Over-diluted C-41 dev

[Diapositivo]

Polyglot, yes, the best thing is to bring back your chemicals to standard dilution and just carefully preserve the diluted chemistry.

All this makes me even more convinced that one-shot processing is the way to go. One can occasionally make mistakes during the dilution process, but then he'll only have wasted 140 ml or 250 ml of final solution.

No sooner than yesterday I made such a mistake. I diluted my first developer but I inadvertently took the chemical from the first component of the colour developer (almost identical flask). When I begun diluting the colour developer, I found that I was taking the first developer (instead of the first component of the colour developer) in my hands. In that particular case, I just prepared the first developer, put it in the colour-developer flask, went back to the first developer (which only contained the first component of the colour developer) add the second component, and so I ended up with a normal first developer, and a slightly diluted colour developer (170 ml of final solution instead of 140 ml), the colour developer in flask marked "1" and the first developer in flask marked "3". Colour developer goes to completion, so I adopted a 10' bath instead of the canonical 6' bath, and it all seems to have worked very well.

But in any case I could have discarded the colour developer and re-mixed it again, it was only 140 ml of final solution, nothing to cry upon.

[Photo Engineer]

You have likely ruined the developer. The only way to tell is a test of the process.

BTW, fix in the bleach is not a total disaster. The bleach can be used until it becomes cloudy or begins to smell of Hydrogen Sulfide. It does not ruin the bleach outright. The same is true of bleach in the fix. This is not instant disaster either.

PE

[polyglot]

You have likely ruined the developer. The only way to tell is a test of the process.

PE

Even after bringing it back to the proper concentration? Note that it was wash-water (the first flush after developer) that went in there, not acidic stop bath.

I hope that's not the case because that's what I've just done. And I don't see how it'd be possible either.

[Athiril]

polygot: Just add more concentrate to it.

Mix up some more developer, sans 200ml of starting water.. mix together.



Also you are supposed to dump bleach straight after dev, not wash, or at least use stop straight after dev. Using water can easily give very crappy negs, shouldn't be a large significant effect with water on the lower pH side.. but still has an effect I found of increased overall density. I always used a rinse after dev, my place on the north coast.. never had problems..soon as I moved down to Melb, couldn't figure out why my negs were so dense and crap after mixing fresh everything. Eventually used a stop bath after dev, then just bleach after dev, negs were excellent.

[Photo Engineer]

Yeah, I was wrong. I was thinking Acetic Acid stop. You can do as Dan says and it will work.

Sorry.

PE

[polyglot]

OK, so maybe I'll give up washing the negs after dev - it's habit from B&W and not wanting to change the bleach pH too much. They look pretty similar to lab-processed C-41 in terms of density; maybe a tad more but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison.

Edit: assuming I'm a tightwad and want to stretch bleach as far as possible, is there something I can add to it to counter the effects of there being a little dev present and make it last better?

Anyway, I'm gonna call it a success (click for larger):

Why yes, this is the internet. We have cats here.

[mkillmer]

That's an interesting tip, Athiril, thanks! - I live in melbourne and I wash after dev - I will try without.

[Athiril]

Even on the tetenal kit you do not rinse before the blix (referring to the book from my old tetenal kit).

I would use a stop bath after dev, then rinse, and bleach if you are concerned the pH will rise on the bleach before the end of it's useful life. I've use the home brand 99c 1L vinegar at 1+9 before, worked well.

Tetenal instructions for their kit;

"Stop Bath (TETENAL Indicet 1+19 or 3% aceticacid: 20s) increases processing reliability when the bleach fix bath is re-used several times)"




My place on the north coast where I had no problem rinsing didn't have fluorinated water if that makes a difference.

[polyglot]

Cheers - I'll try dev/stop/wash/bleach next time; vinegar and dry citric acid are pretty cheap. Vinegar is usually about 5% acetic acid though, so I would expect 1+9 to be a bit too dilute, at least for B&W.

[mkillmer]

I didnt see detailed instructions like that in my kit... thanks for the info. Will B&W stop be OK?
I have a supply of Rollei RCS - Citric Acid Stopbath. I normally mix as per instructions at 1+19. I dont know the concentration of the undikuted solution. The bottle and website don't give many details:
http://www.macodirect.de/rollei-citr...02e0dd0f9a0033
regards,
mark