It's been a while since I last developed color film.
I recently had the opportunity to do so again after shooting some rolls at the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival. Normally I only self develop cinema film due to the rem jet and just lab develop the regular color film rolls. However, this time I split the difference and self developed two rolls of Kodak Portra 160 film and sent in the other two rolls for lab development.
In preparation for development, I did a quick refresher on the times I needed for the blix since I remembered that the development portion was 3:15 @ 38°C. I came across C41 data sheet that mentioned 4:20 @ 38°C while Googling, so I just ran with that. All C41 chemicals are made equally right? Wrong.
Rollei C41 Color Kit Development Times
I happen to have the Rollei C41 Color Kit that comes in liquid form. The data sheet has the blix step at a much longer time than I did it! In my case I needed 8:00 of blix since I had ran about 4 rolls of cinema film prior.
Under-blixed negative on the left. Correctly blixed negative on the right.
In hindsight, I should have noticed that my negatives were too brown and not the typical orange color. Alas, it is too late to re-blix the negatives since I have already cut them up.
Leica M6 TTL, Leica Summilux 35mm ASPH, Kodak Portra 160 film @ ISO 160, C-41 developed
Leica M6 TTL, Leica Summilux 35mm ASPH, Kodak Portra 160 film @ ISO 160, C-41 developed
The scans for the under-blixed negatives are definitely interesting. They have a strong cyan color cast and are a bit washed out. Oh well... lesson learned.