Help on C41 processing please..!

[redu]

I've been developing B&W for sometime at home. It's no big deal. But the places that i can get my negative rolls developed are getting less and less, more and more expensive and the results are getting worse and worse. So... that's gotto be done at home as well. I've got (what people call) a dip and dunk processor with 3 tanks. One for each developer, bleach and fix. For intermediate washing stages i'll use an external tank (bucket) of warm water. From what i've read on the net the steps are

1) Presoaking in water
2) Development (3':15")
3) Water rinse
4) Bleach (depends on chemical but i guess something like 6':30")
5) Water rinse
6) Fix (as bleach)
7) Stabilizer (pass if you don't have one)
8) Runing warm water for 10 min.
9) Wipe and Dry

Question : At what stage i can turn the lights on? I guess it's the end of "fixing stage" but can't make sure of it. Also... are my timings correct? Any warnings..? Any no nos?

Thanks to you..!

[Stephen Willard]

I believe after fixing the film you can turn the lights on. However, I am not sure. You can post your question on http://www.apug.org/forums/home.php. There is a member there who goes by the name of Photo Engineer that works for Kodak. He is very active on that sight and will know for sure.

[JRFrench]

You should be able to turn the lights off after the bleach. The bleach will stop any development action, and the fix removes any form of silver, both exposed and unexposed.

Basically as long as long as development is completely stopped, you can expose the film to light.

Timings look good, you probably dont need that much bleach, I do 4min with fresh stuff, and its fine.

[Dave Grenet]

Kodak's manual on C41 is available here. Don't pass on the stabilizer if you want your negs to last as long as they should.

[redu]

Thank you JRFrench. We have discussed this topic here at APUG as well and people agree with you.