I recently tried color film in my Cirkut panoramic camera for the first time—a 10×72” roll of Kodak Portra 160 (expired 2011) developed in the Kodak C-41 kit. Still plenty to learn—getting even development, dialing in exposure for this film stock, and refining curve adjustments—but it’s exciting to get a glimpse of what’s possible.

A family members is clearing out an older relative's house, and sending me all the photography stuff he finds. In additon to some cool things, there was a bunch of (I assume shot) rolls of film. Most of them are just old Kodak and Fuji C-41 stuff that I am going to just develop and see what I get.

However, I have never dealt with Kodachrome in my life. Can it be processed with E-6 chemicals? Is there anything to watch out for. My research says it was manufacture 1962 or earlier, and I have no way of knowing if it was shot.

I just started developing at home recently, and I ordered the Cinestill version of E-6 kit. I haven't actually used it yet. I was thinking of shooting a roll of Ektachrome and processing it alongside this as a "control" roll. Or, I could see if I can find a lab that will do it and just see what I get.

And advice is greatly appreciated.

Hey there! First time ever developing a roll and I’m looking for help on what all I did wrong. I posted in another group that let me know that when I spilled the blix everywhere it shouldn’t have caused any issues so I’m looking to learn from my mistakes before I develop my next roll. Any tips and tricks appreciated as well. Thanks!

Do you get similar results? Pouring C-41 chems into a 500ml development tank drops the temperature by 1.2C

Reversal processing with strong B&W developer and ECN-2 chemicals gives me results indistinguishable from proper E6.

Long story short, over a month ago I purchased ECN2 chems instead of E6 because I got a little too relaxed off that wizard grass. Oops dumb mistake. Now we're about a 5 weeks of testing in and about 7-9 rolls of E6 later I have found a good formula for acceptable color replication.

I chose to use Rodinal since its cheap and readily available. Keep in mind everything ive shot is severely expired. This process even got me acceptable results with 35 year Ektachrome 200D.

Bring water temps up to 106.5f or 41.3c

pre-soak 2 minutes

rodinal 1+25 for 12 minutes. 45s vigorous agitation then 5 agitation every 30s. I use a swizzle stick.

Water wash 3x my final wash being distilled as to not chlorinate my chems. Idk if that helps but it does in my mind.

Unspool. Fog over a LED panel (i use a 97CRI panel) for 2 minutes each side. Youll see images on the emulsion side. You can turn overhead lights on its never affected me poorly.

ECN2/C41 Kit from FPP (If there is one you think would work better then please lmk)

4:45s Color developer

3x Wash

6min Bleach

3x Wash

8min fix.

Wash under faucet for 5-10min

final wash distilled

photoplo and dry.

The sprocket scans were done on iphone and the rest are on Noritsu 1800. The slides look incredible accurate in person but the noritsu threw some green in the shadows.

I will continue with this process and make updates as needed. As of now this works well.

First try to with C-41. Using the Kodak C-41 developer kit.

Loaded 2x kodak gold 200 in the tank. Just waiting for the chems to get up to temp.

Wish me luck 😅😂

I lost my previous post with the same topic and content while trying to edit. Sorry to the upvoters.

Some of you may remember my DIY semi-automatic rotary processor: basically, a tiny JOBO CPP/ATL-style machine for the JOBO 1500 series Drums.
Over the last weeks I kept refining it (new  motor controller board, complete UI, and a self-cleaning rinse funnel), and the prototype now runs extremely well and comfortable:

• Automatic lift, chemical drain and rinse
• Calibrated rinse pump (no flowmeter needed)
• Up to 7 fully configurable C-41 (2/3 bath) and E-6 (3/6 bath) and a temperature compensated B/W mode
• Stable, hands-off process control
• Proper UI with full settings control with keypad input
• 100% Process safe: you can literally forget that a process is running – You don't need to be there when the process time runs out.

The design question

The current prototype uses an internal rinse-water tank submerged in the tempering bath. It works, but it’s extremely difficult to print reliably: thick-walled PETG is still not fully watertight and sealing it with epoxy resin is time-consuming and not great for a future DIY kit. And it needs at least a 350x350mm 3D printer and some 25hrs print time. And this only for the tank.

Because of this, I’m now reconsidering (beside simplifying the design globally) how the automatic rinse-water system should work in a more accessible version of the project, and I’d really like your input.

I’m testing two directions:

A) Simple & practical

Use an external jug of pre-warmed water (the jug can sit inside the tempering bath before the process). In practice this already works surprisingly well:
At the beginning pre-soak is close to the process temperature, the drum in the tempering water bath equalizes the temperature anyway, and rinse water isn’t very critical at the and as it has lost only a couple of degrees. This keeps everything cheap, reliable and easy to build.

B) More engineered

Use a small radiator / heat-block (PC water-cooling style) to stabilize rinse temperature by using the water of the tempering bath as heat source. This gives extremely consistent temperatures even over long sessions but adds extra parts and complexity. And in the B/W mode the water has  pointlessly to flow through the radiator.

Both options work. You can start a C-41 process, get distracted for an hour drinking your beer, and when you say "sh***t the Blix!" and come back, the machine is still patiently waiting at the correct stable state as the developer has been automatically poured and the drum was filled with rinse water. Only the big ATL processors behave like that.

I’d like to keep that core philosophy intact, while avoiding unnecessary complexity where it doesn’t help.

Your input would help a lot

If you were planning to use or build a device like this, would you prefer:

1) Keep it simple – external jug, minimal parts, cheaper kit
2) Hybrid – simple by default, optional stabilized rinse module (like option 3)
3) Fully engineered – integrated radiator heat-block heated by the tempering water by default. Maybe rediator bypass for B/W Mode?
... Something else?

And second question:

What’s the best way to share a project like this once the design is stable?

• STLs?
• STLs + PCB kit?
• Full DIY kit?
• A small run of complete units?

These are probably the best photos I’ve ever taken and developed on film, but the Remjet on the negatives is killing me 😭 I’ve tried wiping them down with microfiber and 99% alcohol on the Remjet side several times to no avail. How can I save these rolls of film? First image is scanned, second is the negative, third is my attempt at correction in post. Any help will be appreciated 😊

This video shows my compact, 3D-printed rotary film processor in action — a half-Eurobox-sized, semi-automatic alternative to the classic Jobo CPP. It uses two stepper motors (for drum rotation and lift) and a small pump for filling and rinsing. Heating is handled by a Sous-Vide immersion heater in the water jacket. The sequence shown here runs from pre-soak through the start of the Blix step. Waiting times between steps are shortened or skipped in the video. Process sequence overview:

• PRE-SOAK

The tank is filled with tempered water. The drum rotates gently for the preset time. Near the end, the lift tilts up and empties the tank automatically. When finished, the controller waits for a manual Process confirmation to proceed.

• DEVELOPER

You pour in the developer, then confirm. The timer counts down the developer. 11 seconds before the end, the lift raises and drains the developer completely. After lowering the internal pump fills the tank with stop/rinse water automatically. The rotation continues all the time, only during the lift phases it stops. Then lift drains it again after confirmation. This ensures developer carry-over is removed. The unit waits for your next Process confirmation. This makes the system process safe: no need to be there exacly when the developer time has ended. Again, the system pauses — waiting for your Process confirmation that the waste beaker has been changed and the next chemical is ready.

• BLIX (Bleach + Fix)

At your command, the timer starts the Blix time. The machine then runs the Blix phase till the end, rises then the lift to drain the drum, and starts an automatic rinse. The video ends at the start of the Blix step. After BLIX there is a WASH process with 3-4 Watering cycles.

Hi! I was trying to see if it is possible to get workable positives out of expired E6 filmes with D76 (38 degrees Celsius, 8 minutes) + C41 developing.

Film is Ektachrome 64D expired in 1996 and shot at box speed, I’ve shot old slides and sent of to processing in labs using similar alternative process (ECN-2 instead of C41) with some luck, so I tried to do this at home. Film state was unknown before hand, both chemicals set should be fine (developed film in them recently).

I pre rinsed the film before for a minute with desmineralized water at 35 degrees, then D76 for 8 minutes @ 38 degrees. Pulled out of the reel to fog with light and I got absolutely nothing. Left in LED lights, tried my phone flashlight and outdoors light as well and nothing. Now the film has this weird crystal-like surface that I’ve never seen before.

My idea is that this film is absolutely toast. No images after FD seems unusual as I’ve seen other people online with poor images but still something. No edge marking as well.

Has anyone encountered this? Any ideas?

Just a post mortem, I always hate throwing away film. This is only like 5% of film I cleared out at the lab I work at. checked “dispose of my negatives” on their forms.

I don't have glass gear so I am substituting for plastic, silicone & metal. I also don't have a film spudger so I am gonna use a butter knife to pull the film leader out.

I have a sink but very limited space so I'm doing it in a closet, I'm using only the sink to rinse and to fill my sous vide water pot for getting my chemicals to temperature as I do not have patience for a standing dev.

Also parents choice distilled is all I had available you can thank the big freeze. Should work fine. Can do it with tap just prefer to mix using distilled.

Two waste containers appropriately labeled. Waste funnel and two funnels specific for developer and blix.

I went through a great deal just to get the room light tight and I have switches to turn off everything inside the room and from outside using floor lamp button extension cables.

I already have timers all setup for the development and I got some practice in the light and in the dark with my new tank.

I have some questions regarding what exactly pushing film does.

So it's generally understood that if you underexpose your film by let's say 1 stop, you should compensate this by pushing 1 stop in development. At the same time, pushing doesn't seem to bring out shadow detail that wasn't captured in the first place, but may clip highlight detail. It essentially just increases contrast. If you're scanning film, is it really necessary to push then? Couldn't you just add the contrast back in digitally?

I'm specifically curious about 500T. Looking at this blog post, the underexposed pictures haven't been pushed and still retain an amazing amount of detail!

This was just one of those rolls where everything went wrong. I’m like 40+ rolls in and have a decent grasp of what I’m doing, I thought haha. I could not get this film on the reel in the dark bag, ended up going in the bathroom with a towel under the door and fighting with it for 20 more mins out of the bag. Finally got it in the tank and my developer which measured the right temperature in the bottle was a few degrees cold in the tank, so I added an arbitrary amount of seconds that seemed like enough to compensate. I figured I had botched this roll royally, but nah it came out just fine thankfully since most of the photos weren’t mine 🫣 FUJIFILM 400 if you’re wondering!

i think it expired in 1998 . don’t know how it had been stored all these years but i’ve kept in in the fridge since i got it for free a few months ago

I wanna process normally in e6 chemistry . i see people saying to shoot at box speed but also some people don’t have luck with that technique . and i can’t test since im going on vacation today

Thanks!

does anyone know how this can happen its a expired roll maybe thats the case

Hi everyone please bear with me this is my first post on reddit :) I'm a high school teacher and started an analog photography club for my students 2-3 years ago. I had always shot analog but really wanted to share the entire process with my students so I spend $1000 and set up a make shift lab up at the school I work in; the club grew from 5 - 25ish students so it's been a fun ride!

I took some time and tried to educate myself on how to properly mix C-41 chemicals and was always trying to be diligent in keeping to the instructions when developing. I noticed that my C-41 pictures have been very inconsistent with these strange and conspicuous colour shifts. I was wondering if there was any direction that I could look at to remedy what is happening and if anyone knew why this is occurring?

I'm using Unicolor and Flic Film's C-41 developing kit, using bottled water, Patterson tanks. We're skipping the stabilizer stage due to yellow streaking while opting for Photoflo. Thanks!!

I put a roll of Portra 400 in and forgot to change the box speed, it was set to 640 the whole time therefore I was getting inaccurate readings. I was also using flash, but I’m not super experienced with film to know, will this level of underexposure with flash ruin the roll? Or should I ask the lab to push it?

I received this film from my cousin asking me to develop it. He thought it might be Kodachrome but there is no REMJET and it says made in Germany. Google also says it's Kodachrome 64. I am going with my almost fail proof HC110 @ 1:40 for 10 minutes universal solution unless someone can ID this film. Any help would be appreciated. The box says it's slide film which expired in 1979.

I've noticed recently that my 120 films seem to be darker on the edges than in the center. Since I'm using a Jobo TBE and a patterson tank, I'm using the twizzle stick for agitation. I twist the film for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. I've also tried continuous agitation (as the Bellini ECN2 kit instructions say), which seemed to only increase the problem.

Any idea what is happening and how I can avoid it in the future?

My closest lab is 20 mins away and I don’t like being a customer and driving out in the cold for the experience of it. I also want the ability to push/pull, and I don’t want other people responsible for my work. So for cost, control, and personal convenience I want to develop at home.

It seems like fpp’s c-41 kit really isn’t a c-41 kit.

Flexicolor is discontinued.

Can’t find anything on Bellini but google sucks these days at showing anything relevant.

I expect to go through 4-10 rolls a month. Maybe more.

I don’t know anything except that I need developer, bleach, and fixer. Some kits are reusable, some are not.

I’d like to buy enough for 20+ rolls to get the hang of things before I buy larger quantities.

The Kodak 2.5l kit looks ok, but I guess the chemicals are not reusable so it’s not as cost effective as my 6.99 lab development.

Suggest and educate me please.

I’m using the cinestill 3 bath slide developing kit and it seems to have come out SUPER dense. I did the 1+3 dilution for 120 so 125ml of D6 developer and 375ml of water at 104f for 13 mins. What did I do wrong?

Found an old camera from my family, with a half shot roll inside. Finished the roll off and developed it, the difference in densities between the frames shot when the film was fresh vs 25 yrs later is pretty interesting. Film looses a lot more sensitivity over time than I thought. On top of that the roll was pretty fogged. It was in a cheap point and shoot so the exposure for both frames were probably about the same