E6 Home processing

[john_bright]

Seeing the recent fierce debate concerning the varying sharpness of

films returned from processors after E6 processing. Begs me to ask a

new question. Why don't you develop your own films? I've been doing

my own medium format processing for about twelve years now (mainly

color-neg and B&W) and once you get into the swing of it, it's really

quite straight forward. I have'nt done any E6 recently, but as I

recall it was even less of a problem. You don't even need a darkroom.

Just a daylight developing tank or tanks, E6 Dev Kit, a black-bag or

somewhere dark to load the film and a small water-bath or means to

maintain a constant temperature for a few minutes. The results with

E6 are the finished product 'Tranparancies'.

 

Obviously the above recommendation is for people who only use small

quantities of film, if you're taking ten or twenty rolls a day, it

would not be viable.

[sorin]

I develop my own E6 & BW film. I use a Jobo processor I paid $250 for (used). I can develop 8 films at a time if I need to.

[dk_thompson]

E6 is a piece of cake...it's the sharpness control that's a pain in the butt....

[john_bright]

I've never had any sharpness problems with any of the color processes I've tried. If that happened I'd check the camera out quickly.

[sergio_ortega6]

John,

 

I've used the various E-6 processes to save money processing 4x5 and 8x10 films. It's not difficult, as you say, but it does have its drawbacks.

 

I've found that precisely maintaining the high temperatures called for is the trickiest part. I use one of the large Photo-Therm tanks, with thermostatically controlled heating elements and re-circulating water pumps, as a precise temperature regulated water bath tank, into which I place all my smaller processing containers. It takes over an hour to bring everything to a consistent and stable temperature from room temperature. I've tried other, less sophisticated methods and the results have not been very consistent.

 

I also work with the open tanks and metal frame film holders for sheet films, so I have to work in total darkness, which can be challenging at times. And it's easier to precisely control times with the dip/dunk tank methods; daylight tanks are less precise since you have to contend with drain/fill times. For roll films the Jobo processors would be ideal, but these are rather expensive.

 

It is labor intensive, so you have to determine how much time you want to devote to it. It's not as quick and easy as developing B&W. And it's boring as hell, not a very creative use of your time.

 

The E-6 chemicals are expensive and once mixed don't have much shelf life. If you're planning to do a lot of film developing on a regular basis it could be cost-effective to do it yourself. But if you only plan to do a few rolls/sheets every week, I think you'll be better off having it done commercially.

 

There's only one way to know if it's for you...try it out yourself.

[john_bright]

Sergio,

 

Thanks for your response. It sounds like you've been into pocessing in a bigger way than me. Just one or two points though, as I said above I've been doing my own MF processing for about twelve years (C41 RA4 EP2 E6 Cibachrome B&W) but have never ventured into large format, so I really can't comment. As far as equipment is concerned, for developing say two or three 120 films (C41 or E6) I use an old Paterson Autocolortherm that I have adapted slightly. The thermostat is very accurate and reliable, but even then I still think it is extremely important to take temperature readings directly from the developer, as these can always differ slightly. It's simple then to tweak the dev times slightly to be dead accurate. As far as chemical life is concerned, I've had very little trouble. Oxygen is the big enemy, so all bottles must be filled to the top and tightly capped. Its strange, the oxygen in the water does'nt seem to do much harm. When I've used a chemical once I blow any air out of the top with 'Tetenal Protectan'. I developed a color-neg once with chemicals that had been mixed up for about 8-months and the result was perfect.

Lastly, I never get bored with this process and when I see the lovely sparkly clean dry Negs & Trans everything seems worthwhile. Much better than the dingy things I used to get back from the processors, with squeegy and clip marks.

[dk_thompson]

For E6 you need to be able to deliver fairly accurate temp washes as well...at least the first wash should be spot on. Rather than tweaking the first developer time, it would be better to get all the steps within the same range...also, with some of the newer kits, like the 5 liter Kodak E6 (6 step), the prewet has been done away with. You need to do a preheat on your tubes/reels whatever somehow to bring them up to temp before the first developer. Some folks even use halrdryers on stainless steel reels etc, because an ambient temp reel can drop the temp of the tube enough to cause problems....if you use a prewet, you may run into consistency problems with density & color balance on certain types of films....I would recommend using a kit like the 5 liter Kodak 6 step...but the chemistry goes bad very fast. Where I work we use about 6-8 of these kits a month in a wing-lynch machine. The chemistry is in heated tanks with a nitrogen blanket on top. The nitrogen both protects the chemistry from oxidation and the pressure forces the chemistry out of the tanks and into the processing trough. But the nitrogen needs to be of the purest hospital grade, or else air gets into the the mix as well....even in this type of machine, the chemistry will start to go bad after a week. Some steps like reversal bath, first developer and color developer go bad fast, while others take a little longer. You can see color developer change in solution color easily, but the others remain clear more or less....

 

So, what I recommend is to download the pdf file from Kodak for the E6 manula, Z-119. This online version doesn't have the control charts, but if you're not running control strips you won't need them. You may find the mixing procedures and visual process control instructions helpful though. Here's a link to Kodak's tech publication site:

 

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/chemicals/qaE6.shtml

 

Another thing that will help you alot is to use separate mixing containers, funnles and stirring rods etc. for each step. For 6 step E6, you'll need four sets. Some steps can be mixed in the same containers, where others need to be isolated. Contamination will really mess up your process, so if you use one mix container, wasah the hell out of it and cross your fingers....the only other thing I can say, is that you need to do everything the same way every time....you need to be very consistent so when things go wrong (they will eventually), you can troubleshoot by process of elimination...unfortunately with a one-shot process there's not much corrective action in E6. The best E6 is a replenished line...hope this helps.

[john_bright]

DK,

 

Thanks for passing on your experience and professional knowledge. A lot of the advice and warnings you offer, I fully understand and already try to include in my processing ie: Pre-Heating. The dangers of Cross Contamination etc. and I always try to maintain a strict regime and procedure in the darkroom for the reasons you mention above. Ive had a good look at the Kodak site and downloaded Z-119 etc. and next time I do any E6 I'll study them in detail. Thanks again.

 

PS: Am I likely to encounter any sharpness problems.

[dk_thompson]

Only if you drop your film before processing or shake it really hard....or as my boss suggested, heat the film up so much that the three layers pop out of registration......my cure for unsharp E6 films due to processing though is rather simple. I take a fine-point sharpie and draw in some sharp defined edges to my main subject.....but my boss has suggested that we add a 7th step to the machine...unsharp mask. I'll let y'all know how our tests work out, I'm thinking of making a custom control strip for this somehow....not only will it have to be kept in the dark & in the freezer, but it will have to be pre-focused by Kodak....

[julie_bennett]

It's great to see a recent discussion on e6 processing.

I'm thinking of getting into processing at home.

I was wondering if anyone knows how many uses (or rolls)

you can get out of one batch, i.e. can you process 4 rolls

in 300 ml??

What are peoples experience with Photoclor Chrome, Tetanol, Kodak?

 

Julie

[dk_thompson]

It really depends on what type of equipment you're using...there's always going to be a minimum volume needed for a one-shot tank or tube, but in my experience you need to use the max amount you can...oxidation can be a big problem with E6, and if you skimp on chemistry, you run into the chance of oxidizing it during the processing step....especially if you're using something with constant agitation like a rotary tube. You can't really re-use one-shot E6 kits, no matter what anybody tells you. Some of the steps are triggered by carryover amounts into the next chemical.

 

Sorry, the only chemistry I'm familiar with is Kodak....some of the differences between the kits are that some are 3 steps, some are 6. With 6 step, it's really 7. The final rinse or stabilizer is the 7th step and is always done outside of your tanks/tubes etc. With Kodak, the stabilizer is now called "final rinse" and is sorta like photo-flo. The old stabilizer had formaldehyde in it, and there are still some E6 kits out there using a type of stabilizer like this. With the Kodak 5 liter kits, the stabilizing part of the process occurs in the pre-bleach step now. This used to be called "conditioner" and there was a wash step just prior to this step (after color developer). With some E6 chemistry--not Kodak--this wash is still there. With the 5 liter Kodak kits, the wash has been removed. So what's the big deal here, huh? Well, if you wash here, this adversely effects the life of your film....so that's another difference....there are others like with some kits you have to dilute certain steps like reversal bath for rotary tube processing etc, and there are always water quality and pH issues with E6. So, in addition to your basic chemsitry, you may need to have some sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid on hand to tweak the pH of the color developer for color balance....fwiw, you get more control from 6 step than 3, but you'll never get the amount of control you would from a replensihed line. I would just recommend going with Kodak....but the 5 liter kits are about 70 bucks or so now I guess, I don't really know to tell ya the truth--we get 'em dirt cheap on contracts....MY opinions only.

[dk_thompson]

oh yeah...I just looked at an old data guide we have & figure you could probably do maybe 1-1/2 rolls of 35mm or maybe one roll of 120 in 300ml. *Maybe*--because you'd actually need a little more than that as a minimum amount for two rolls, and then that's the minimum needed. You'd use this & dump it when the run is done--one-shot. To put it in perspective, on our automatic processor, we need to use about 5.5 ounces minimum just to run the machine. Then for each roll of 135-36 we need another 5 ounces more or less...for each 120 we need almost 9 oz. So for a run of four, we use about 25-30 ounces of chemistry, and close to 40 for 4-120....alot more than 300ml, which is like 8 ounces or something. You need a minimum amount for the chemistry, plus a minimum for the processor/tank/tube etc. Hope this isn't too confusing, believe me compared to color balance & speed problems adequate solution will be the least of your worries....