DIY E-6 Processing question

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navilluspm

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I apologize if this is an absurd question, but here I go:

I notices that Freestyle sells a DIY E-6 processing kit. When I looked at the spec. sheet I noticed that they gave developing times for low temperatures like 75F. I was always under the impression that one had to develop the film at 105F.

Is it possible to get good slides using extended times when processing Velvia at 75F with one of these kits, or should you always keep the temperature at 105?

Here is the spec. sheet: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/AristaE6.pdf
 
Is there a more economical source for the chemicals? The Arista kits work out really expensive per roll, you only can do two rolls of 220 with the quart kit for example, and it costs 33 dollars before shipping. I think I could get Neiman Marcus to process for less!
 
Thanks for the input. Yes, I realize the Arista Kit is pricey. I was just using it as an example of showing times for cooler processing. If it is possible to process E-6 film at summer room temperature +, I was thinking of looking for a cheaper kit to try it out if such a thing were possible.

Has anyone ever tried to process slide film at cooler temperatures than 105F and had good results?
 
If they tell you to process at 75 you probably should process at 75.
If they tell you to process at 105 you probably should process at 105.
If they tell you to process at something else you probably should process at something else.

But that's just me.
 
Off hand I cannot recall the conversion calculation into Centigrade,but I always kept to the recommended 38C given in UK Kits.Presumably that equates to 105F.I found this to be no problem at all using a plastic bowl as a water bath,topped up with warm water during the processing.

Before trying it I was very concerned that the maintenance of 38C in this way would be problematic,but in practice it was fine,and I never had a failure.Some people rig up a water heater for the Bath from aquarium heaters,and find this successful,but I never went that far.

Brian.
 
Kodak E6

Kodak E6

Thanks you for all who responded. I guess I have one more question: Have any of you used Kodak's E6 single Use processing kit? It is supposed to make 5l of working Deveolper, Bleach, Bath, etc. . .

What is the shelf life of the of the unused chemicals if you only mix a liter of the kit at a time. On the fact sheet I can see the storage times for the mixed solutions, but not the unmixed ones.

Here is a link to the fact sheet: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ti2443/ti2443.jhtml
 
My only experience (very positive), was with the Tetenal 3-step kit. Comments I have seen were that other kits with additional (1 or 2?) steps gave slightly or somewhat better quality, but I never did any controlled testing.

I've heard good things about the Kodak kit, and their support is very good. I don't think you can go wrong.
 
This is quite interesting to me as I'm thinking about developing my own slide film (and colour negative film). I'm fairly happy that I can control the dev. temperature reasonably accurately, but my biggest concern at the moment is maintaining the wash temperature.

With B&W I can usually use the water straight from the tap and either leave the tap running or fill and replace the dev tank.

How do others complete the wash stages of their processing?

Thank,
David.
 
The 'standard' E6 temperature in Fahrenheit is 100F. This is about 38C, the temperature used for C41 too.

Temperature control is critical only for the first developer step. The control need not be so stringent with colour developer, and with the rest of the steps, the temperatures can fluctuate -2...+3 C without causing any adverse effects. The final wash can be way off- and it's not going to make the slides go bad.

Years ago, I used a Kodak E6 kit for home processing which allowed the use of different temperatures. A sliding table for process times at non-standard temperatures was included in the kit. I opted to use the 38C 'standard' since it gave shorter processing times.

Jay
 
navilluspm said:
Thanks you for all who responded. I guess I have one more question: Have any of you used Kodak's E6 single Use processing kit? It is supposed to make 5l of working Deveolper, Bleach, Bath, etc. . .

What is the shelf life of the of the unused chemicals if you only mix a liter of the kit at a time. On the fact sheet I can see the storage times for the mixed solutions, but not the unmixed ones.

Here is a link to the fact sheet: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ti2443/ti2443.jhtml
Click to expand...


I use the E6 5L kit - I have stored the open bottle for months with no problem. Mixed, I don't try more than a week - so I do 1 Liter at a time. This will be enough for me to do 8 rolls of 120 film in an old Phototherm I have. The kit costs about $60 so that comes out to around $1.50 a roll. Of course sometimes I want to do less than 8 rolls and I may only run about 4 through a liter batch, but my cost per roll is still les than $4 and I get it in about 45minutes.

These chemicals are designed for 37.8 degrees C or 100F.
 
Trius said:
My only experience (very positive), was with the Tetenal 3-step kit. Comments I have seen were that other kits with additional (1 or 2?) steps gave slightly or somewhat better quality, but I never did any controlled testing.

I've heard good things about the Kodak kit, and their support is very good. I don't think you can go wrong.
Click to expand...

I have used both the tetenal and Kodak. For the money and results, the kodak kit is way more effective. The kodak kit says its a single use mix, but that isn't really true. We used these chemicals to develop for a \photoclub (the max we did was about 25 rolls). We would recycle the chems and they would last until the expiration of the first dev (about 2 weeks). I believe the tetenal is more expensive, and only makes one batch. Kodak kit is $49.99 and makes 3 or 4 batches of chemicals. The kodak kit consists of 7 baths, so developing is a little more busy than the tetenal. To me the best part of developing my own e6 is cross processing c-41 and doing crazy long pushes.

i.e. Kodak ektachrome 100 pushed to 1600
75507278_a15fb9d775_o.jpg
 
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Thank you again to all who responded. It will probably be another year before I try E-6 processing, but I like getting all the information I can.
 
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