Author Topic: I never thought it would happen to me.  (Read 830 times)

jharr

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I never thought it would happen to me.
« on: September 03, 2017, 10:49:39 PM »
I guess there's a first time for everything. I have never had a single problem with my Unicolor C-41 kits. I usually toss them because I am afraid of a catastrophic collapse of activity, but I have never actually had it happen. Until, that is, today! And here's the kicker... I usually do one or two rolls at a time, but today I had 3. One was even a roll of Eterna that I went through the remjet removal pre-bath with. I usually have the "oooh, it worked again!" moment when I pull the spool out of the final wash. But today I had a "ooohh?? huh?" moment when I couldn't see any frame borders. Then it all looked kind of well, light-ish. A closer look confirmed that there were absolutely no pictures to be had. So, it's a sad day for me, but I think I will take this as a sign that I should start making my own C-41 and ECN2 developers. That sounds reasonable, right?
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Francois

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Re: I never thought it would happen to me.
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2017, 11:18:32 PM »
Or that you should just test the dev with a piece of the film leader...  :-\
Francois

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jharr

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Re: I never thought it would happen to me.
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2017, 01:06:21 AM »
Or that you should just test the dev with a piece of the film leader...  :-\

I normally do that as a kit ages and I get past the 20-rolls mark. This kit was not that old, so I think I must have contaminated it. :(
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Francois

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Re: I never thought it would happen to me.
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2017, 03:06:17 PM »
It's not impossible. Color chemistry is definitely more sensitive than b&w...
Francois

Film is the vinyl record of photography.

Indofunk

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Re: I never thought it would happen to me.
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2017, 09:52:02 PM »
Argh!!! I hate that!  :'( Which is why I now do a leader test EVERY time (even the first time that I mix up a new batch!). It actually helped in the opposite way recently ... I had a batch of C41 that I used maybe 5 times but I left it out for 2 months without using it (was shooting B&W exclusively). I was gonna toss it, but I did the leader test and it was fine! So, in conclusion, leader tests are your friend  :D

Pupperpow

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Re: I never thought it would happen to me.
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2017, 11:43:24 AM »
Wow that's actually quite unfortunate that you had 3 happen on the same day, but I guess there's a first for everything.