C-41 Negative goop

[markrewald]

Has anyone experienced the white crap that is on your negatives after getting them back from the lab? I just spent an ungodly amount of time cleaning that sludge (or whatever) off one of my pics. By cleaning I mean spending hours with photoshop (since I do not have a color darkroom). Those that process c41 at home do you get this stuff? If you dont I am seriously thinking of doing this developing at home.

Thanks!

[hrst]

There shouldn't be any if processed well enough. It can be dust or it can be drying marks (calcium from tap water), or something else. Usually it cannot be completely avoided, but if you have to spend hours to digitally clean it, there's too much. Speak to your lab or find a better lab - or do it yourself... When you do it yourself, you are responsible for these problems and then you can learn how to avoid them.

[tiberiustibz]

Find a new lab.

Yes I get it too. The gunk is stabilizer and water contaminants. I have begun to use distilled water for my stabilizer because I found that cleaning the gunk off led to scratches 100% of the time.

[markrewald]

Thanks guys. The place is a professional lab. I think it was a newbie that did my roll of film. I will give them another go and start pricing equipment to do this myself.

Thanks again!

[hrst]

C-41 is so quick process that you won't need any Jobo processor to do it yourself. Bucket for water bath, fever thermometer and normal BW spiral tank are all the equipment you will need. And, preferably a dry, dustless place to hang it dry. And maybe a film squeegee.

[tiberiustibz]

The chemistry is what will cost you. $100 gets you a lifetimes worth, but it's hard to buy in smaller quantities.

[John Shriver]

The stabilizer also has Photo Flo in it. Photo Flo solution is very nutritious, scum very happy to grow in it. Same may be happening with their stabilizer bath. Should have been changed...

[tiberiustibz]

Generally the C41 stabilizer has a bacteria death agent (used to be formaldehyde) which should prevent the consumption by bacteria. That's critical because the film is also very tasty and will get eaten if untreated.

[jrydberg]

The chemistry is what will cost you. $100 gets you a lifetimes worth, but it's hard to buy in smaller quantities.

Huh. Sounds a bit too cheap, or where do you get your stuff?

Here in Scandinavia a 5L Tetenal kit goes for roughly $150.

[tiberiustibz]

My chemistry is the C41 Developer Replenisher 19 liters which runs about $25 plus the starter which will do many many gallons but costs $8 plus your bleach which I usually hunt ebay and found a third party selling Bleach III for $25 for 5 gallons. I use flexicolor fix which is also cheap plus the stabilizer which freestyle is selling on ebay. If you want to buy directly from kodak you can get the Flexicolor SM bleach in 3.2 liter containers. You'll have to hunt for it though.

Either way you need developer, bleach, fix, stabilizer/final rinse. I use developer one shot, fix and bleach two shot, and mix up stabilizer with distilled water, one shot as well. You can push them many many times that capacity but I prefer to get guaranteed good results than save money.