Film Film

[Silver Halide]

I am still a mostly film based photographer but have dabbled with the 'dark side' but I don't get the same tingle (if you can call it that) when at the end of the developing stage I open the tank to see what I have managed to capture. I don't get that feeling when I use digital. I still use digi but for tasks that require or need to have a quick result.
Negative film has still got a magical air about it where you have to use skill to get what you want without using/wasting a lot of film. For me didgital is very similar to processing slide film where the processing is very much a 'mechanical' process where if yiou get one step wrong all your efforts are probably wasted so the introduction of a new B&W film is only good news to me, but isn't it about time that ordinary C41 colour negative film had a face lift?

C41 has been with us since the late 1970's (ish) and that is very nearly half a century. An imorovement in the longevity of colour processing chemicals could be improved. I don't mean more films for the same quantity of chemicals but the actual life before it goes 'off' before being used.

 

[agentlossing]

I agree, there is something about negative film which pushes me to be simultaneously conservative with shooting yet better somehow than with digital. I've come to the realization that the way which suits me best is to use digital for my street shooting, because of how many near misses are inherent in that genre, and film for situations where I can be more relaxed, and take in my surroundings at my leisure. The genre that comes closest to that would be called (here, at least) "stroll photography."

C41 is an interesting beast. It's really quite impressive how good the films are, capturing a lot of detail without much grain. But I think the chemicals used in development evolved to suit machine processing and large volume, much more so than home development of occasional rolls. I've developed color film using Cinestill's 2-bath kit and had good results, but there's no way I shoot enough C41 to justify mixing up another batch, just to have it go bad so quickly.

Also, I use a Lab-Box daylight developer now, which seems like it would be much harder to keep the consistent higher temps needed for C41 processing. It works just fine with ambient temperature chems developing B&W.

I like color negative film quite a bit whenever I do use it. There's a lab close(ish) to me which only charges $6.95 a roll for development without prints or scans. I do that, and scan the negatives myself. It's cheaper than owning the chemicals!

 

[Silver Halide]

where I live , while not remote will mean a return bus or car journey of at least 19 miles which sort of pushes up the costs. I live literally half way between Durham City centre and the Gateshead Metro centre so really that is a non starter.

A while ago I did some non-technical tests ('experiments' is too grand a word) and pre mixed C41 developer put into 150cc dark brown glass bottles and before the tops were screwed on the chemicals were given a few seconds in a microwave to raise the temp to around 50C then the tops are screwed on and inverted for storage. As the chemicals cool this creates a semi vacuum so limiting the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed into the mix. I have also found that you must use bottles that use the neoprene seals in the caps because with the vacuum anything else does not work. I found this does extend the working life of ready diluted chemicals up to 4 months but is a bit of a faf to set up and will mean a lot of bottles with a 2.5 litre kit so discontinued preparing it.

However with the re-introduced Kodak Kit, there is only one of the chemicals that goes 'off' and then turns brown, but possibly because I took one of the ideas from another previous method, I have stored it inverted in the box for 2 months now and there has been no change in the colour. This bottle is polythene or similar, with a well fitting screw cap so quite a lot of excess air can be excluded. The next film will show if my idea works. It may be fanciful, so fingers crossed.