DIY processing or pro lab processing for slides

[kryn_sporry1]

I am trying to find information on how I can process slides myself.

Surely it can't be that hard if you can process B&W film yourself.

Am I wrong? Can anyone provide me info, or links to info, about how

to process slides yourself?

Or should I instead just send out the slides. The problem I have

with sending my slides to eg Fuji, is that it takes on average 3

weeks before I get them back. Furthermore, I don't trust processors

in england. Things have a way of going wrong always and every time

for me in england, so I rather take control myself. Also England is

way more expensive for processing slides than most other countries

in europe (I heard in germany it costs about 1,50 euro per roll,

whilst in england that is 3,95 GBP, about 5 times as much!!!)

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[robert_young9]

Processing color transparancy (E6) or color reversal (C-41) isn't much more complicated than B&W. But temperature control is very critical, typically at elevated temperatures like 38C. Consistant agitation and timing are important (just like B&W) for good results.

 

Chemical cost is higher than B&W. Could be signficantly higher if you aren't developing many rolls per year.

 

Consider a new or used Jobo CPE-2+ with or without the lift accessory.

[jordan_w.]

Kryn, if you search through the archives, you'll find tonnes of threads about people doing their own E6. You don't NEED a rotary processor to do this, though I imagine it would make life much easier. I wrote an article about my experiences: http://www.photosensitive.ca/slides.shtml

[walterh]

Kryn it is not difficult if you can follow a recipe and have the correct temperature. The Jobo precessor mentioned by Robert will work fine and can be obtained very cheap used. You might be able to obtain the chemicals within Europe by mail order.

[nigel d]

Processing your own slides is not difficult and, depending on the price you pay for the chemistry, may or may not be cost effective.

 

You can gauge how difficult you think it is by looking at:

 

http://wwwcaen.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/chemistry/filmE6main.jhtml?id=0.1.20.14.18.14.3&lc=en

 

http://wwwcaen.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/chemistry/e6Kit/e6Index.jhtml?id=0.1.20.14.18.14.3.28&lc=en

 

http://wwwcaen.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j83/j83.pdf?id=0.1.20.14.18.14.3.30.3&lc=en

[scott_eaton]

I've processed my own E-6 at home, and handled Q/C for several professional labs.

 

My $.02 is if you shoot mostly Fuji, and want the absolute optimum color density from the film, then doing it yourself is a logical option. Differences I've found with home processing Fuji vs a commercial lab replenished to suit all films can be quite dramatic. My home processed Provia matched the color saturation of Velvia taken to a local pro lab orientated to keep both Kodak and Fuji customers happy.

 

Temperature control is a bit trickier given it's more work to keep several chems at 100F -vs- a single B&W developer at 'around' 70F. Same concept though - you just have to pay more attention.

[g._armour_van_horn]

Get one of the JOBOs with a lift and do it yourself. It's fast and easy if you can follow the instructions. Try to get an understanding of what's going on at each step, and don't try any shortcuts if you don't yet know what the implications are.

 

The JOBOs keep all the solutions at the same temperature by keeping them in a single water bath. Get all your solutions in place and the bath up to temperature, then check the two developers in their bottles to make sure they're up to temp as well, and get out your stopwatch. Note that the target temp is 38C. Since your body temp is 37C, after a few batches you will be able to just feel the water and know if it's off. I always kept a thermometer in the tempering bath as another check to be sure that the controls hadn't gone nuts, but it never had.

 

Note that after the reversal bath, everything else runs to completion. If your time gets off, just make sure it's on the long side - don't short the times in any baths just to stay on your schedule.

 

The hard part is mounting, which we rarely address here. In small quantities it isn't hard either, and if you're going to scan everything rather than project it you may prefer to just cut in strips anyway.

 

Van

[craig_shearman1]

I've been doing darkroom work more than 30 years. If cost is your concern, stick with professional labs. True, it can seem cheap to process your own E-6. But to start with, it is very time and temperature critical, not like B&W where you can slosh it through some chemicals that feel about the right temperature for what feels like about the right time. And the chemicals and expensive and have a shelf life of maybe a few weeks instead of a few months once mixed. Consistency from roll to roll can be a problem if you're hand processing and the JOBO units represent an investment of several hundred dollars just to get started. Slide processing here in the U.S. runs anywhere from $5-$8 per roll. That's cheap compared with processing negatives with prints. If you've had lab problems, maybe you're using the wrong lab.

[g._armour_van_horn]

Kryn, I can't address the likely costs for processing yourself in England, things could be completely out of whack there. Here in the US, a 5-liter kit from Kodak costs $50.00. With a rotary-tube processor like the JOBOs you can run 40 rolls of film in that much solution. Yes, you'll run less if you have a two-roll tank and you end up running only one roll sometimes. If you mix a liter of the solution and then don't shoot 8 rolls within ten days to two weeks, you'll have to throw some out. (If you know you're going to not be shooting, of course, you can mix less.) You probably will have to pay some freight to get the kit to your home. Do your own math.

 

Half the cost of the kit is in the bleach, which you can reuse. After one or two kits, if you're still interested in the process, switch to the 5-gallon solutions, but keep using the bleach from the kits and buy a smaller quantity when you need more. Only the first three of the seven solutions are particularly sensitive to storage. Your cost per roll for chemicals will probably be cut in half after you get into the flow of it.

 

Capital cost for my setup, when I was still using the JOBO, was about $400 for the JOBO CPE-2, some graduates, some extra JOBO solution bottles, an extra thermometer, an acquarium pump to aerate the bleach, and a hydrometer to check my bleach every once in a while. Of course, that was buying everything used on eBay, which may not be an option for you. If I had decided to stop doing slide film after you've run 20 rolls, that's an extra $20 per roll, but I probably ran well over 200 rolls on that processor. Now that I've moved on to a more automated unit, I'm still using the graduates, thermometer, pump, and hydrometer - and if anything goes wrong I still have the JOBO as a backup.

 

If you don't have a good lab you can get to easily, the balance may involve more than price. It used to be that there were two good E-6 labs in Seattle, now there is one. To send two rolls of film to the remaining lab costs me a total of about $30 including shipping, or I could spend $18 ($9/roll) and spend most of a day and about $30 in car expense and ferry fares driving over there. Nobody expected ProLab to shut down, Ivey might decide to shut down next month or next year. When I pull a roll of film out of my camera I can decide whether or not to run it right then, and have it done and dry in 90 minutes. If there simply isn't a lab you trust nearby, that pretty much answers the question right there.

 

You do have to hit the temperature, and it's pretty tight for the developers. You have to hit the time pretty much dead on for the first developer, you can get away with almost anything after that as long as the error is on the side of leaving it in a bath too long. You have to observe basic lab hygiene in mixing and storing the chemistry. But there isn't anything difficult involved at any step. Using fresh one-shot chemicals there is no reason you can't be every bit as consistent as any pro lab out there.

 

If you need reliable processing and you can't get it elsewhere, go for it.

 

Van