Wednesday, 3 October 2018

developing - How do I develop color negative (C41) film at home?


It's pretty easy to get color negatives processed for pretty cheap, but I'd like to learn about the process.


How do I process color negatives at home? What chemicals and equipment will I need?



Answer



The reason it's cheap to get done is because the machines carried in stores and labs have already paid for themselves over the years. They're cheap only because of massive volume.
It's far from a simple process, especially because the temperature and timing tollerances for the process are extremely narrow.
I've done some research into this in the past, and found it to be unfeasible (economically, and for the space needed to house the equipment) to do it myself (slide film is even worse).

Here's a Kodak manual: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/business/retailPhoto/techInfo/zManuals/z131.jhtml
A forum thread on photo.net about it: http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00EqiY (read more there, they make it sound easier than it is, no doubt because of years of experience).


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