Making the plunge

[jmartelli]

Recently ive moved back to shooting film and have decided since there is no places locally to develop 120 that i would make the plunge and all the way and develop my own c-41. I am currently researching all that is needed to do this at home and would greatly appreciate any tips or suggestions from any of you on this subject.

[zsas]

Welcome back home!! There are a ton of resources here!

There is a great thread on where to get c-41 chems here, give that a read:

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/9...-get-them.html

As far as how it all works, I highly suggest Henry Horenstein's color photography book, sure your library stocks or maybe Amazon or elsewhere will have it for a song.

Re what you need to actually do it. Pretty similar to B/W, just a few more bottles. I do it without a Jobo, and do it by hand (use SS or a Patterson). Works out great. Do some reading, there is a nice thread re one c-41 maker, Rollei Digibase, that has a wealth of info (btw that is what I use).

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum40/7...se-c-41-a.html

You have any specific questions that you need advisement on?

[guitstik]

If you can find a good used JOBO for sale that makes all the difference in the world. It keeps all of your chemicals and film at the required temp plus you don't need a dedicated darkroom to use it in. Check out Greg Blank's article in the July/August 11 issue of view camera about the JOBO.

[Sirius Glass]

If you can find a good used JOBO for sale that makes all the difference in the world. It keeps all of your chemicals and film at the required temp plus you don't need a dedicated darkroom to use it in. Check out Greg Blank's article in the July/August 11 issue of view camera about the JOBO.

Yes, what he said!

[guitstik]

Yes, what he said!

Now I'm skerrt.

[jmartelli]

Thanks much for the fast reply and all the information. Ive ordered the color photography book. Im looking forward to getting started developing my own film. Im sure there is alot of pride in knowing you have control of your photo from start to finish.

[guyjr]

A lot of pride, but also a lot of confidence that you will get reproducible results every time you process. I could get cheap C-41 developed locally ($4.25 a roll for 120), but get very inconsistent results from the lab. Aside from one mistake a few weeks back, my C-41 home processed rolls are batting close to 1.000.

[jmartelli]

THanks to all that replied to this thread. I developed my first roll of kodak portra 160 120 film today and all went well. Guess the next purchase will have to be a nagative scanner with decent quality.

[polyglot]

While I currently do the hybrid thing with a Nikon 8000, you can of course get RA4 paper and chemistry (my delivery arrived last week!) and the paper is significantly cheaper than B&W paper. If you already print B&W and you have a colour head on the enlarger, you can print colour too. No safelight permitted though.

[jmartelli]

At this point in time a enlarger isn't a option so ill be looking for a flatbed nagative scanner that has holders for both 35mm and 120.