Arista E-6 processing kit

[pschauss]

A friend just gave me a roll of Ektachrome E100g (120 size), a giveaway from the Kodak booth at the NYC Camera Show and I am thinking about developing it myself. It looks like I have a choice between the Kodak kit from B&H, which they won't ship and is out of stock anyway, or the Arista 3 bath kit from Freestyle.

From the instructions on the Freestyle web site it looks like a relatively simple process, similar to the Tetenal kit described in another thread here. Has anyone here tried the Freestyle kit?

 

[sreed2006]

I have used the Arista E-6 processing kit twice, and processed multiple rolls both times. I developed Velvia 50 (135), Kodak E100VS (220), and Astia RAP 100F (120). This is all within the past two months.

The hardest parts are: temperature control, and timing.

The second time I used the kit *, I forgot to add developing time for the 2nd and 3rd rolls, and they both came out too dark. I am sure that if I'd added the correct time, they would have come out much better.

This past weekend I did some Black and White processing, and effort-wise they are about the same. Black and White even takes more steps than the Arista E-6 kit.

* Actually, there's more to this story. I used the first kit at home, and got good results. So, I had another kit sent to my sister's house (in another state), and went there on vacation. She doesn't know anything at all about film photography. When I got there, I handed her a Yashica 24 TLR, and a roll of Arista 100F. I walked her through the whole process, from loading the film into the camera through taking pictures (I metered for her), taking the film out of the camera and putting it onto the processing reel in a changing bag (and into the processing tank), mixing the chemicals (I handled the temperature control), and then processing the film herself. When the pictures came out she was ecstatic. Big smile. Her roll came out fine. It was when I re-used the chemicals the next day, and didn't add time to account for exhaution, that the slides came out too dark.

So, if my sister can do it, being a brand new person to the whole process, you can see that it really isn't that hard.

 

[Morca007]

sreed, how are you controlling temperature through the process?

 

[nikon_sam]

When I was doing E-6 (way back when) I would fill the kitchen sink with the hottest water I could and then let the bottles sit until the chemical reached the temp needed...you can also let the dev. tank sit in the hot water to maintain the needed temp...
E-6 wasn't too hard to do...I have a kit for C-41 that I need to try...

 

[pschauss]

What is the shelf life of this kit assuming that I store the chemicals in full glass bottles between rolls?

 

[atlcruiser]

I am on my 3rd kit. So far no issues. Search meth lab for how I control temps.

I mix in 500ml increments and try to get 8 rolls of 35 per mix, the same number of 120 and about 1/2 that in 220.

After roll 4 I up times about 5% per use after.

The mix has so far been good up to a week sitting on the shelf sealed in JOBO clear bottles. I think a dark glass would be better but I use it up pretty quick.

I followed the instructions and got great results almost every time. The only issue I had was inversion needs to be done exactly as described in the instructions and the wash steps must be done exact as well.

I use tempered water for all wash steps.

I considered mixing it all at once but called freestyle and they said, at best, 2 weeks life on the mixed chemicals and I wont go through that much in 3 weeks.