Water Spots - C41 @ Home

[va3uxb]

<p>I've been processing my own C-41 negs at home for a couple weeks now, and I'm fairly pleased with the results that I am getting, with one exception: Water spots. </p>

<p>The chemistry I am using is the Tetenal (Jobo) Press Kit, the one that ships as dry powder. I've mixed everything according to the directions, and following the directions in terms of not rinsing after the stabilization. (I've been doing B&W for many many years so of course normally I'd let the film rinse for a while then use a surfactant* to ensure it would dry evenly / without spotting.)</p>

<p>* When I got back into film a couple years ago, I couldn't find any of the traditional flow-aid stuff around so I've been using a drop or two of dishwasher Jet-Dry in about 1 liter of water for my black and white surfactant. It might not be perfect but it does a fine job - I don't get spotting on my B&W negs! </p>

<p>With the stabilizer being the last step and no rinsing after that, what is the best way to control or eliminate water spots? Can I add a surfactant directly to the stabilizer? If so, is there anything specific I should look for? (It would have to be internationally / air shippable...) Or can I give the film a quick dunk after the stabilizer?</p>

<p> </p>

[greg_miller10]

<p>Use distilled water to mix your stabilizer. You can then just hang it to dry without squeegeing or wiping...if you're still getting spots with properly mixed fresh stabilizer you have some kind of other problem. The stabilizer is your wetting agent...so that's why you aren't supposed to rinse it after.<br>

Is the Tetenal stabilizer a dry mix? I'd be a bit concerned about that getting mixed properly. Not sure...I've never used or heard of a dry chemical final rinse.</p>

[jerry thirsty]

<p>Do you use a separate container to soak the reels in the stabilizer, or do you dump the stabilizer into your tank? If you use a separate container, I've found that it helps a lot to rinse the container well with distilled water a couple of times before pouring in the stabilizer, since the container may have dried salts/lime from when it was last washed.</p>

<p>I used the Jobo Press Kit once, and I seem to remember having problems getting the stabilizer flakes to dissolve. But I never used it again after the first time, so I didn't figure out the solution. If you are in the States, you might instead want to look into getting the Rollei/Compard kits from Freestyle; you get a true bleach/fix instead of the blix in the Jobo, and IIRC the stabilizer is a liquid. These kits or something like them are also available in Europe I think, but I don't remember the source.</p>

[va3uxb]

<p>Thank you both for the comments!</p>

<p>Greg: I just used tap water when I mixed up the chemicals, I didn't think to try distilled. I will try that next time I mix up a batch. The Tetenal stabilizer ships as a little pouch of white crystals. The directions are just to mix it with 1000 ml of water. It dissolved & mixed easily and completely. I didn't realize the stabilizer was supposed to incorporate a surfactant - I'll do some more reading and see if I can figure out if the ingredients in the Tetenal kit is lacking this.</p>

<p>Jerry: I use the same tank for all the steps. I have a Patterson system 2-reel tank, which I rinse and clean completely between each use. I'm in Canada which is why shipping is an issue. The powder Press Kit is the only one I've found so far that was easy and affordable to purchase & get shipped here. </p>

<p>One other thing I should have mentioned originally, I only get the water spots on the back of the negs. Not on the emulsion side. I'm hanging them vertically to dry so it's not gravity - i.e. the film doesn't hang emulsion-up or anything like that. </p>

[chris_douglas1]

<p>Stephanie,<br />I also tried jet dry with success, but I now use Photoflo because I have more faith in it.<br />I use the Unicolor C-41 powder kit, but I suspect it is similar. I also had spots, even though I used distilled water. So I now add 2 ml per liter photoflow to the stabilizer, and it works perfectly, no spots at all.<br />One other thing I do for all my film is hang it at a 45 degree angle with the edge down so water quickly runs to the edge of the film, and down. I used to hang the film straight up and down, and I got residue on the frames at the bottom. Hope this helps, C-41 developing is fun.</p>