The idea of returning to separate bleach and fixer of true C-41 in the Bellini kit here warrants using this kit over other brands. A full bleach is required to get a full fixing, and mixing the two in one "blix" risks not getting that as reuse ages the chemicals. Since only the developer is seriously sensitive to time/temp processing, you can always through an extra minute or two on the bleach or fix times to make sure the job gets done.. Where the kit is larger capacity and the developer will not all be used immediately, this is a good time to invest in some small glass chemical bottles to split up the developer stock for sealed storage, which will significantly extend its useful life. Using up each smaller volume in stages will also give a more clear indication of the true exhaustion capacity of the solution. Finally, adding a weak stop bath, just 2 or 3% acetic acid or white vinegar, immediately after the developer, followed by a full washing bath before the bleach will (1) given better control over real development time, and (2) better protect the life of bleach from destructive carry-over of developer. Nice video.
Totally not true, mixture of bleach and fix just dying faster because accumulated silver which will oxidise and you will get all sorts of things and also change in ph. Stop bath on home development overrated, only one good purpose - decreasing waste in production. Drag pf the solution to stop will cause pH change and it’s just cheaper to add stop, and less bleach. Anyway in hand development it’s +-15 seconds. And chemically all the things are crazy stable and store it separate bottles by your self make sense, if bottles have a good seal. And yes, time gap between exposure and development on the film more important than chemical freshness.
About the stop bath, I use it with RA4 printing. I can use more times the blix and don’t appear streaks. That is the problem I had until find the stop bath.
@@arturors30 There are other ways around this. You can replenish your blix, but then you need to check that the pH will stay about 6.5, and adjust it with acetic acid to compensate for the carryover of the developer. If using a stop bath, rinse is also mandatory, as the blix will otherwise get too acidic. It is not a stable mixture, if the pH is not within range. Replenishing is of course not possible with hobbyist kits, as the replenishment rates are nor published for these. I've also got good results with replenishing the developer, instead of one shot use. Reusing as they suggest in the kits' manuals, is problematic, as in this case, the colors will shift slightly from picture to picture. Of course, in drums, you can't replenish the developer indefinitely, because of oxidation, but it will extend it quite a bit. You will see the color change to very dark before it fails. I suggest choosing a developer with quite high replenishment rate for this - such as Fuji Hunt Enviroprint MP160 or 108.
Stabilizer is not necessarily required, but I still use it. In fact, I use photo flow as my stabilizer in my C-41 process. I do extra rinsing before and in between each chemical and I do a double stabilizer wash at the end of the process to ensure that I get rid of all of the pink stuff out of the negative because it will contribute to some of the base later of my negatives. It reminds me of black and white negatives if you do not rinse properly, it will make the black and white negatives have a slight purple look to them. And I like my black and white negatives to look more transparent and clean. So I use indicator stop bath. In both my black and white and C-41 processes as well as RA-4. In fact, I use stop bath longer than what is typically recommended. They say 15 to 30 seconds of stop is good enough but I use longer times like 2 to 3 minutes in my black-and-white film process one minute for my paper process. 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in my C -41 process and the same for RA-4 paper process. The idea is that it helps kill the developer from carrying over into the Blix, which will cause staining in the RA-4 paper. Film photography is part of my second income. I am a commercial architectural photographer so it is important that my negatives come out perfect. It makes my workflow more consistent and easier in Lightroom and the dark room.
One other thing, the pink stuff is not in the stabilizer the pink stuff is in the negative stabilizer is just a surfactant which breaks the surface tension and helps clean the negative. I always do a final rinse with just distilled water because the stabilizer is basically just soap and I don’t want any soap on my negatives because sometimes it will leave small indications, kind of like water spots from hard water, one final rinse of distilled water, ensures that there will be no Minerals left over of any kind on the negative. Photo flow stabilizer, and or wash aids are just to assist the washing process and should not be the final step. The final step should be distilled or deionized water.
Trust me - all the things from negative for sure was removed with huge amounts of water and different pH solutions over long periods of time, it’s just a question what exactly reacting with “stabiliser” and why it’s color reaction and if it’s influenced final negative color
There are several different layers in the emulsion of the negative which has color dye packets and react differently to the light. During the entire development process all the unused dye and silver get washed away, and the stabilizer is a type of surfactant. Essentially it is just a type of soap that breaks the surface tension and releases any dye that have not been washed away. If you’re getting any kind of unwanted, cyan cast, it’s because the leftover magenta dye.
I’ve been doing film photography since the 90s and I work with people that have been doing that since the early 70s and I get paid to do this professionally but what do I know
I've tested it a couple of years ago and I like it. Didn't use a jobbo though and if I recall well they say it's better to do it manually. I don't think they recommend a pre-bath either, just you put the tank, not the film, a few minutes in warm water before starting the development. Also, I think it's best if you do the 12/16 rolls within 14 days after openings. The 6 weeks of shelf life they claim is true, but the last roll I did the last day had some slight shifts sth the others didn't.
It’s true, but it’s trash. If you choose between stock pile your 5 films before developing- please don’t. Film if less stable and should be developed asap, so over time just add 30 seconds to developer and everything should be fine
@@NordicLab I usually freeze my color film before manually processing them because I don't shoot that often in color to get to 12 films in less than 6 months. That said that kit worked like a charm for the first 12 I did within the first 14 days of opening the kit. The 4 remaining were developed the very last week of the supposed shelf life and were a fresh Portra 400 and 3 very expireded film - including 2 E6 I crossprocessed. The Porta came with a yellow cast. That was the only time I got this issue.
Did you find it easier to get the right colors from the negatives using this developer compared to Tetenal? Did you you don any stop or rinse between the developer and the bleach?
So far tetenal was the best, but it's hard to buy now. But i need more experience with Bellini, because my negatives was a bit underdeveloped and i have cyan tint in shadows i was probably a bit stupid, but because of the manual i forget what if you load 4 films at the same time you need to adjust time like you developing 4th film, so increase in like 30 seconds to one minute on development. If shortly it was only prewash (also not required), especially if you use chemicals one time. I don't use stop now. Overdevelopment usually not a problem. If you develop by hand you don't need to use stop bath, C41 chemistry developed to allow "polute" solutions from left to right in certain amount, so it's not really saving your solutions, but if you want just use water. if will also works fine. And "perfect timing" with hand development also a bit overrated if your solutions not under direct heating (R2R systems and D&D systems without water bath).
Color dye in the stabilizer? Assuming that the last bath before hanging the film is the stabilizer (as it should be), then getting color in the stabilizer can only means that your final film wash process is inadequate. Wash better and longer. It's only water. Use distilled or deionized water to mix the stabilizer to avoid mixing in impurities from your tap water. Note that since 2003, C-41 films do not require a dye stabilizer, however what is called stabilizer in these kits is usually made up of a weak fungicide to prevent something from eating your film in storage plus a chemical to break water surface tension (like Photoflo) to allow water drops to run off quickly and not dry as spots.
The idea of returning to separate bleach and fixer of true C-41 in the Bellini kit here warrants using this kit over other brands. A full bleach is required to get a full fixing, and mixing the two in one "blix" risks not getting that as reuse ages the chemicals. Since only the developer is seriously sensitive to time/temp processing, you can always through an extra minute or two on the bleach or fix times to make sure the job gets done.. Where the kit is larger capacity and the developer will not all be used immediately, this is a good time to invest in some small glass chemical bottles to split up the developer stock for sealed storage, which will significantly extend its useful life. Using up each smaller volume in stages will also give a more clear indication of the true exhaustion capacity of the solution. Finally, adding a weak stop bath, just 2 or 3% acetic acid or white vinegar, immediately after the developer, followed by a full washing bath before the bleach will (1) given better control over real development time, and (2) better protect the life of bleach from destructive carry-over of developer. Nice video.
Totally not true, mixture of bleach and fix just dying faster because accumulated silver which will oxidise and you will get all sorts of things and also change in ph. Stop bath on home development overrated, only one good purpose - decreasing waste in production. Drag pf the solution to stop will cause pH change and it’s just cheaper to add stop, and less bleach. Anyway in hand development it’s +-15 seconds. And chemically all the things are crazy stable and store it separate bottles by your self make sense, if bottles have a good seal. And yes, time gap between exposure and development on the film more important than chemical freshness.
About the stop bath, I use it with RA4 printing. I can use more times the blix and don’t appear streaks. That is the problem I had until find the stop bath.
Randall Stewart I agree with you 100%
@@arturors30 There are other ways around this. You can replenish your blix, but then you need to check that the pH will stay about 6.5, and adjust it with acetic acid to compensate for the carryover of the developer. If using a stop bath, rinse is also mandatory, as the blix will otherwise get too acidic. It is not a stable mixture, if the pH is not within range. Replenishing is of course not possible with hobbyist kits, as the replenishment rates are nor published for these. I've also got good results with replenishing the developer, instead of one shot use. Reusing as they suggest in the kits' manuals, is problematic, as in this case, the colors will shift slightly from picture to picture. Of course, in drums, you can't replenish the developer indefinitely, because of oxidation, but it will extend it quite a bit. You will see the color change to very dark before it fails. I suggest choosing a developer with quite high replenishment rate for this - such as Fuji Hunt Enviroprint MP160 or 108.
Stabilizer is not necessarily required, but I still use it. In fact, I use photo flow as my stabilizer in my C-41 process. I do extra rinsing before and in between each chemical and I do a double stabilizer wash at the end of the process to ensure that I get rid of all of the pink stuff out of the negative because it will contribute to some of the base later of my negatives. It reminds me of black and white negatives if you do not rinse properly, it will make the black and white negatives have a slight purple look to them. And I like my black and white negatives to look more transparent and clean. So I use indicator stop bath. In both my black and white and C-41 processes as well as RA-4. In fact, I use stop bath longer than what is typically recommended. They say 15 to 30 seconds of stop is good enough but I use longer times like 2 to 3 minutes in my black-and-white film process one minute for my paper process. 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in my C -41 process and the same for RA-4 paper process. The idea is that it helps kill the developer from carrying over into the Blix, which will cause staining in the RA-4 paper. Film photography is part of my second income. I am a commercial architectural photographer so it is important that my negatives come out perfect. It makes my workflow more consistent and easier in Lightroom and the dark room.
One other thing, the pink stuff is not in the stabilizer the pink stuff is in the negative stabilizer is just a surfactant which breaks the surface tension and helps clean the negative. I always do a final rinse with just distilled water because the stabilizer is basically just soap and I don’t want any soap on my negatives because sometimes it will leave small indications, kind of like water spots from hard water, one final rinse of distilled water, ensures that there will be no Minerals left over of any kind on the negative. Photo flow stabilizer, and or wash aids are just to assist the washing process and should not be the final step. The final step should be distilled or deionized water.
Trust me - all the things from negative for sure was removed with huge amounts of water and different pH solutions over long periods of time, it’s just a question what exactly reacting with “stabiliser” and why it’s color reaction and if it’s influenced final negative color
There are several different layers in the emulsion of the negative which has color dye packets and react differently to the light. During the entire development process all the unused dye and silver get washed away, and the stabilizer is a type of surfactant. Essentially it is just a type of soap that breaks the surface tension and releases any dye that have not been washed away. If you’re getting any kind of unwanted, cyan cast, it’s because the leftover magenta dye.
I’ve been doing film photography since the 90s and I work with people that have been doing that since the early 70s and I get paid to do this professionally but what do I know
Hey Aleksandr! Great photos, great color, great video and great channel!
Thx )
I am considering this kit to develop C-41, thanks for the review!
Looks good for the price and what you can find nowadays
I've tested it a couple of years ago and I like it. Didn't use a jobbo though and if I recall well they say it's better to do it manually. I don't think they recommend a pre-bath either, just you put the tank, not the film, a few minutes in warm water before starting the development. Also, I think it's best if you do the 12/16 rolls within 14 days after openings. The 6 weeks of shelf life they claim is true, but the last roll I did the last day had some slight shifts sth the others didn't.
It’s true, but it’s trash. If you choose between stock pile your 5 films before developing- please don’t. Film if less stable and should be developed asap, so over time just add 30 seconds to developer and everything should be fine
@@NordicLab I usually freeze my color film before manually processing them because I don't shoot that often in color to get to 12 films in less than 6 months. That said that kit worked like a charm for the first 12 I did within the first 14 days of opening the kit. The 4 remaining were developed the very last week of the supposed shelf life and were a fresh Portra 400 and 3 very expireded film - including 2 E6 I crossprocessed. The Porta came with a yellow cast. That was the only time I got this issue.
Did you find it easier to get the right colors from the negatives using this developer compared to Tetenal? Did you you don any stop or rinse between the developer and the bleach?
So far tetenal was the best, but it's hard to buy now. But i need more experience with Bellini, because my negatives was a bit underdeveloped and i have cyan tint in shadows i was probably a bit stupid, but because of the manual i forget what if you load 4 films at the same time you need to adjust time like you developing 4th film, so increase in like 30 seconds to one minute on development.
If shortly it was only prewash (also not required), especially if you use chemicals one time. I don't use stop now. Overdevelopment usually not a problem. If you develop by hand you don't need to use stop bath, C41 chemistry developed to allow "polute" solutions from left to right in certain amount, so it's not really saving your solutions, but if you want just use water. if will also works fine. And "perfect timing" with hand development also a bit overrated if your solutions not under direct heating (R2R systems and D&D systems without water bath).
Was it OK to mix only 500ml. The instructions are to mix the full 1L
i do it like this all the time, mostly for me it’s kinda one shot development if i use 5 rolls pf 400 iso in one drum
you should rinse your film until the water is clear before you put in the "stabilizer"
Water always clear before stabilising;)
Color dye in the stabilizer? Assuming that the last bath before hanging the film is the stabilizer (as it should be), then getting color in the stabilizer can only means that your final film wash process is inadequate. Wash better and longer. It's only water. Use distilled or deionized water to mix the stabilizer to avoid mixing in impurities from your tap water. Note that since 2003, C-41 films do not require a dye stabilizer, however what is called stabilizer in these kits is usually made up of a weak fungicide to prevent something from eating your film in storage plus a chemical to break water surface tension (like Photoflo) to allow water drops to run off quickly and not dry as spots.
This is exactly what described in the video, lol. And no, it’s stab changing color after use, it’s not washing or water etc.