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#1
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RA4 Printing
I was on the verge of giving up RA4 colour printing simply because of the cost of the chemicals both Tetenal and Kodak which are becoming prohibitively expensive. But then I saw Firstcall are selling Adox branded RA4 to make 2.5L of developer and blix for £22.79 per kit. I don't know who makes the kit either Adox or a 3rd party, the only name on the bottles is Adox. The only thing in question is the replenishment rate so I am going to use the Kodak recommended 100cc per 800 sq ins of paper and see how I get on.
Paper in a roll of Kodak or Fuji 12" x 88m is shed loads cheaper than B&W so that is not the problem. I bought some and the results are, at my first use, very encouraging. There is little smell and the saturation of the colour is very good. OK, in the long run it is a little more expensive than the Kodak version but cheaper in proportion than Tetenal, The cost can possibly spread over a longer term with say 2 kits at a time. One kit is big enough for the 12x16 NOVA with 1/2 litre left over for replenishment (enough for 100 sheets equivalent of 10x8). Times and temperatures are the same. Time will tell if it is as stable as the Kodak, in my experience Tetenal certainly wasn't! The only thing that took me a bit by surprise was the yellow filtration needed for a previously printed negative was 100 Kodak units i.e. double that I used when developing in Kodak chems. (LPL Enlarger) The Magenta needed about 10 units more. Good value for the small user I would say. Last edited by John King; 21st December 2021 at 10:34 AM. |
#2
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ADOX RA4 Developer
After me singing the praises of the new developer the next time I went to use it with the same filtration the yellow was off the scale and the image was barely visible. Even a piece of paper exposed to the room light only developed as a yellow without any trace of blacks at all.
I thought possibly the developer was stale but after only 3-4 6x8 prints that was unlikely. I emptied the processor and scrubbed the the development slot out with neat household bleach and a long tin brush and removed the 'tar' stains completely. The water was drained away and refilled with water and a 25% solution of bleach again and left overnight. I rinsed the NOVA thoroughly then refilled it with new developer and BINGO - perfect - I am back in business I checked again this morning all's well. Even the filtration was very close to what I used with the Ektacolour |
#3
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Glad it worked out OK John after a thorough clean. My impression is that Mirko who appears to be the owner of ADOX does not lend the ADOX name to anything that is unreliable
Mike |
#4
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Bleach
I also found domestic bleach to be a far better cleaner than the concoction sold by Nova and not nearly so offensive to use. Plus a lot more inexpensive. A 90p bottle of bleach against £18 for the Nova stuff is a no brainer. I still have 1/4 of a bottle left.
Who is Mirko? I have never come across then name before. Last edited by John King; 4th January 2022 at 09:22 PM. |
#5
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He is Mirko Boedecker who appears to head the Adox company in Berlin. His company still sells Rodinal according the original recipe and recently devised its own Xtol equivalent which has received a lot of praise
He gets mentioned frequently on Photrio Mike |
#6
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Thanks Mike I had never heard of him. I googled the name as you originally gave it without the surname and that brought up a blank.
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#7
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According to my last post in this it was just over a month since I last mixed up a new dilution of ADOX RA4 developer and filled my NOVA. I have not done an awful lot of printing in the meantime, just enough for me to need to mix some more replenisher. Say about 20 sheets of 10x8 (equivalent.)
I went to print last night and the developer had again gone off and the overall colour of the test strips, including the rebates was bright yellow. I checked one of the bottles I use to store the replenisher working solution and that had gone to dark brown. So again I have failed with ADOX RA4. I am going to have to drain the processor yet again to get rid of any contaminants, although last time it was washed out, rinsed out and then hosed out so I don't know what else I can do. However I have found that Process Supplies in London has the Kodak Ektacolour RA4 in stock, so I have ordered a box from them. In all the years I have been printing RA4 I have used Kodak (apart from a couple of not so good brief encounters with Tetenal) so I am going to stick with Kodak because I know it is reliable. In the instructions for ADOX they only give the instructions for Rotary processing such as a JOBO, with no replenishment rates given or suggested. I am now thinking that unlike Kodak, it is not designed for replenishment in a NOVA which is why it is not suitable for a deep tank. |
#8
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Quote:
If the ADOX stuff is not replenishable to that extent and it is 140ml for each print that makes it very expensive stuff Mind you the way things are going the whole business of colour from film purchase to home processing of film and prints is getting very expensive. I doubt now whether colour home processing can compete with my local mini-lab. Mike |
#9
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It was not there were no instructions how it was to be used, what there were was pretty minimal. Temperature. Time. dilutions etc and that was it you were left to get on with it.
I do agree that colour processing would probably be cheaper via a mini lab, but where's the fun in that? It is still cheaper than using a decent inkjet printer. Just in case there was a leak between the heating bath and the developer slot and the water was migrating from one to the other because it would have some bleach in the heating bath I decided to do a test. I have a small tub of a chemical called fluorescein which when put into water turns it a bright green. I filled the heater bath between the developer and stop bath slot with 3 liters plus the dye and left it on 8 hours ago so far there is no trace of chemical migration so that eliminates another possible problem. I have just had confirmation that the Kodak RA4 is on it's way by DPD and will be with me tomorrow. |
#10
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I have a printout, and I have written Firstcall 2020 on it, so I assume I took it from their website.
Adox Ra4 Proffessional. As to storage it says, Colour Developer Bleach Fix, 10 weeks in full, well sealed bottles. Partly filled bottles 4 weeks. Concentrate 12 months in original packaging or 2 months in partly filled bottles. If there was an air gap between the top of the liquids in the Nova Tank and the plastic tubes that act as a lids for each slot, that would equate to a partially filled bottle, hence only 4 weeks useable life of the developer. I decided against using the Adox because the instructions were lacking in replenishment instructions. I went for Tetenal istead, but this is a bit pricey. My next set of chemicals will be the Bellini Ra4. I shall see how I get on with them. I hope this throws a bit more light on the problem with Adox. Cheers.
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