Monday, January 6, 2014

Positively Speaking..

Last month Michael Raso of the Film Photography Project sent me a care package of some specialty films that might be coming to your FPP store for sale.
One of the films is this Kodak #5363 Positive Cinecopy film.  I was challenged by +Alex Luyckx  to shoot and process as a positive image instead of as a Negative.
Well, I just happen to have a B&W reversal kit from Kodak that I've been playing around with.  So I used a HC-110 Dilution that the lovely and very friendly Leslie Lazenby of Imagine That! in Findlay Ohio.  Oh, and The Mecca.
HC-110, the soup of Ansel Adams, Dilution G (1+119 from syrup) for 15:00 since I shot it at EI 6, as we are still unsure as to what speed this film really is.
Well, after mixing up the Bleaching bath (1 part Sulfuric Acid Concentrate to 1 part Potassium Permaganate to 3 parts water).. so 75mL of each part of the bleach to 250mL of water and I had slightly UNDER mixed it by 50mL of water, but no problem, I got to business.

Putting the film into the soup and developing it for 15:00 I got my next bath out.  The Stop Bath.  Yes, I used an ACID stop bath before I put the bleaching agent in, even though it is a highly concentrated Acid, so the developer wouldn't contaminate the bleaching agent.  After mixing it in the bleach for a good 2 minutes it was then clear of all developed silver, and ready for the clearing bath, which is basically concentrated Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) which negates the acid and clears the yellow stain from the film.  Oddly enough, though, the stain didn't quite vanish, and I wasn't very impressed it was still there!
But ... whatever, it's all good!
After the clearing bath, it's a rinse then off the reel and reexposure to light.
So holding up to the light, I rexposed the film for 30 seconds, and popped it back onto the developing reel for final stage.
DekTOL.  Yup, good ol' Kodak Dektol STOCK dilution.  Just dump it on the film and agitate it until it is all developed.  This is done in the light, obviously, and once developed, you pop it under some water and give it a good long washing.
Hypo, if you have it, wash, and then Photoflo.
After a good 10 minutes under running water, I added the Photoflo mix, and let it stand for 2 minutes.
After letting it stand for a couple of minutes, I dumped the solution and hung the film to dry.
That's when I made an inspection of the film.

It looked pretty good.  A little foggy, and that is something I thought was odd, considering that it should be nice and clear.

Either way, they looked good to me!  Not quite as good as the Foma 100R I developed, but pretty good.




So there they are.. The slides that I scanned.  Not a lot came out great, but the majority worked.  I still need to work on proper exposure, and next time I do this I think I'll try at a more expected exposure, perhaps 25ASA and in HC-110 G for 25 minutes.
Aside from that, the film was well exposed and had very good images on it.
Just upset that the film was a little... foggy.

Exakta Varex
Steinheil Munchen Lithagon 35mm ƒ/3.5
Kodak 5363 Cinecopy Film @ EI6
HC-110 Dil. G (1+119) 15:00
Bleach
Dektol Redeveloper

Scanned on Epson Perfection 4990

Thanks for reading!

Until next time fellow bloggers, keep those shutters firing!

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