Tetenal Colortec C-41 processing - blank film

[russbulley]

First time I have used this process with my Jobo rotary processor, processing

Fuji C41 120 film. I followed the instruction to the letter, but ended up with

completely bleached film. No marks at all. The films came from my RB67, which

has been giving good results, so I suspect I have done something wrong. Any

suggestions?

 

Russ

[richard f harris]

Might be better asking this over at APUG but it seems to me that you have bleached it before the developer. Are the film edge markings present?

[russbulley]

The process followed was pre heat with water 5', developer (which is a pink colored liquid when mixed, bleach fix 4' (and as you know dark coloured brown liquid) wash 3', stabiliser 1', wash. There are no edge markings. APUG?

[pje]

Why APUG? He was asking a C-41 film processing question. Seems like a his question

was germane to this category.

 

It does seem like the bleach went in first. You sure your developer wasn't diluted bleach?

I recall the developer was more yellowish, but it has been awhile since I used the Tetenal

kit.

 

I started my C-41 processing with this Tetenal Kit and my Jobo and was quite amazed

with my first run....that it came out great and I didn't screw it up. I now use Kodak

chemistry, and still find C-41 probably the simplest of any film processing (even B&W)

because it's always the same times and you can process different C-41 films together.

[richard f harris]

Russ, Google APUG, it's another photography forum but no digital so tends to answer processing questions IMHO.

If you have no edge markings then you screwed up I'm afraid; or Tetenal? Unlikely! I would wager that you got the bleach in there somehow, your comments about the colours of the processing solutions sounds OK although I am not familiar with tetenal. I too use Kodak and would recommend you to move in this direction long term. Short term, fire off a roll of cheap film and try again. Better look this time. We all make mistakes, some we know why and others leave us baffled; the Gods have a hand in this somewhere!

[Fotohuis RoVo]

The regular steps for C41 development:

 

For rotary: 5' pre-wash with water to get the whole film on 37,8 degrees C. with the developer tank in the water bath.

3'15" C41 developer (pink colored liquid).

4'-6' bleach fix (time depending on the brand/concentration), dark brown liquid.

3' water wash

1' stabilizer

 

No further wash anymore.

 

The whole C41 proces is on 37,8 degrees C. fixed times for all C41 films the same.

 

If your C41 developer is yellow to light brown it's much more oxidized so pink is OK for fresh C41 developer.

No edge markers shows that there is a developer problem.

 

Are you sure there was no contamination in your bottles or developing tank?

The only other possibility is a sequence failure with the blix first.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Robert

[nik_rawlings]

I suppose temperature would be a consideration here-I too have just started using a jobo for

processing and it took a good hour for everything to settle down temperature wise.

I mean, I agree, the process is so simple, maybe there was something going on with the

camera or a leak in your dark bag? We all screw up sometimes maybe it's just a settings

issue.