Cinestill C41 kit fail?

[Jhausler]

Just put 2 rolls of Portra400 through the new cinestill c41 kit and found some strange stuff on half the frames in 1 of the rolls.

Curious to hear people's thoughts on whether these are ruined, need more BLIX, need more rinse, etc..

I put 2 rolls in a steel tank. Some agitations were true inversions, others were more twisting the tank back and forth w/o inverting it. (that's what i do with XTOL usually).

A bunch have this yellow spot in the middle:

A few have these crazy ghost like things.

Again, 1 roll was perfect. The other roll exhibited both of the above defects. I dont remember which roll was on top to be honest.

Thanks for your insights!

 

[randy stewart]

Film defects

Film defects

So many possibilities with two distinctly different defects. The line down the middle of the landscape looks like it could be a light strike or it could be a fault in the loading of the reel, allowing some contact along that line. The flaws in the other frame look more like just bad processing: insufficient solution volumes, insufficient agitation, defective reel loading allowing film layers to touch during processing. I would try a pre-soak and reprocess in fresh blix, wash. etc., to see if it's a matter of insufficient processing. It may be just a matter of having used one reel's volume of solution in a two reel load, but I have low confidence in that explanation.

 

[Jhausler]

i've re-blixed, washed, etc... gonna rescan tonight.

 

[Jhausler]

Yeah, that didn't help... i'll agitate better on my next go and hope for the best.

At least a few shots from the one roll either came out well, or you can't tell give the color palette.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Shame - all are lovely, the colours in the first are gorgeous.

I can't really help alas. I've not had any issues at all with the Tetenal C41 kit - but I am religious about getting everything up to 38c and agitating constantly throughout the developing and blix phases (using the Paterson tank agitator, hand agitation for the length required is too much of a pain).

Colour is a bore to me but it is vital to do everything by the book.

 

[Jhausler]

I used a tetenal kit years ago without problem. Did it call for constant agitation? It's been too long to remember. The Cinestill kit asks for 4 inversions every 30 seconds, which is pretty close to constant. I hate to one at a time it, but i may try my patterson tank next instead.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I skipped steel reels, because things like in op could happen.
I use same kit for years now.

 

[Jhausler]

oh, that's a known thing with C41 in steel reels? I've never experienced any issues with B&W in steel reels. Interesting..

 

[randy stewart]

color errors in C41

color errors in C41

That print of the stream is showing a fairly strong blue cast over the right side of the photo. You can see it more clearly by comparing the normally grey trees in shadows on each side. I'm still inclined to a process error explanation here. Remember that the real C-41 process uses more steps in the form of separate bleach and fixer plus stop bath and interim washes to isolate the chemical steps from cross contamination. It also specs process at 100 degrees. The three bath kits popular today present an elimination of every possible step in the process. So, if you use these kits you have to follow the process instructions exactly. Do agitate as directed. Do not process at room temp, even if the possibility is suggested. Do not reuse the chemistry to exhaustion and expect consistent quality. These kits have eliminated all of the flexibility in the process to make it seem more user friendly and cheaper to make, so apply extra care to the details. C-41 is a process designed for continuous agitation, so use a roller system or at least a tank which will do decent inversion agitation, i.e., not a Paterson.

 

[Jhausler]

Yeah, i see the blue.

Are you suggesting i do continuous agitation? or do the 4 inversions every 30 seconds?

Paterson doesn't do decent inversion? How is that? Are steel tanks better?

 

[Jhausler]

Alright.. seems that Patterson tanks are the way to go for me. I also skipped a water rinse between the dev and the blix.


Thanks everyone for your advice. I got Negative Lab Pro to make my B&W processing easier and saw how well it did on older color negs i had. So I bought a 5 pack of portra and the cinestill chemical pack just to try color film again. I do like it, but i think i'll stick to digital for color.