E-6 in Atomal 49

[KevinVH]

Hi everyone

I'm currently living in Ecuador and was gifted lots of expired E6 film a couple of years ago. E6 development hasn't been available nationally here in Ecuador for a couple of years, and seeing the prices in Belgium ( where I'm originally from and travel to every 2 years) for E6 developing, I've decided to have a try at it myself with the only chemicals currently in my possession.

I've got Atomal 49, newly mixed up, and had great results developing expired C41 in it. My technique is as follows:

Atomal 49 @ 25 degrees celsius for 6 min, a lime stopping solution and 7 minutes of Kodak fixer.

Like I mentioned, this worked for me with an expired C41, but yesterday I tried to develop a 120 film of Astia, and didn't have any luck. The film came out clear, but it does have the frame numbers etc on the border of the film.

I'm not ruling it out it wasn't exposed due to a misloading in the camera. I've got about 20 rolls I've shot over a span of about 5 years, with different cameras.

Am I right to assume that if the frame numbers of the film are visible, but the film is completely brown transparent i.e. not exposed, that this was probably just a unexposed roll? and I should be good with development?

Now I understand this is a waste of these rolls, but as I've said, most of these rolls are more than 15 years expired and there's no way I can get these developed even in C41 chems, let alone E6 itself.

Any input?

 

[ranger9]

Yes, if you've got frame numbers, presumably your development did something and the most likely issue was that the film didn't go through the camera.

If you want to experiment, you could try to unspool an exposed roll in a darkroom or changing bag, snip off the first few centimeters, then seal up the rest in a lightproof bag or box. Then pull out your snipped-off piece and try developing it in full room light. If it turns dark, then you know your development process works on this type of film, and how long it takes to turn black will give you a rough idea of what developing time to try.

 

[KevinVH]

Yes, if you've got frame numbers, presumably your development did something and the most likely issue was that the film didn't go through the camera.

If you want to experiment, you could try to unspool an exposed roll in a darkroom or changing bag, snip off the first few centimeters, then seal up the rest in a lightproof bag or box. Then pull out your snipped-off piece and try developing it in full room light. If it turns dark, then you know your development process works on this type of film, and how long it takes to turn black will give you a rough idea of what developing time to try.

Thanks, that's helpful, I'll try to develop another roll later on..

 

[KevinVH]

ok guys so I did another roll and it came out with images on it. Obviously it isn't perfect, but I wonder is there any way I can increase contrast by developing longer, or shorter, or hotter or colder? The negatives are very dense, which is due to the plastic base, I'm guessing there's nothing to do about that? Images are from what I can tell from the negatives very dark, is there a way to increase exposure in the developing process?


I'll scan that roll tomorrow, but I'm developing another one tonight, since I've got only one developing tank and it's not easy to do a couple per night since it's a pain in the butt to load film on a wet reel.

 

[Freakscene]

ok guys so I did another roll and it came out with images on it. Obviously it isn't perfect, but I wonder is there any way I can increase contrast by developing longer, or shorter, or hotter or colder? The negatives are very dense, which is due to the plastic base, I'm guessing there's nothing to do about that? Images are from what I can tell from the negatives very dark, is there a way to increase exposure in the developing process?


I'll scan that roll tomorrow, but I'm developing another one tonight, since I've got only one developing tank and it's not easy to do a couple per night since it's a pain in the butt to load film on a wet reel.

Longer and/or hotter increases contrast.

A hair dryer is your friend for keeping reels dry and easy to load.

Marty