Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/22

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Subject: C-41 Processing [was Re: [Leica] Random evil thoughts]
From: msmall at aya.yale.edu (Marc James Small)
Date: Wed Feb 22 17:17:25 2006
References: <4cfa589b0602221107p3b80ffaq93eddd451f19a08e@mail.gmail.com> <9b678e0602211943r11cb62d5u12d232a1310f385f@mail.gmail.com> <p06230913c0222dfad530@10.0.1.2> <4cfa589b0602221107p3b80ffaq93eddd451f19a08e@mail.gmail.com>

At 07:42 PM 2/22/06 -0500, Don Dory wrote:
>Adam,
>The hassle of keeping your typical mini-lab C-41 up to snuff is no light
>matter for the home enthusiast.  Volumes start at about 10 litres and you
>would have to run possibly 5 rolls a day to keep the chemistry fresh. Then
>there is the rack maintenance to keep dried chemistry from scratching your
>negatives.  For the home, the Jobo system makes much more sense..

Don

This simply isn't truie.  I did C-41 at home for more than a decade and did
it in small batches;  once I get moved, I'll be back doing it all over
again.  PRINTING C-41 negatives can be a pain, but developing the film is a
relatively simple matter in a home dark-room.  I simply mix up the
chemistry required, generally from Photographers Formulary stuff, and
develop in metal tanks -- I use Kindermann tanks and King Concept reels, a
proven success, by the way.

If I were running a commercial line, that would be an entirely different
matter.  I can keep my temperature within two or three real degrees (F) or
within a degree or so on that Commie lousy Centigrade/Celsius thingummy
(C), and that works for home shots.  But, with a commercial line, you need
to have a higher grade of stability and that is why I do not do this stuff
commercially.

I find processing C-41 no harder than processing schwarz-weisse.  I find
printing C-41 a hell of a lot harder, especially as I tend to do my
printing late at night and only realize just how far off my color balance
is in what the poets call "that harsh light of day", and shades of the late
and lamented Laura Nyro, a voice probably unknown to most of you youngsters
on the LUG.  Now, for earse of operation, I do chromes and then
Cibachrome/Ilfochrome the prints, as that is a most wonderfully simple
system where the only variant is the exposure time for the print, and all
else is made simple once the enlarger is calibrated, a really simple task.

I have forty hours or more of old radio shows to keep me awake once my new
darkroom is up and running.  Give me six months and I should be in
operation again.  Gimme those chemical smells!  Gimme the late-night
despair of learning that the paper is dead.,  Damn!  But it is so much
better than digital as it is comprehensiible by mere mortals, whereas
digitals requires a Godlike approach from those who can devote far more
than 168 hours per week into the learning curve.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu 
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!

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Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) (C-41 Processing [was Re: [Leica] Random evil thoughts])
In reply to: Message from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) (C-41 Processing [was Re: [Leica] Random evil thoughts])
Message from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Random evil thoughts)
Message from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) (C-41 Processing [was Re: [Leica] Random evil thoughts])