Funny story - I have about 300 sheets of color film from a couple of unplanned purchases that I couldn't pass up (some transparency film at less than $0.30 per sheet). Yeah it's slightly expired and likely to have color shifts. Hence not wanting to spend over $1000 in processing fees.
So I've picked up some items and I'm hoping some folks can double-check my plan here:
I just got a really nice water pump/heater that recirculates water and warms it to a very exacting degree. I've got an 11x14 tub on my workstation filled with about 5 inches of water, and a Kodak process thermometer to insure proper temperature. Immersed in this will be 3 Combiplan tanks that hold exactly 2L of chemistry. Preliminary tests show that everything should stay at the proper temperature after a bit of time acclimating. It doesn't get very cold down here so ambient temps are not screwing up the tempering.
I am looking at the Tetenal C-41 and E-6 5L kits from Freestyle. About $200 after shipping total. I want to mix up just 2L of chemistry at a time, and use it in the tanks as needed, stored in 2L bottles to minimize oxidation. For C-41, I'll have a pre-wash bath, developer, and bleach. I'll find another tank somewhere and have the reversal bath for E-6 as well.
I figured I would just load up to 6 sheets of film in the Combiplan holders and do a dip 'n' dunk development in the dark, using the pre-wash bath to rinse between steps to minimize chemistry contamination. Do lifts instead of inversions as noted in the Tetenal instructions Sounds pretty straight-forward, but I have this persistent fear of screwing up $200, because I'm missing something here...
What do you experienced color developers think?
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