How long does C-41 chemistry last?

[relistan]

Not recommending it, and I do think there was color shift, but I just used a 3 year old Compard Digibase C-41 kit on a roll of Kodak Vision3 200T and it came out pretty OK. I would say the bleach has notably reduced in power. The rest seems OK. Was stored in Coke bottles, squeezed to have close to no air in them, and kept in a double walled cardboard box in a dark bathroom.

For the record I have hundreds of feet of this film so I didn't try it out on a "special" stock or anything. I am also aware that this is cross-processing ECN2 film in C41. But anyway, if you don't need perfect results and have some old chems sitting around, go ahead and try it.

Karl

 

[carbo73]

My first trials in C41 process is the Tetenal kit. I've got acceptable results, even considering that I have not a much reliable thermometer or way to maintain the temperature, other than a bucket full with hot water from the kitchen. In fact, i think that in parts of the process temperature dropped from the dictated 38º C, to about 34º C, as far as I can remember. But I'm not sure.

I've used it on 4 rolls, and I mixed the chemicals 3 weeks ago, so probably I've to hurry up or it may get spoiled, right?

The light leak is the camera's fault, not the C41 kit (it's a Salyut-S aka Hasselbladsky)

 

[Mike 5714]

Useful information I hope

Useful information I hope

I know I'm digging up an old thread, but I thought I would share my experience with old chemicals. After a hiatus of a good six or seven years, I got back into processing color film. I had some Kodak C-41 chemicals that I bought in about 2014, but had not opened. Before buying more, I decided to test them out.

Now, to make matters more interesting, I also had many rolls of exposed film which had been sitting around for years, due to the fact that I had stopped processing color.

To make a long story short, both the film and the chemicals seem to have survived just fine. The attached is from a trip to Amsterdam in 2014, processed just a few days ago.