Developing C-41 in D-76

[CheeseGrater]

Hey, I'm new to the board, and fairly new to developing. I was wondering, is it possible to develop regular c-41 film in d-76 chemicals? I tried some kodak t400cn 120 today and it came out ok, purple, but ok; plus it turned my developer orange... If I tried this with regular colour c-41 do you think I would just get a low contrast b+w negative?

Also, is my orange developer toast, or just orange? And would fixer with a touch of bleach get rid of some of the purple fogginess? Thanks a lot.

By the way, for the t400cn I did 7 minutes with stock D-76.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Colour film is three layers of b&w film sandwiched with colour filters between the layers. Each layer records one of the primary colours.
The first stage of the colour development process is a b&w developer. This gives three colour 'masks'.
So yes you can process colour film as b&w. But....
The b&w images are only the first stage. The silver images are masks to help form primary colour images using colour couplers. Then the silver is all removed. The chemistry is quite sophisticated.
The colour in your dev is just dye coming out. Should still work OK but the dye might leach into any film you now process and make it very difficult to print. B&w paper is only sensitive to blue light - hence amber and red safes in the d/room.
As for processing colour as b&w.... the results are unpredictable, hard to print and generally unsatisfactory but you should try everthing once (except murder and incest).
In future dilute your dev as per manufacturers recommendations and use it as a one shot (throw it away after use)

 

[ksmattfish]

I accidentally developed a roll of bulk loaded C41 BW in D-76 1:1 once. Negs came out looking faded rather than thin, if that makes any sense.

The "purple fogginess" sounds like they need to be fixed longer.

 

[CheeseGrater]

I left the developer in a graduate overnight and the orange has almost completely faded. I'm pretty sure I'll just stick to tri-x. I just have a bunch of t400cn 120 film, and I really don't feel like paying 12 bucks for usually less than 12 prints as holga's tend to be sketchy that way and somehow show up with no exposure at all on different frames, as well as full exposures on some.

 

[havoc]

I was always curious what would happen if you did this. Matt, would you say the negs were at all usable? It doesn't sound like it, but i am curious none the less.