
 
I'd say home C41 is attractive when you cannot find a reasonably convenient lab that handles your film carefully enough to avoid damaging it. It's good to have control of your own film quality, but as mentioned it is a more demanding process. I used to do it myself and would not hesitate to do it again. Sometimes even the Pro service of my local lab produces some handling damage, so I'm tempted.
 
aterlecki said:
C-41 at home is very simple if you pick up a used Jobo Processor and lift. I'm sure they can be had for less than $100 used as people are dumping them left and right.

I couldn't understand what you were thinking of doing for prints though. You mentioned that you couldn't scan 6x7. Were you thinking of RA4 printing? That's a different thing altogether and requires a bit more effort along with a colour head for your enlarger. For occasional prints the Jobo could still be used although you can also now get room temperature RA4 kits where temp control is not critical.
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I was thinking of jobo when I started the thread. I haven't looked at them beyond initial curiousity when I started doing B&W at home. I think I can get acceptible results with my 2480 if I could only get a decent holder. I am looking at 120 capable flatbeds again though.
 
There used to be a room temperature C41 kit from Tetenal/Beseler and using a syringe solutions could be made up to order.
However the number of rolls you needed to develop to make this worth it was huge.

I concur with Wolf/Ritz camera for 120 as a great place.
 
Agreed, color chemistry expires much faster than B/W. It's doable, and it's not too hard. The temperature is about 100 deg F (recommended) for standard processing, so it's a bit more work than B/W processing. Speaking of which, I think I'll go C-41 develop some film right now.
 
Press kit is the best deal. I do 4x5 in it.

The problem with all is the developer goes bad unused in 6 weeks. One week if you developed a film in it.

So you either save up film or spend a lot to do one. It is a powder kit and you need to mix it all at once. 2 yr shelf life unopened.

Some buy the Kodak and freeze the developer component that ages fast. I never tried it.
 
XAos said:
I was thinking of jobo when I started the thread. I haven't looked at them beyond initial curiousity when I started doing B&W at home. I think I can get acceptible results with my 2480 if I could only get a decent holder. I am looking at 120 capable flatbeds again though.
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Where does the 2840 focus? My Expression 1680 has two focus points, right on the glass and slightly above at the film holder plane. I simply place my film directly on the scanner glass with an AN glass sheet on top to hold it flat. Never bothered with the film holders.
 
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