3 Comment

1. 
   jbasco · 2021-07-28 04:34

   There's multiple things that can go wrong with doing your own color, but based on my experience here's what seems most likely.
   Is wherever you're loading your film into the tank as light proof as you think? The dark spots on the left (which can sometimes look more like an outline of sprocket holes, especially towards an end of the film) might be a sign of fog, which would cause issues with contrast and color shift (if the color shift is affecting the shadows significantly more than the highlights, then there's very likely fog).
   The progressively lighter bands would most likely be caused by uneven development, so either not using enough liquid to fill the tank, or having notable gaps in your pouring the developer into the tank.
   And finally just as a general tip, watch out for exhausted chems. I also started with unicolor (but have also used arista and rollei since then) and they all seem to last around 1 week or about 20 rolls (+/-5 rolls, per 600-1000ml of working solution) whichever comes first. So I find it good practice to always dev a small control strip of film that should for sure come out ok; both when I mix a new batch of chems, and if I'm reusing the same chems from a few days ago. That way if you mixed something wrong or any cross contamination happened or anything that will for sure ruin your film you'll catch it and can address the issue before you lose anything important.
   Hope this helps!

2. 
   35mm_marlena · 2021-07-29 17:59

   @jbasco wow, I can’t thank you enough for this information! I use a changing bag but hey light is almost everywhere so I could’ve fucked it up with exposing it someway somehow…My Unicolor powder kit has been used only 3 times thus far. When I was mixing the developer….I had mixed it accidentally with 102 degrees Fahrenheit water when the paper directions said 110 degrees Fahrenheit! Do you think since I fucked up the developer it could be the problem? I must admit this fault even though it’s embarrassing.. a simple mistake made. The Blix & the Stabilizer were on point at 110 degrees when mixed though. Good to know about Unicolor’ s oh so “long lasting” chems lol. I’ll be trying rollei or the arista brand next, thank you! I bought the delux kit that came with a tank/changing bag/etc. from FPP. Seems like there aren’t too many posts on the internet besides a few about using their whole kit. My tank, which is made by AP, also will leak even though the lid is absolutely on correctly straight and very tight too. I see many people just use the Patterson brand for tanks, it seems I should probably switch and purchase one of their tanks instead(?) can’t thank you enough btw!

3. 
   jbasco · 2021-07-29 22:50

   @35mm_marlena If you're using a changing bag in a dark enough room then there definitely shouldn't be any fog, and if you were never having problems with that before you were processing at home then it shouldn't be an in camera issue either. Otherwise I have occasionally seen those sprocket hole looking streaks when doing BW stand development (so dev times around 1hr or so) and not doing any agitation for long periods of time (I think it's called bromide drag). Just saw your post about your 3rd attempt (which looks a lot much better btw) and your agitation epiphany, if you're seeing those streaks rather consistently across the whole roll then I'd say that's gotta be what's causing that, so maybe more agitation is the move.
   I don't think that temperature should make much of a difference when mixing, just checked my Arista RA-4 instructions and they just say use water that's already whatever temperature you'll be using it at so you don't have to warm it up after, but I've been mixing my stuff at probably 115F or so and just letting it cool down to 100-105 and haven't seen anything drastic. Hell a few months ago I was mixing some RA-4 (as a substitute for ECN-2) and apparently I forgot to add developer part C altogether, but I still got usable (albeit low contrast and fairly color shifted) negatives. So yeah, you have probably more room for error with that than you realize.
   No lol any one of those 3 (and I'd imagine pretty much any brand you can find) all only last around a week or 2 once they're mixed; however, I've had the raw stuff last me upwards of a year. The most efficient way I've found is buy the Rollei/Arista 5L/1 gallon liquid kit and mix up 600ml or 1L at a time (or however much your tank needs). Those kits usually last me about 6-12 months and I almost always get 15-25 rolls out of each batch.
   I don't think I've ever encountered a plastic tank that doesn't leak at least a little lol I have an old unicolor and a (probably new) patterson, and I mean the patterson's definitely better but I still prefer stainless steel; although even those leak a little sometimes (especially the steel lids vs the hard rubber lids). Before switching over to patterson I'd recommend just wait and see if you get sick of loading plastic reels when they're even the tiniest bit wet, that's what made me pull the trigger and switch over to stainless steel altogether. What I do when I agitate is I just hold the tank over the bin the chems came from so it just drips right back into where I'm gonna pour it out anyway; that and gloves is about all you can do about that tbh.
   No problem, happy to help!