Patent ID: 6495299
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: G03C,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of processing color photographic film that has been imagewise exposed in a camera, said film having at least three light-sensitive unit which have their individual sensitivities in different wavelength regions, each of the units comprising at least one light-sensitive silver-halide emulsion, binder, and dye-providing coupler, which method comprises:(a) a color development step comprising contacting the imagewise exposed color photographic film with a non-blocked developing agent, under agitation at a temperature of between 30 to 60Â° C., in order to form a color negative image in the film by reaction of the non-blocked developing agent with the dye-providing couplers inside the silver-halide emulsions, the dyes formed from the dye-providing couplers in the three light-sensitive units being different in hue, (b) desilvering said film in one or more desilvering solutions to remove unwanted silver and silver halide, thereby forming a color negative image; and (c) forming a positive-image color print from the desilvered film; wherein said film further comprises an internally located blocked developing agent, at least one silver salt or complex of an organic compound as an oxidizing agent, and a silver salt of a mercapto-functional organic compound having C1 to C12 carbon atoms, wherein the mercapto functional organic compound is present in the range of 5 to 3,000 g/mol of imaging silver, to effectively inhibit fog during thermal processing of the chromogenic photothermographic film; and wherein the blocked developing agent is substantially unreactive in the color development step (a) above, but wherein color development of the same imagewise exposed film is capable of being alternatively and comparatively obtained, without any externally applied developing agent, by heating said film to a temperature above about 80Â° C. essentially in the absence of aqueous solutions conditions, such that the blocked developing agent then becomes unblocked to form a developing agent, whereby the unblocked developing agent forms dyes by reacting with the dye-providing couplers inside the silver-halide emulsions, the dyes thus formed from the dye-providing couplers in the three light-sensitive units being different in hue.