Failed Adox Scala 50 Reversal - a photo on Flickriver

There is a mandatory principle in film photography that not to use any exhausted chemical. As all mandatory, one time one could go for anyway and fails! I bought this Adox Scala Reversal processing kit past year (2023) but with the known fact that it was already expired since late 2021.

For reversal a black-and-white negative to a positive view, one should process to a first development before bleaching the black metal silver (Ag°) using a proper oxidant to dissolve it under the form of Ag+ ions. Once done, the film should be clarified to remove a yellow-orange staining using sodium or potassium metabisufite. After this step the film is re-exposed to light and developed again to get the positive views.

Adox choose to sell the kit including the developper that turned to be still active, solid powder a metabisulfite salt (that was still well dry in a sealed pouch) and the oxidative solution of permanganate (KMnO4) already in dilute sulfuric acid aqueous solution. This solution is quite active and should better prepared and used extemporally by mixing a water solution of permanganate and diluted sulfuric acid. The solution degrades in Mn2+ (air oxidation) and further to manganese oxide (MnO2) that is insoluble and form a brownish deposit on the flask walls. The kit was supposed to be used within 48 weeks after is preparation date.

Not fully aware of those facts, I anyway tried a first SCALA 50 film following the box instructions. I used my Leica M3 ans its normal lens Leitz Wetzlar Sumicron 1:2 f=5cm to expose te 36 views during a enjoyable photowalk on Saturday August 3, 2024, Lyon, France.

As a results the view looks like a sort of Daguerreotypes because the first silver metal revealed was not totally bleached. The sides of the film was better because the oxidant likely diffuse better in the gel by the edges. Of course disappointed, I tested afterward the time necessary the remove the rest. I then decided to longer the bleaching time from the regular 4min to 7min. I did my second SCALA 500 film the day after in similar conditions but still the bleaching was not complete!

The conclusion is not to use any Adox Scala processing kit expired. These sorts of reversal kit are not cheap. I would occasionally try again the reversal processing, if I could prepare the bleaching solution from separated pure chemicals.

August 3-4, 2024
69004 Lyon
France

The failed films were digitized for archival using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.

About the camera and the lens :

This Leica M3 circa 1956 (Ref. Leitz ISUMO), double stroke, was sold to me with a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron collapsible normal lens 1:2 f=5cm of the same period equipped with a 39mm screw-on protective filter, a 42mm push-on Leica lens cap and an original Leitz shade hood (Ref. Leitz IROOA).

The camera was serviced in Paris, France, in 2018 by Gérard Métrot at Photo-Suffren, (a Leica boutique) who worked on the maintenance of camera's of famous French photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. The camera was inspected by Odéon-Photo, Paris, another historic Leica place in Paris, in April 2024.

I sourced at the same time in Germany a stunning Leitz Leica leather bag (Ref; Leitz IDCOO) of the same model that appeared on the back cover page go the Leica brochure year 1954. This bag can accommodate the camera and a mounted Leica-Meter type M. The interior in covered with a carmin velvet in perfect condition.

The Leica M3 is one of the most iconic range-finder 35mm camera of the 50's and the 60's. It was produced in Wetzlar, Germany, in different versions at 226178 exemplars, between 1954 (n° 700000) and 1966 (n° 1164865, www.summilux.net/materiel/Leica-M3) . The Leica M3 was the result of the study of a "super-Leica" that was started before WWII and only achieved in the 50'S.

The greater improvement of the M3 compared the classical Leica's was in a magnificent and very complex range-finder combined to the view finder permitting the framing with the two eyes open, integrating the frame in the real and normal vision. The shutter integrates too the normal and the slow speeds in the same barillet. The film advance of this version of Leica M3 is also the typical "double-stroke" advance that was exclusive to the Leica M3 first versions.

The camera was transported to me from Paris to Lyon, France on April 26, 2024 and the bag arrived the day after.

Taken on: August 7, 2024

Tags:

Lyon

Franc

Adox

SCALA

Reversal

Kit

Diapositive

Black-and-White

Analog

Photography

Processing

Leica

Year

1956

Leitz

Wetzlar

Summicron

1:2

f=5cm

Sony

Digitizing

Minolta

Auto

Bellows

III

Macro

Rokkor

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Sets appears in: • Failed Adox SCALA 50 Reversal Process

Camera: vivo V2124, f/1.8, 1/50 sec, 4mm, ISO 452 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	vivo V2124
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	4mm
ISO:	452
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	D65
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.3 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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