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COLOUR PRINTING & PROCESSING KITS...ARE THEY OVERLOOKED? ________________________________________________________________
By Ron Knowles (area 11)
Some time ago a member mentioned to me that the Newsletter rather tended to neglect one of the aspects of colour reversal processing which has now become quite popular with the introduction of a wide range of materials.
Tony Chuter of Southampton was referring to colour printing from slides which, of course, is a reversal process and, obviously, as such must come within the orbit of our club and its title.
Well... indeed there can surely not be a dissenting voice in view, as I`ve said, with such a wide range of materials available - other than just, Cibachrome, of which there is now a later version - Cibachrome Classic which, presumably is easier to use, quicker and gives superior results to the original version.
Other manufacturers offering colour reversal paper include Kodak, Fuji and Tetenal and there are processing chemicals and kits available for all of these.
But here, I must confess, I have absolutely no experience of these processes so do not consider myself qualified to write on the actual procedures involved. However I`ve little doubt there are many people out there who use one or other of these processes who will be willing to pass on their comments.
On the same theme the Secretary of Area 22, George Sparkes in his local Newsletter mentions the omission of colour printing from slides and appeals for more up-to-date comment from members using this system.
A second member to bemoan the omission of a system is also an official of the club, in fact the editor himself no less. He chided me gently I hasten to explain, for writing solely on weighing & mixing and the subsequent processing from home brew... and with never a mention of the commercially available ready boxed kit! On this I have to explain that I do not use kits so do not consider it fair to write about a topic on which I am not conversant and consequently not qualified to discuss.
But here, I must explain, I have quite an intimate acquaintance with one of the solutions used in the Three Bath versions of a commercial kit... the combined bleach/fixer known as Blix and, from what I have seen of the results from this Blix solution I feel the slides can be much better from the seperate baths. Indeed I consider the Blix to be the culprit for these inferior results.
In fact both Tony Chuter and I, at different times, and for different reasons, have tinkered around with various formulae of the Blix, and we have long agreed that results lack the bite, the sparkle that can be found after using seperate bleach and fixer. So I say, with due defence, to the adherents of Three-Bath kits try substituting the Blix by mixing seperate bleach and fixer baths. The finished slides will be improved, I`m sure. But don`t forget to aerate the bleach! Come to think it might be quite a good idea to aerate the Blix itself. There might well be an improvement... though I have`nt tried this myself. But it might just restore that missing sparkle. Either way it can do no harm!