Processing B&W C41 at home

4-age

Hi guys,

I got gifted a dev tank and Chemicals through freecycle, he also very kindly included a B&W c41 film. However the chemicals I was given are not for C41.

Is there a way to process this with the dev, wash and fixer I have now (they are all illford brand).

Effects

Nah, different chems for C41. It's slightly trickier to do and you need to be processing a lot of film to make it worthwhile.

DaireQuinlan

Actually you can develop C-41 in B&W chemicals, it's not optimum though, you might get a bit of an increase in grain or something. Definately worth a try, though you might have to experiment with times for whatever combination of film and dev we're talking about here.

artyeva

yes, you can. have a read here and here

results will vary depending on the chems/film used. tis worth a go if you want a bit of experimentation for the sake of experimentation, and sher isn't that what home developing is all about?:D

4-age

The Film is Ilford XP2 super iso400. Ilford Rapid Fixer, Ilfotol, ilfosol 3

Cakes.

I developed colour film in B&W Chems before and they turned out grand and from what I can see XP2 should be developed in colour chems?

artyeva

4-age wrote: »

The Film is Ilford XP2 super iso400. Ilford Rapid Fixer, Ilfotol, ilfosol 3

does this help?

4-age

Wow that website looks great. I have never developed my own film so will have to do a bit of research. Will post results when I finish shooting the roll.

artyeva

a poster to this discussion about xp2 in rodinal developer suggests that because ilford c41 films don't have an orange base, the results might be better than with kodak's version or 'colour' c41 films. there's a link to these images that were xp2 stand developed in rodinal, which aren't too shabby at all. you could take the development times on that chart and work out a stand development time for the ilfosol 3 you have....


....orrrrrrrrr just fling caution to the wind and bung it for an hour and see what happens.

DaireQuinlan

artyeva wrote: »

a poster to this discussion about xp2 in rodinal developer suggests that because ilford c41 films don't have an orange base, the results might be better than with kodak's version or 'colour' c41 films. there's a link to these images that were xp2 stand developed in rodinal, which aren't too shabby at all. you could take the development times on that chart and work out a stand development time for the ilfosol 3 you have....

Ilfosol really isn't a good choice for stand development. However the massive dev chart has times for XP2 in ilfosol, of 21 minutes. Seems a smidgeon long to me, but it's at 20c and C-41 runs hot ordinarily so it might be right.

1 thing though, is how long that ilfosol has been hanging around for. If it's opened and has been sitting around for more than a few months I'd just toss it. See what ilford say about it. The old ilfosol was notorious for just abruptly failing, I had a bottle give up the ghost quite unexpectedly. It's the reason it was sold only in small bottles. Ilford apparently changed the formula for ilfosol 3 though to improve longevity.

thefizz

I have C41 chems in stock should you wish to try them.

www.thephotoshop.ie

artyeva

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Ilfosol really isn't a good choice for stand development. However the massive dev chart has times for XP2 in ilfosol, of 21 minutes. Seems a smidgeon long to me, but it's at 20c and C-41 runs hot ordinarily so it might be right.

ah ok. that might explain why most of the stuff i could find was using rodinal. out of interest what makes a 'good' choice for stand development? or rather what is it about ilfosol that doesn't make it a good choice?

4-age

artyeva wrote: »

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Ilfosol really isn't a good choice for stand development. However the massive dev chart has times for XP2 in ilfosol, of 21 minutes. Seems a smidgeon long to me, but it's at 20c and C-41 runs hot ordinarily so it might be right.

The ilfosol is unopened as are the other chems. 21 mins should I be agitating it during that? Sorry about all the questions, this is a whole new photography world for me.

Effects

You learn something new everyday. I developed a roll of free fuji in ilfosol. Followed the times for HP5.

Effects

5 and a half minutes at 24 degrees. Some of them came out a little dark.