First C-41 @ Home .. observations/questions

[bwcolor]

I just ran eight rolls of 35mm and mistakenly, one roll of 220. Everything was straight forward, but a few observations and perhaps some of you could give me a pointer or two.

My new four roll 35mm stainless tank leaks. Funny, it never bothered me with B&W, but it did bother me having dark orange liquid oozing everywhere.

Hand development made me realize that a manual Jobo processor really doesn't make things much easier. I think that temperature control would be improved, but the process would be much the same. Of course, a hand agitation vs. a motor, but the agitation was easy. I just didn't like the leaking tank.

Lastly, I really didn't like the slow fill and dump of the stainless tank. I guess that the slowness just seemed excessive in light of the short times in solution of the C-41 @ 100 degree F.

Any no-leak / quick fill tank solutions?

Thanks..

 

[Keith]

I have a Jobo plastic tank with the expandable membrane in the cap that is great for C41 ... it copes with the expansion in the tank and I get no leaks at all.

My Paterson by comparison is awful and no matter how many times I ease the edge of the lid up to reduce pressure it just keeps leaking!

I also agree with you about the slow fill and drain rates of those stainless tanks and I don't use them because of this.

 

[bwcolor]

Keith:

Do all Jobo caps have this membrane, or must I look for a particular tank/series?

 

[Keith]

Have a look here on Freestyle's site.

They have a single reel tank, two reel and you can get an extension module to add another three reels capacity to either of those tanks.

I still tend to let a bit of pressure off during the blix stage but as I said I get no leaks at all while agitating.

I think I read somewhere that Jobo were ceasing production of these so they may be hard to get in the future?

 

[bwcolor]

I think that Jobo is restructuring, but not closing all together. I'm sure that some of these products are not at the top of the Jobo sales chart.

So, the Jobo 1500 series fills fast and doesn't leak. I'll assume that this is the tank system that you use in that it is for manual development.

Does anyone have an opinion regarding the stainless vs. plastic reels for the 1500 series? I love my Hewes reels and hate some others, so I know that stainless alone does not make for a good reel.

 

[Keith]

So, the Jobo 1500 series fills fast and doesn't leak. I'll assume that this is the tank system that you use in that it is for manual development.

Correct ... it fills and drains at about the same rate as my Paterson System 4 which is fairly fast compared to anything else I've ever used. The Plastic reels it comes with are bit ho hum though ... quite fiddly to load with some films!

 

[sienarot]

I'm also using the Jobo 25xx series tanks/reels and they've been pretty leak proof for me for all my processing (bw/c41/e6). Any sort of mess that's made is a result of my carelessness and not the tanks.

 

[Doug]

I use Kindermann tanks, which don't leak. The fill time for a 16-oz tank is acceptable, I think, but I do sympathize with the concern over time due to the 3.25-min dev time. I figure if I do it exactly the same every time, then at least I'm consistent.

With a larger tank, I use several of them, all in the water bath and filled with appropriate solutions. And using a Gralab timer that I can see in the dark, I turn the light off before the dev time is up and set the tank lid aside. The next solution has been waiting in the next tank, and I just use the lift-rod and lift the reels out of the first tank and drop them into the second. That's about as fast as it gets, I think. 🙂