I'm still wondering though, how a pre-bath would prevent surge marks.
did you find out by experimentation?
The times for pouring and emptying may be too long for C41.
Depends on the tank but with Paterson and Jobo tanks this is in my experience not a problem.
Hello both, it's actually an interesting idea probably?
Those two hours seem like an awful lot to me. It's irrelevant to the problem, but still...
- Temperature control: sous vide device clipped to container filled with water. Developer bottle, Blix bottle, and 1L water bottle set in sous-vide bath to reach temperature for 2hrs. Sous Vide set to 38.1
I'm betting on the analog thermometer. I've seen scary things with the digital ones, which aren't so cheap...
- Thermometer: I've used a Kaiser analogue thermometer as well as a baby fever digital thermometer to sample the temperature WITHIN the developer bottle and to double check the sous-vide is working fine. The two thermometers show a ~.3 C discrepancy. I set aside the Kaiser analogue and continued only with the digital fever thermometer, hoping it would be more accurate given planned usage scenarios (perhaps I'm wrong?)
You can set a higher temperature - 38.5 even 39. Inside the tank the temperature is lower, but it depends on the environment.
- Temperature control: sous vide device clipped to container filled with water. Developer bottle, Blix bottle, and 1L water bottle set in sous-vide bath to reach temperature for 2hrs. Sous Vide set to 38.1
Look at the next page in the instructions - it talks about a stop bathInterestingly - this intermediate water bath is not present in the original Tetenal instructions
There is quite a big discussion for/against. My personal opinion is that it is easier to bring the temperature within limits with a water bath. And that is how I proceed.Also - something I've just realized, these instructions differ from the Adox one in another point - they mention a 'pre heat' not a 'pre bath' of the loaded tank.
the negatives seem on the dense side
Processing at 30 degrees gives substantial timing advantages in my opinion.
metered off the (convenient) blue sky which I accepted as neutral grey
You mean over-exposure? Sky was dark blueThat would have resulted in 1-2 stops underexposure.
You mean over-exposure? Sky was dark blue
Hmmmm but that would then not explain why my negs are over-exposed unless my lightmeter is way off. Goint to check it.Not as dark as you think! The sky is generally lighter than the foreground. It's also illustrated in your negatives; the sky is denser than the subject matter in the foreground.
Surely not when you spot meter at 180 degrees from the sun?This is like metering into a direct light source - all other objects in the scene will be a few stops underexposed.
Hmmmm but that would then not explain why my negs are over-exposed unless my lightmeter is way off. Goint to check it.
Using a Digital Pentax spot meter, spot on sky opposite the sun.Exactly; something odd is going on with the metering. What kind of meter is it and how are you using it exactly?
Btw, I personally sometimes use the sky for metering too, but assume it'll be 1-2 stops brighter than the main subject (unless the main subject is the sky...), depending on the conditions.
I've no experience with 35mm film but I've had excellent results with 120 Portra souped in the ADOX C41 kit. I process at 30 degrees with a Heiland processor (no temperature control) and add 40 seconds for the temperature drop while developing (total time 8'40"). I blix for 7'30" and use a 5 minute pre-soak (no agitation) at 30 degrees. All chemicals including wash water kept in bath at 30 degrees.
Processing at 30 degrees gives substantial timing advantages in my opinion.
Exposure was at box speed and whereas the negatives seem on the dense side they scan beautifully.
Attached snip of the negatives (note the bright orange mask) and an example of one negative after removing the mask in LightroomView attachment 394091View attachment 394092
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Gold 200 now on Estar base?
A variation in the base material will likely make the mask look different to the human eye, even if it won't make a functional difference in the printing from the film - other than a change in base filtration.
Just to be clear, Matt. The base colour was just a concurrent 'symptom' I decided to report. I'm not saying that what I'm getting, and that makes me unhappy, necessarily depends on the mask colour.
@albireo: <I hope you don't mind me saying - but your routine seems even 'sloppier' than mine>Thank you Valt, obviously we don't have a common control negative so I can't directly compare yours with mine, but based purely on qualitative assessment of your images yours look ok. I do not know however if the mask of Portra 400 looks comparable to Gold 200.
I had excluded a priori the 30 degree C option as I could not find any mention of a 30 C mode in the Kodak C41 documents, so I didn't want to introduce other variables, but I have a roll of Gold in 120 waiting to be developed and I might give my kit one last try before dumping. This would be the second use though, so I'd have to extend the times accordingly.
I hope you don't mind me saying - but your routine seems even 'sloppier' than mine and yet you get good results. I must be doing something really wrong.
Out of interest, do you have the batch number of the Adox kit you've used?
@albireo: <I hope you don't mind me saying - but your routine seems even 'sloppier' than mine>
Haha, I don't mind at all
There is some rationale in my sloppiness
- I find the 3'15" base development time restrictively short
- At 30 degrees I can extend that to almost 9 minutes. I use a small Kindermann tank which is quite slow to fill so the longer time helps
- I use a TAS Heiland processor. Reason: because I have it and want to use it, it provides very consistent timing and rotation which is a big plus.
- Disadvantage of the Heiland: It's not temperature controlled so you lose temperature during development. In my setup, measured 2 degrees in 9 minutes. However the Heiland can be set to automatically compensate for that by extending the time.
I was out again yesterday (I'm documenting ancient fallen trees) and here is one example (Portra 800, exposed at box speed) developed at 30 degrees in ADOX C-TEK 41. The negative is slightly dense (overexposed) again. I'm still trying to find out the reason.View attachment 394163View attachment 394162
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