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 Originally Posted by 2F/2F
It is nice that somebody has put together a kit again, but the price is out of hand compared to Kodak's. When Kodak had the one gallon kit, I used to spend $75 for 7.5 L worth of processing chemicals (at least 64 rolls, and often more, as I would go through the chems a third time with less important pictures). That is 10 dollars per quart, compared with Rollei's price of $35 per liter.
Kodak chemicals can still be purchased individually, for even cheaper than I got the kits for. The developer is $7.50 for a quart of concentrate to make nearly 18 gallons of working solution. At that price, you can even feel ok using it one shot. One shot, you would get 288 rolls, two shot (which works perfectly fine), you would get 576. The fixer is $7.50 to make five gallons. This is theoretically enough to process 300 rolls of film going through the chems only once (twice as many if going through twice), plus you can use the same fixer for all your black and white film and paper processing needs. Again, cheap as dirt, and both of these chemicals can be mixed bit at a time as needed, so they do not spoil. The stabilizer is about $3 a bottle, good for about eight weeks or 180 rolls. The expensive part is the bleach. It is about $40 for about 100 rolls worth of bleach, in a pre-mixed 2.7 L container. (When the one gallon bleach was around, it was $25 for 120 rolls worth.) There is a starter/replenisher way to do it for much cheaper, but I am not familiar with it.
When you do all the maths, you see that for $35, you get about 50 rolls of processing (one shot developer, using other chems twice), compared to Rollei's $35 for 20 rolls reusing the developer multiple times; if one shot developer, it would only be five rolls (or four, as most people do not have five-roll tanks), so the Rollei chemistry is over 10x more expensive...and for what reason?
It is perhaps a good kit for teaching classes, in which the students might shoot 10 to 20 rolls in the course of a class, they do not want to rely on the group chemistry's purity, and they will likely never process color film again. It is also good for those who process infrequently. However, it is economic folly for anyone regularly doing even moderate quantities of color processing at home.
The most sold working kits in Europa are produced by Fuji, Rollei and Tetenal. I have compared these prices at the leading British Mail Order House, Firstcall Photographic Ltd.
Here is my list, one time the prices in British Pounds, one time in Euro (exchange rate today is 1,19).
Fuji Press Kit for 5 Liter £ 37,99 45,21
price for one film 400/27° 0,75
Tetenal Colortec 1 Liter £ 14,29 17,00
price for one film 400/27° 2,13
Tetenal Colortec 5 Liter £ 49,99 59,49
price for one film 400/27° 0,99
Rollei Digibase C-41
#RDC14 for 500ml £ 18,99 22,60
price for one film 400/27° 2,26
#RDC15 for 1 Liter £ 24,99 29,74
price for one film 400/27° 1,49
#RDC16 for 2,5 Liter £ 32,99 39,26
price for one film 400/27° 0,79
#RDC17 for 5 Liter £ 39,99 47,59
price for one film 400/27° 0,48
With kind regards
Sebastian Junghans
www.rolleifilm.de
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Digibase C 41 as one-shot chemistry
I've been developing b&w for some time and using Tetenal C41 more recently. I bought the Rollei kit intending to use it as a one-shot process to eliminate the increasingly long bleach/fix times of the Tetenal when used and returned to stock.
I know I'm not as quick on the uptake as I used to be but I seem to have missed something pretty basic here despite using the other processes.
If anyone has experience of using Digibase in this way and is happy to respond to my elementary questions I would be grateful to hear from them.
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Ask your questions and we will answer them.
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I have the mini kit making 500ml working solution for 10 films, my Paterson tank takes 290 ml.
Did I make a mistake in thinking I could use the chemistry as single use and discard?
If it is for re-use only, do I have to extend processing times? I may just as well have stayed with Tetenal ..
Why is life so difficult?
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If you use single shot you only have enough for one roll of film.
Too expensive. Must reuse.
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I have done 8-10 rolls and have not had to increase my times. I also combined the Kodak standard times in conjunction with the Rollei kit instructions, so I am doing a bleach for 6min 30 sec and a fix for the same time. Be sure to do water baths between bleach and fix and between fix and stabilizer. These make all the difference in the world from what I've experienced.
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Digibase C 41
Thanks for the help. It's clear that I was misinformed...explains why the information sheet seemed so inadequate. I'll be having some words with my supplier.
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Hello,
I've been trying to find either the 500ml or 1l kit in the U.S. and it seems almost impossible. Freestylephoto won't be having them before March 2011 (!!!). This morning, I found the 500ml kit on Digitaltruth.com and tonight, it's out of stock!!! I should have ordered right away... Does anyone know where I can find a kit online or in a store in the New York area?
Thanks!
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Rollei Digibase c-41
The question about diluting of the stabilizer in the RDC41 kit, has not yet been answered. In the original kit included is a 250ml stabilizer, developer, bleacher and fixer for 2x 250ml. This could perhaps lead to misunderstandings.
Therefore, my advice: You can of course do it without the stabilizer bath and watering it like with B&W film with water. Or, to sets the stabilizer instead of 250ml onto 500ml, and double the the retention time of the film in the bath. This information was communicated to me on demand by MACO, Hamburg/Germany.
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Hello
Digibase C41 question
I use a Jobo ATL 1500 processor. In one drum I'm able to process 6 rolls of 120 at a time in about 650ml of chemistry. Now my question is if i have another 6 rolls to process can i reuse all the chemistry without altering it or adding to it or altering the timing of the process in any way? That's just 1 extra process run with the chemistry, at the moment I just use it as single shot.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
David
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