DIY C-41 Developing
I recently invested in a set of Kodak C-41 chemicals to process my own C-41 (color) film. The process is slightly different than doing B&W development, but not really any more difficult. Keep reading to find out what I’ve learned so far.
Kodak’s color developer requires a temperature of 100F to work properly. It’s supposed to be within 1/4 of a degree of that temperature so you have to act fast. All I did was make a hot water bath in the kitchen sink then set all of my chemicals that needed to be hot into it. Everything except for the stabilizer should be 100 + or – 5 degrees. Like i said before, the developer should be as close to 100F as you can get.
In order to measure this I placed a thermometer into the bleach, since it would be less likely to become effected by oxygen exposure. I also had to put some tape on top of the thermometer so it wouldn’t fall down into the chemical.
The flexicolor guide has all of the development times and other information you might need if you decided to do this.
The 4 chemicals you will need are developer (3 parts in one kit), bleach, fix, and stabilizer. I accidentally purchased bleach ‘starter’ at first and its not what you’ll need to develop. You will need bleach III – it has a red appearance and comes pre-mixed. I would advise to store them in air-tight glass or collapsible plastic containers. Your chemicals will last much longer if they don’t get exposed to oxygen.
I have a gallery of photos from my first C-41 roll here: DIY C-41 Color
You can see my chemical containers in one of the photos as well as some of my other development equipment. I keep all of my B&W chemicals in similar jugs, but you have to cool those down to 68F instead of raising them to 100F.
Another difference is there are 2 wash cycles inside the process instead of a single wash cycle at the end. I also chose to wash again at the end to remove any excess stabilizer on the film. Is that necessary? I don’t know – it might even be bad in the long run, but I haven’t had much luck finding answers. Everybody seems quite mum about C-41.
Posted by falcoln0014 
June 2008
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