C41 and SP-445

I've ventured into c41 development. Processed around 10 negatives so far and they look good.
I've some confusion about pouring time. My Patterson tank empties fast. The SP-445 not as quickly.

Has anyone figured out a staggered time for this tank? It seems to pour much faster if I dump the developer into a funnel all at once. Hand pouring seemed to take forever. I usually start the timer about 3/4 of the pour going in and pour out with between 3-5 seconds prior to the 3:30 mark. This may be too late.

I've read of people staggering 15 seconds. The results I'm getting are decent to good. Maybe they are great , I don't have enough experience to gauge it yet.

I think it's hard to say if the negatives are good until you print them in the darkroom or perform densitometry on them.

With staggering time, do you mean the time it takes from starting to pour out one bath to completing pouring in the next? I manage 15 seconds, just, if to empty I just tip the tank over once into a large funnel, and then use a large funnel again to pour in the following bath. That way, a small amount of liquid of the first bath will remain in the tank (5ml or so.) To empty the tank more thoroughly, it appears you have to turn it upright again and then tip over again, potentially several times, to remove liquid which gets trapped in the lid the first time around.

So I currently live with this 5ml carry-over from developer into stop bath, discard the stop bath after single use, and take more time emptying all following baths.

I measure up the volume of the baths beforehand and have these ready in bottles or measuring cylinders, so that I don't need to worry about over-filling and can just tip them into the funnel as quickly as possible.

I time development to 3 min 15 s, taken from starting to pour in the developer to starting to pour it out, and this works for me. Of course ymmv, depending on your temperature control, exposure, personal taste...

Large funnels help with the fact that, if you turn the SP-445 over quickly, you will likely get at least a small amount of liquid coming out from the venting hole as well - not just from the filling hole. They also allow you to pour your pre-measured developer etc straight into the funnel in one go.

I start the timer (and initial agitation) when I've filled the SP-445 and tightened the caps. I don't account for pouring time, but I do use a funnel so I can pour as fast as possible (~5 seconds total pour time, I'd say). Developed sheets come out great.

Thanks for the responses. Yeah , with C41 it's tough to say , if the color balance is really close correction during scanning and PS would lead one to believe development went well. I'm now realizing my question didn't make as much sense as I few thought. There are too many variables.

I guess I was just wanted to know when you guy start the timer with the SP-445 and C41. Yesterday I timed a pour in at 4 seconds using a funnel.

The pour out confuses me a bit with c41 as it's obviously impossible to get ALL the developer out and in a timely fashion. I thought maybe with developer inside and blix pouring in, it might cause some issues. So far it doesn't seem to.

Going to stick to starting after the pour and pouring out with around 3-4 seconds before 3:30.

I think it depends on how often you plan to re-use your blix, if the carry-over of some developer into blix is a problem or not. The reason I go for a 3% one shot acetic acid stop bath after developer is to make sure that the bleach doesn't get contaminated with a build-up of carried-over developer over time, especially when using the SP-445. (I use separate bleach and fix rather than blix, and I re-use my bleach bath several times.) Some people suggest adding another quick wash after stop bath, to protect the bleach or blix further.

Thanks for that tip. I didn't even think of the carry over effect. I'm going to consider breaking it into two steps