Processing colour prints at home

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 24

Processing colour prints at home

(Sy

LES BLOXHAM)

Simplified kitsets for producing colour prints have become popular among amateur photographers since the price of commercially produced prints increased earlier this year. Amateurs can now process colour enlargements up to lOin by Bin in their own home for about 50 cents; only a fraction of what it would cost to have the job done commercially. And it can all be accomplished with the minimum of fuss in less than eight minutes. Several different kitsets are currently available in Christchurch, but the one I looked at last week was the American Unicolour unit which retails at about $65. For that price one gets an eight by 10 processing drum, a gallon of chemicals, 25 sheets of paper, 21 filters, a unicube diffuser — an ingenious device incorporating three translucent colour strips of in-

creasing density for determining the correct exposures — and detailed instructions and charts. A correctly exposed test print made with the aid of the unicube provides all the information needed for determining the right filter densities and exposure for the actual print. One of the big disadvantages which used to accompany attempts at home-colour printing was the amount of space needed to accommodate all the dishes of chemicals. The kit’s processing drum had now completely solved that problem. After exposure, the paper is simply loaded into the drum and the end cap screwed on. The rest of the process can be continued in white light.

The drum is filled first with warm water to allow the paper to soak for one minute. After draining, developer is poured in and gently agitated for two minutes. This is followed by three fresh-water rinses before the bleachfix solution is added. A further five rinses, follow, three to four minutes later. At this stage the end cap can be removed and the print taken out for a two-minute soaking in a stabilising solution before being hung to dry. The gallon of chemicals provided with the kit is sufficient to process about 100 sheets of paper. Replacement chemical costs $15.60 and 25 sheets of lOin by Bin paper, $9.60.