[silvertab]

Weird, c41 is an extremely standardized process. Developing times, temperatures, results etc. are very consistent. I get the exact same results by developing it at home than when I get it done at a lab. B&W is a lot more subjective and most labs will charge you more to develop it because it has more variables and can't be as easily automated.

Scanning and color reversal is where you'll probably see a difference for color negatives, but development, if done properly, should be very similar.

[0_____0]

How tight do you have to hold bath temperatures? I haven't developed C41 at home but have done B&W, and reading about home C41 I remember that it seemed trickier to get right.

[armadsen]

A sous vide device makes it easy to hold a water bath at a precise enough temperature that I get C41 results at home that are indistinguishable from my local lab, at least to my eyes.

[silvertab]

I use a sous-vide circulator to get the products ~1F above the recommended 102F for the shortest possible development time (3.5min) and never had any problems! The kit I use (cinestill) is a 2-bath process (Developer, and Blix) and not accounting for the time to get the products to 103F, developing a roll of C41 film takes less time than B&W and gives me more consistent results.

[0_____0]

Ah that makes sense. I was doing B&W with basically a kettle and a glass thermometer, I had no electronic temperature control equipment. I think I would have found it extremely challenging to do C41 consistently without that.