Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505