Arista Rapid E-6 kit

Hello!

 

Has anybody used this? It looks almost too easy to do, with temperatures around 85* F. Mixing also looks simple, with plain hot water (or distilled).

 

Thanks,

Les

I've used it a couple of times.

 

I do it at 40.5ºC. When I use it, I work in a bathtub brought up to that temperature, and keep all of my mixed bottles of chemistry and so forth in the bath.

 

It's still tedious. When fresh, it takes about 45 minutes for a complete E6 cycle. Since I use the chemistry to close to the recommended limit, I'm at over an hour by the time I've adjusted the first developer time on later runs.

 

Also, I HAVE used mixed chemistry over two subsequent weekends(with no use during the in-between week) and it worked fine(once again, I adjusted the time to the equivalent of one roll processed) but I try to dump it within 2-3 days of mixing. It definitely shouldn't spend extended time on the shelf, although as best as I can tell the concentrates have a pretty long life. I have enough still sitting to make a 16 oz. batch that was opened about a year ago, and while I'll certainly test it before using it on anything important I'm not worried about it.

Does that kit use chemical fogging, or do you need to give the film a reversal exposure?

 

Either way, I think E6 processing is best left to the professionals. Except there aren't that many truly professional labs around these days.

 

Years back, when I was in college, we had a big, expensive Colenta processing machine. No matter what the chemistry, nor how meticulous you were with timings, the E4 (I think it was) results were always inferior to those from a full-time lab.

 

So good luck with the home processing, but be prepared to be disappointed.

 

PS. I've also used C41 rapid 'press' kits, with inferior results to proper full-blown C41 chemistry. And I use a Jobo tempered rotary processor, which gives very good and consistent results with the right chemistry.

Edited July 18, 2018 by rodeo_joe|1

I used Unicolor E-6 kits long ago with very good results. Maybe things have changed. It was a great feeling to pull the film off the developing reel and see all those tiny colorful positive images. Gosh, it was swell.

Does that kit use chemical fogging, or do you need to give the film a reversal exposure?

 

Either way, I think E6 processing is best left to the professionals. Except there aren't that many truly professional labs around these days.

 

Years back, when I was in college, we had a big, expensive Colenta processing machine. No matter what the chemistry, nor how meticulous you were with timings, the E4 (I think it was) results were always inferior to those from a full-time lab.

 

So good luck with the home processing, but be prepared to be disappointed.

 

PS. I've also used C41 rapid 'press' kits, with inferior results to proper full-blown C41 chemistry. And I use a Jobo tempered rotary processor, which gives very good and consistent results with the right chemistry.

No reverse exposure needed. The problem is the cost of professional processing, but if the home development is going to be inferior, then it's not worth the savings. I may give Dwayne's a try, but I need to have a bunch of rolls in order to get a reasonable per-roll price.

Give it a try and see how it works out. I'll be trying it

 

I have a Tetenal three chemical E6 kit waiting to be used, it'll be my first time for the three bath E6 developing. The instructions are pretty clear, keep everything clean and times are from first contact of chemical in the process to the first contact of the next chemical and so on

 

There's been criticism of the three bath C41, but I've had a great deal of success with those kits, I don't intend to change from it

 

Like all processing equipment and chemicals, they are designed for properly exposed films. It's possible that users of such kits blame the kit before they study how precisely they processed the film and whether the film was old or new, what condition it was stored under and if it was exposed wrongly or not

The ones I've done in the Arista kit look as good as commercially processed E-6.

 

I mostly bought it to do sheet film as doing mail order on that adds a lot of cost and complexity, but also do roll film with it. I've mostly done Velvia and Provia, and I dare say that they look better than my local lab on an "off" day...

 

As said, this kit does chemical reversal.