E-3: Should I Bother?

[jaredangle]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a large batch of relatively fresh, well-preserved Ektachrome 100 in 120, and the seller also included several rolls of older ISO 50 Ektachrome with a 1975 expiration date. Since this heavily expired film was practically free, I used some for some random street shots. However, it's E-3 process, and having looked up what's required to replicate that process, I have no interest in doing it the correct way. This leads me to ask if anyone knows if E-3 can be processed in BW chemistry with acceptable results, or if this film should be left on the shelf as a fun relic from the past.

Best regards,
Jared

 

[x-ray]

E3 Ektachrome produced beautiful results. It handled pastels especially and had the most gorgeous spring greens and rich warm skin tones. I was a commercial photographer for 55 years and got into the business in the E3 days. Actually I remember E2. I ran thousands of sheets and rolls of E3 before E6 came in.

Most likely if you processed it it would be so heavily fogged it wouldn’t be usable. Also unlike Kodachrome that can be processed into a sort of usable B&W image, Ektachrome contains the color couplers to form the color image, magenta, cyan and yellow, and after processing those couplers remain in the film. Kodachrome doesn’t contain color couplers, just dye based filters, so the image is pretty much just a B&W negative.

E3 had 2 developers a bleach, fixer and stabilizer. When you run it in the 1st developer and do your first wash, it has to be exposed to intense light to reverse it. At the point when the 1st wash is complete and the lights can come on you see a very dark almost opaque negative image against a nearly black base. You do have a B&W neg at that point but the couplers mask it so to get a usable neg you’d have to bleach the couplers out and I’m not sure how you’d do that.

After the reversal exposure you do the color developer which also allows excess couplers to be removed and washed out. Still the silver negative remains and has to be bleached in a cyanide bleach then fixed in a B&W type fixer. At that point you have a color image but I’m not sure how the color couplers could be removed without doing the color development.

It might be interesting to see if you could get some E6 chemistry and try to run it in that but run it at 75F. E3 was a low temp process and the emulsion probably wouldn’t stand up to high temps.

You might be able to run the film in something like HC110 and use C41 bleach fix to clear it. Not certain but that probably would remove the couplers. It might also make a pretty strange looking neg.

Good luck!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

E3 in C-41.

Developing E3 E4 Ektachrome slide films in C41

How I have been developing my expired Kodak Ektachrome Slide films. I have 35mm, 120, and 4×5. Here’s some 120. Mostly E3/E4 type films – EPB, EHB, EP Development – All sol…

lifeofstawa.wordpress.com

 

[jaredangle]

Thanks everyone! Low temp C-41 seems ideal to me, I will have to give that a try.

 

[x-ray]

I’m amazed at that guys results. I would have expected heavy fog and more color shift. It doesn’t look like Ektachrome professional in E3 but it’s pretty cool.

Edit: The final step in E3 was a stabilizer which hardened the emulsion and had a wetting agent in it. The hardener, if I remember correctly, was a formalin hardener. I’m not certain I’d use chrome alum hardener but I’d use a couple of drops of photoflo to prevent spots. The emulsion is very delicate at that point.

 

[Freakscene]

I’m amazed at that guys results. I would have expected heavy fog and more color shift. It doesn’t look like Ektachrome professional in E3 but it’s pretty cool.

Edit: The final step in E3 was a stabilizer which hardened the emulsion and had a wetting agent in it. The hardener, if I remember correctly, was a formalin hardener. I’m not certain I’d use chrome alum hardener but I’d use a couple of drops of photoflo to prevent spots. The emulsion is very delicate at that point.

Chrome alum won’t harden it. Use 10 ml of 37% formaldehyde and 100 g/l sodium sulfate in 1 L of water at pH 9 (adjust with NaOH or HCl) then wash before you develop it. E3 has a very soft emulsion surface.

Note that formaldehyde is nasty - take appropriate safety orecautions.