Colour Film home processing.

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GWT

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Just wondered how many of you guys develop your colour films at home?

I was wondering difficult it might be?

If it is too difficult I'd like to find a decent lab in the UK.
 
Plenty of good labs in the UK, I recommend AG Photo, high res scans for the price of low res most other places.
 
It's not difficult. Like posted above, time and temp. Just be careful and accurate with both.
You have the Fuji Hunt and Tetenal kits available there, I think.
Shoot a test roll and give it a try.
 
Three years ago when local labs started charging $20+ for developing, I started doing my own C41 processing at home. It is easy. I regret not doing it sooner. Developing costs me about $2.50/roll with the Unicolor kits. It would be cheaper if I lived in the U.S.
 
How long to the chemicals last once mixed? I've thought about doing this but I don't go through a lot of colour film. One kit does 12 rolls? That about 2 years for me!
 
The Naniwa Colorkit N they used to sell in Japan (now discontinued) was usable about two month after mixing the chemicals (and keeping them in compressible brown plastic bottles with almost all air removed).
 
If you develop b&w film, color won't be any harder, except for temperature stabilization. Use a tub of warm water and it'll work just fine.

benlees said:
How long to the chemicals last once mixed? I've thought about doing this but I don't go through a lot of colour film. One kit does 12 rolls? That about 2 years for me!
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I bought a Unicolor dry chemical kit, and mixed them, and developed 4 rolls that day. I don't shoot much color film, so the chemicls sat in full bottles for over a year. Then I gave them to a friend who likes expired film, that sort of thing. He developed a dozen sheets of C41 in 4x5 size, and they came out just fine. The color was a bit weak, but scanning the film fixed that.
 
Chris101 said:
If you develop b&w film, color won't be any harder, except for temperature stabilization. Use a tub of warm water and it'll work just fine.



I bought a Unicolor dry chemical kit, and mixed them, and developed 4 rolls that day. I don't shoot much color film, so the chemicls sat in full bottles for over a year. Then I gave them to a friend who likes expired film, that sort of thing. He developed a dozen sheets of C41 in 4x5 size, and they came out just fine. The color was a bit weak, but scanning the film fixed that.
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks for that. If the chemicals last at least 6 months that would be great.
 
GWT said:
Just wondered how many of you guys develop your colour films at home?

I was wondering difficult it might be?

If it is too difficult I'd like to find a decent lab in the UK.
Click to expand...

Home developing of color film (C41 and E6) is quite easy. If you can develop BW at home, you also can do color at home.
The only aspect you should be more careful is keeping the exact temperature.
The Tetenal and Fuji Hunt kits are excellent.

On the other side: There are enough excellent professional labs in the UK which are doing mail order, and can be used by you (AG, Peak, Metro, Bayeux, Fuji and some others). Using one of these labs is probably the most convenient option.

Cheers, Jan
 
3 min 15 sec is short so compensate by dropping film into developer , then cap tank. Total darkness required. Two inversions per 15 sec is considered continuous.

Other than that, it works like black and white.
 
C-41 development at home is quite easy to do. I always get clean negatives free of scratches and with deep, rich colors.
 
I've been using the Tetenal C41 kit and it's real easy to use.
The main thing is to get the chemicals up to temperature before you use them. So i just stand the bottles in a bucket of hot water for a bit.
I don't use a temperature controlled rotating tank gizmo, just get them hot enough when I start development.

Once it's all done and dried I scan the negatives.

Tetenal quote 12 to 14 films (depending on film speed, apparently fast films 'use up' the chemicals more quickly) and I've found the chemicals go off completely if not used within about six months of mixing. So depending on how often you use colour film it's perhaps best to build up a stockpile before buying a new kit.

Basically, if you can develop black and white, you can develop colour.

I've not tried E6 (slides), but I'm thinking about it for next year.
 
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