Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> I know this borders on the ridiculous. Someone advertised an APS camera
> for sale on a local mailing list, and this brought back memories. I have
> several APS cameras all bought for nearly nothing years ago and a lot of
> C-41 APS film, all bought out of date and they sat at room temperature
> for 3-4 years.
>
> Nothing is special about them, they were cheap cameras and are not in
> collectable condition. The film boxes are slightly shopworn, so they
won't
> end up in a museum or on a collector's shelf.
>
> The idea of having a small camera I don't care if it survives being
carried
> around has a lot of attraction. Half of the year it is dry and dusty.
> Sand and dust can easily kill a camera and so can other things, like
being
> sat on, etc. One of my kids sat on a bag I carry around and broke a
> Palm Pilot. :-(
>
> Therefore I ask if I can develop the film at home using black and white
> chemicals. I assume I have to "crack" the casettes, will the film fit on
> a 35mm reel? If not, can I adjust a Paterson reel to fit it?
>
> Can the film itself be developed in Black and White chemicals, for
example
> Rodinal?
>
> Any suggestions, pointers to information, etc would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Geoff.
C-41 film in B&W chem does create an image, but not a very
usable one. B&W chem doesn't remove the dyes that are in the
C41 film, so your base is only slightly more transparent
than what you see when you look at unprocessed film. The
resulting negative is almost unprintable, and a lot of
scanners will have a hard time getting an image. It has a
very dark brown base, with only a faint black image. If you
do manage to extract a usable image, it will be quite
grainy, and high contrast.
You can get chemistry for DIY C-41 processing though. If you
have done home B&W processing, you should find C-41 no
harder. It is a little more particular about timing,
temperatures are a little harder to maintain (usually about
40C instead of 20C), and the chemistry a bit more nasty
(time for the rubber gloves), but overall not really any
harder to develop than B&W.
As for APS - there is nothing about it that is any different
for processing compared to 35mm, except for the size of the
film. Holding it will be a hassle - I'm not aware of any
reels for it. You might find you have to make a custom reel
or something to hold it. The actual processing is identical
to 35mm.
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