Tetenal C-41 shelf life after mixing

[Jim Andrada]

Just wondering what people's experience is with shelf life of mixed chemicals. I ran some film about 4 weeks ago and have a fair amount to process now. I suspect I should just scrap the mixed chemicals and mix up fresh, but thought I'd check as I only used about a third of the 1 Liter solutions and it would be nice to not have to throw them away. But if it's a risky proposition, no problem chucking them and making up some new solutions.

[Ari]

Shelf life is hard to tell with Tetenal because the drop-off in quality is sudden and severe.
If you have a test sheet or roll, process it normally to see how well the chemicals have fared; you may need to increase developer time by 15 or 30 seconds if the film comes out a little underdeveloped.
If it's bad, you'll know right away.

I usually wait until I have 50 or so 4x5 sheets of film to process, and do it all at once; one litre of Tetenal used this way will process that much film quite well.

[Jim Andrada]

Thanks - I'll give it a try.

[Ari]

I usually wait until I have 50 or so 4x5 sheets of film to process, and do it all at once; one litre of Tetenal used this way will process that much film quite well.

Just want to make it clear that I can process 50-60 sheets of 4x5 with a fresh batch of Tetenal.

[Jim Andrada]

Thanks

The kit is pretty reasonable, but I don't usually shoot very much in a normal week - maybe a sheet or two or a roll of 120. Last week was unusual as I shot 7 or 8 rolls of 120. But for the occasional roll, it's probably cheaper to have it processed at the lab rather than mixing up a batch. Good news is that I have a lab within a 10 minute drive that does C-41/E-6/B&W in everything from 110 to 8 x 10. Considering how many things there AREN'T in Tucson I find it amazing that there's still a full service lab in business here.