A shot from a local car show of a classic American muscle car, done on Fuji film and developed in surprisingly old and well-used chemistry. C-41 kits are much more durable than I ever thought. Shoot photos, not each other!
Blue Muscle
Shoot photos, not each other.
Adventures of a Photo Nerd 
Nice shot, Chris. I’ve been curious just exactly how long a C-41 kit would last once mixed up, and how many rolls beyond what’s specified by the manufacturers one can push things without having any problems. Out of curiosity, how long had you had this kit mixed prior to developing this roll, and how many rolls had you put through it? I want to get into C-41 developing, but I don’t shoot enough color film for it to be worthwhile with the short shelf-life cited by the manufacturers themselves. Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. If a one liter kit will survive for 3-4 months without a problem and process at least fifteen rolls of film during that stretch of time without any perceivable loss of activity/quality then it might be worthwhile for me to consider. On another note, are you still using your PrimeFilm 3650 with the included CyberView software for all your scanning and still liking it?
Take care!
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Thank you very much! Believe it or not, I am going on 9 months with my Unicolor C-41 chemistry. I have done about 12 rolls thus far (some of which were 24 exposures rather than 36) and it has seemed to do fine. I think the secret is to use plastic bottles and be sure you squeeze all the air out before you tighten the cap. This picture was done last month. I am very surprised how durable it’s been. It’s the first kit that I’ve used on a long-term basis, so I don’t know if this is the norm or if I just got lucky on this kit.
I still use the Pacific Images PrimeFIlm 3650 and it works quite nicely. I use the CyberView software just to scan the negative. It automatically does the scratch removal and reversing, though the scratch removal doesn’t work on black and white film because the infrared rays are absorbed by silver. I scan the files in TIFF format so I can adjust all the white balance and other things in GIMP.
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Thanks for the detailed reply, Chris.
Wow! Nine months and still going? That’s way, way beyond what any of the manufacturers claim you can use it for. But that’s great news for me if I do end up deciding to explore C-41 developing. What kind of bottles are you storing your solutions in? PET, HDPE, or something else? I’ve heard color chemistry can eat PET bottles, which a lot of people recycle and use for their B&W chemistry, so I’m curious what you’re using. Clearly whatever type of bottles you’ve got your C-41 chemistry in are doing their job exceptionally well.
Good to know you’re still using your PrimeFilm and obviously haven’t had any issues with it. Your results are always great.
Thanks again, and take care.
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