the
‘UNO’ electronic thermostatic heater and a small washing up bowl.
Instead of Bob Lewis’s home made control unit which is stronger and
housed in a larger basin which takes the multi-tank arid larger bottles.
Processing was
pretty general. I gave the usual 15secs for each of the three films in two
of the 3 x 300m1kits. Starting with 6 ins for the first film, then 6 mns
and 7mns respectfully in the 1st. Developers. This left one fresh lot of
300mls for future use.
All washes
were by running water at 38C and using a tap mixer made from a triangle of
rubber hose, the outlet just right for fixing into, the Tank just right to
be left on its own for most of the wash period and the thermometer stuck
in the top to keep a check. I give three films and emptyings before
setting the timer for the duration. There is no need for the water to be
rushing just a steady flow through the tank.
The
Results
On
first seeing the film out of the tank things looked a little
disappointing, but would have to wait until it dried to be sure. I
wasn’t expecting too much as I took the shots mostly in the worst of
winter on a small compact all-auto camera, and of course also in doing a
first time weighing & mixing.
In the end I
would say most of the films (l0 exp lengths) leant towards a green cast in
the shadows with only the shots taken in sunlight being almost acceptable.
However, on
showing the films to Some of our experts at the Didcot meeting, their
remarks were reasonably fair and this gave me much encouragement for
trying some more processing with film exposed in my own camera (Canon AE
1) in some of the finer weather that was now on us. At least I knew what
to expect from this camera. The savings from weighing & mixing are
obvious and it would be nice to get the results similar to what I expect
from my usual commercial kits, but obviously I have a long way to go yet.
I certainly recommend our none weighing & mixers to have a go at this
interesting side of our hobby. I had a lot of pleasant contact with Bob
Lewis, Olive Barron and Area 18 member Tony Chuter. I’m sure if you
wanted to get into weighing & mixing they would be pleased to help you
also should you get in touch with them.
Additional
News
Some weeks have passed since that first experiment and I have now
processed 3 x 36exp lengths of Konicachrome films in the 300ml kit I had
left from the original 1 litres I made up. As mentioned these were taken
on my Canon Camera and some brighter weather.
Using the same
set up I processed the first film at 6 mns. 1st Dev. And with light
reversal at 3 x 3mns each side of the film out of the spiral. Again at the
end of processing I thought the film still looked too green in the shadows
and slightly dull for the lighting conditions. My limited experience tells
me that this could be due to either under developed in 1st Dev. or lack of
light reversal.
For the second
film I gave 7rnns 1st Dev. instead of 6 mns and gave a full ten minutes
‘light’ reversal. The results were considerably improved and brighter.
For the third
film I gave 7 and a half mns instead of the 7mns it should have had and
again gave, ten minutes light reversal, Again the results were good, but
it appeared that the highlights were starting to look a little thin which
suggests that the dullness and green bias may be more due to the 3mns each
side light reversal. If you get a green cast it may pay to suspect the
time you give under the photoflood. You have to give a great deal more
before you do any damage so doubling your times won’t do any damage to
the film or results, but it could make just that bit difference to those
dull or greenish looking results.
So I complete
this very first time Weighing & mixing with a lot of hope for great
improvement for the future and must say that I have found this work very
interesting and I hope that some of you who like me have only used
commercial kits up till now will consider giving it a go.
My thanks to
all those who helped and saw me through this experiment.