Developing c41 in B&W chemicals?

[Ed Weatherly]

Is anyone out there developing c41 color film in b&w chemicals? I bought a roll of generic 200 Asa film and shot it through a new camera to see if film advance etc. was working okay. Rather than waiting for it to be processed, I decided to develop in D76. A Google search showed some people doing this for various reasons. I developed for 9.75 minutes with agitation very minute. The negatives came out pretty dark.....

My result though was quite surprising. Although it took about 40 seconds at f11 the negative developed really nicely. Very sharp with excellent tonality.

I am wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this processing method.

Thanks.

 

[rayfoxlee]

Hi Ed

I tried this some years ago with moderate success, having spoken to Ilford about developing XP2 in D76. The guy suggested 18 mins in ID11 1:1 at 20degC with normal agitation (3 inversions every minute was my 'normal'). I see no reason to think that colour film would be any different, except that the time might need modifying.

It was OK, but I didn't adopt this as a way of souping chromogenic film - no great advantage, except on cost.

Would be interesting to see your results!

Ray

 

[Classique]

I am interested also! My C41 chemicals recently expired and I have tons of C41 film lying around haha.

 

[sepiareverb]

I have students do this every now and again by accident. If you are scanning it shouldn't be the end of the world- negs usually look pretty thin (when run as mistaken HP5), but not ludicrous. If you print then it is very bad as the film base acts as a safelight filter, preventing reasonable exposure times. Since Kodak left B&W paper there isn't anything like Panalure.

 

[Tom A]

This is a photographic screw-up. Reloading in the dark, Murphy's applied, and the only C41 film in my pocket, an Ektar 100 -among 6-7 Arista 400 got stuffed into the MP. Now, 2 stops under exposed. I was going to dump it - but then decided to run it in Rodinal instead. Nothing too loose anyway.
Surprised how well it came out! Ektar 100 rated at 400, Rodinal 1:50 for 24 minutes (agitation every 30 sec). Leica MP, Summaron 35mm f2.8

 

[FrankS]

This is a photographic screw-up. Reloading in the dark, Murphy's applied, and the only C41 film in my pocket, an Ektar 100 -among 6-7 Arista 400 got stuffed into the MP. Now, 2 stops under exposed. I was going to dump it - but then decided to run it in Rodinal instead. Nothing too loose anyway.
Surprised how well it came out! Ektar 100 rated at 400, Rodinal 1:50 for 24 minutes (agitation every 30 sec). Leica MP, Summaron 35mm f2.8

Wet printed or scanned, Tom?

 

[Ezzie]

I do regularly in Caffenol-C-M, 14:30min, 68F, 12 initial inversions, 3 every top of the minute until the 10th minute, then let stand. Portra BW400CN mostly. Works a treat:


Three of a kind by Eirik0304, on Flickr


6500:3 by Eirik0304, on Flickr

 

[bgb]

I have a whole bunch of C-41 film that I was going to sell off cheap but not anymore after seeing this thread 🙂
Time to do some experimenting ...

 

[Ed Weatherly]

Gentlemen, I appreciate all of your replies. I scanned two examples last night to post but couldn't get them to post or even post a reply. I got an error message saying my,essayed was too short. Any advice?

 

[venchka]

type something like These words make my message long enough.
Should work then.

Wayne

 

[Ed Weatherly]

Examples of C41 film in D76 developer

Examples of C41 film in D76 developer

 

[smbilgin]

I haven't tried with D76 yet but I've developed a lot of expired 400 ASA Capital brand (is that a real brand???) C-41 color negative film in Ilfosol 3. Here is my recipe:

Ilfosol 3 1+9 in Paterson tank 10 min @ 26C
Water
30 sec something like stop bath (30 grams lemmon salt dissolved in 1 lt water)
Water again
Ilford Rapid Fixer 5 min @ 26C (probably, I didn't measure)
15 min tap water
1 min with photo-flo

Orange mask remains but when you scan the negatives, it is quite OK.

 

[Ed Weatherly]

I haven't tried with D76 yet but I've developed a lot of expired 400 ASA Capital brand (is that a real brand???) C-41 color negative film in Ilfosol 3. Here is my recipe:

Ilfosol 3 1+9 in Paterson tank 10 min @ 26C
Water
30 sec something like stop bath (30 grams lemmon salt dissolved in 1 lt water)
Water again
Ilford Rapid Fixer 5 min @ 26C (probably, I didn't measure)
15 min tap water
1 min with photo-flo

Orange mask remains but when you scan the negatives, it is quite OK.

Thanks for the reply and information. it is quite useful to see how others have done something similar. Did you also print them? How did the negs look?

 

[Ed Weatherly]

I do regularly in Caffenol-C-M, 14:30min, 68F, 12 initial inversions, 3 every top of the minute until the 10th minute, then let stand. Portra BW400CN mostly. Works a treat:


Three of a kind by Eirik0304, on Flickr


6500:3 by Eirik0304, on Flickr

this will be one of the next things I try, thanks for posting the info and the pictures, these look great!

 

[Jani_from_Finland]

There is one Finnish photographer here also that does real nice work on slide film developed in bw chemicals and then in C41, but thats another story. My friend also regularly does C41 in bw-chemicals, but most films gets real heavy grain especially in Rodinal, dont now how for example Acufine should work. That Tom's Ektar shot in Rodinal look great, i just might try that one myself as i seem to have loaded an Ektar in my M2 instead of LP400.

 

[smbilgin]

Thanks for the reply and information. it is quite useful to see how others have done something similar. Did you also print them? How did the negs look?

I didn't print them in a darkroom. I scanned and printed some of them, but digital. You can find the results here.

All of them were shot with some toy cameras and as I mentioned the film was very expired. Also I didn't care about the developing temperature and times since it was just an experiment. But I believe, if a fresh and fine grain colour negative is used and developed in a proper way; most probably you wouldn't complain about the results. Good luck.

 

[Ed Weatherly]

I didn't print them in a darkroom. I scanned and printed some of them, but digital. You can find the results here.

All of them were shot with some toy cameras and as I mentioned the film was very expired. Also I didn't care about the developing temperature and times since it was just an experiment. But I believe, if a fresh and fine grain colour negative is used and developed in a proper way; most probably you wouldn't complain about the results. Good luck.

The photos are very nice, thank you again for sharing htem with me (us). It has been very helpful to see how others are doing thisngs. Your work with a "toy " camera has me interested in trying that some.