questions for those doing E-6 at home

[kmallick]

I am in the process of reading up and getting ready for DIY E-6 developing using Arista's kit. I have a few questions for those of you doing E-6 at home:

1. Can I use the same plastic developing tank for both B&W and E-6?
2. Since temperature control is critical, do you typically use agitation using the rotary stick in the tank instead of inversion while keeping the tank submerged in a water bath?
3. Is it OK to use Photo Flo before you take the film out for drying?
4. Are their particular films or emulsions that you have seen to give consistent results with minimal color shifts?

Thanks a lot beforehand for any help or suggestion.

 

[bobby_novatron]

I am going to do some E-6 at home next week, but using the Tetenal kit. I can't comment specifically on the Arista kit, but I assume there would be similarities to processing C-41.

I use the same plastic developing tanks for both my B&W and C-41 at home. Doesn't matter.

For agitation, I use the same method as B&W -- 10 gentle end-to-end rotations of the tank by hand for 10 seconds (roughly), then I place it back in the bath until the next rotation. I suppose using the stick would be 100% fine as well. I have done hand-rotation without any problems.

Good luck with your home E-6! Post some results if you can. There's not a lot of us out there doing our own E-6 development ... it's a dying art, I think. 😉

 

[Roger Hicks]

I am in the process of reading up and getting ready for DIY E-6 developing using Arista's kit. I have a few questions for those of you doing E-6 at home:

1. Can I use the same plastic developing tank for both B&W and E-6?
2. Since temperature control is critical, do you typically use agitation using the rotary stick in the tank instead of inversion while keeping the tank submerged in a water bath?
3. Is it OK to use Photo Flo before you take the film out for drying?
4. Are their particular films or emulsions that you have seen to give consistent results with minimal color shifts?

Thanks a lot beforehand for any help or suggestion.

1 Yes. I do. Wash WELL, though.

2 You may need to extend the times, depending on the kit,, as some kits are predicated on continual agitation.

3 You shouldn't need to, as the stabilizer bath should take care of this for you, but I don't know about the Arista kit.

4 Kodak films have generally behaved better for me than Fuji

I'll add: Don't panic when you first see the films. They get a LOT better as they dry.

Cheers,

R.

 

[bobby_novatron]

Great advice as always, Roger.

 

[sevo]

Photo Flo or the like should not be used - nor needed, a surfactant is already included in the stabilizer. If you follow up with anything on the current mild stabilizers, you'll probably end up with un-stabilized, fading film.

 

[kmallick]

Thanks for all your help and input. Much appreciated.
Can someone using the Arista E-6 kit confirm that a surfactant is included in the BLIX? I know that the Tetenal kit has a stabilizer but I am not sure about the Arista kit.

 

[sevo]

Thanks for all your help and input. Much appreciated.
Can someone using the Arista E-6 kit confirm that a surfactant is included in the BLIX? I know that the Tetenal kit has a stabilizer but I am not sure about the Arista kit.

Coming before all washing, the blix should not have a surfactant in it - the stab should.

I don't know about Arista in particular or the conditions in the US in general, but some kits in some places come without stabilizer. For purely legal/economical reasons, by the way - stab contains formaldehyde, which (irrationally) is in a higher toxicity class than the rest so that the storage and shipping of a stab-inclusive kit may be prohibitively expensive in some places. If so, you'd have to buy it separately.

 

[bananasplit]

Here are my two bits.... as I just developped yesterday evening 8 rolls of Color slides (5 x 35 mm and 3 x 120). This was not the first time and I am becoming experienced if I can say so.

For the first time I was using one of those constent temperature bath from this company in NJ (can't remember the name). Very useful...

1. Can I use the same plastic developing tank for both B&W and E-6?

YES. Why shouldn't you?

2. Since temperature control is critical, do you typically use agitation using the rotary stick in the tank instead of inversion while keeping the tank submerged in a water bath?

NO. I only use agitation by inversion (same for B&W). I will keep the tank in the water bath but I remember that for my first rolls I did not and the result was excellent.

3. Is it OK to use Photo Flo before you take the film out for drying?

WHY would you use Photo Flo? Rinse well, hang the negs and voila! I never had any marks of any kind.

4. Are their particular films or emulsions that you have seen to give consistent results with minimal color shifts?

Honestly everything work well. All depends on what you prefer. I tried Fuji, Kodak and yesterday a roll of Rollei digibase CR200. Look more yellow than the other rolls but this might be because of the synthetic base of this film...I guess.

Hope those two bits could help you... Just do it! and Enjoy!

 

[bananasplit]

Sorry forgot to mention that I used the Arista kit.

Do not know what is the "surfactant" you mentionned.
Just know that all is included in the kit and it worked well for me everytime I used it.

 

[sevo]

Do not know what is the "surfactant" you mentionned.

"Surface active agent" - the active principle of Photo Flo and similar "wetting agents" (or, more properly, dispersants) as well as a component of all colour process stabilizers I've ever used.

 

[kmallick]

Thanks to all the advice and encouraging words, I was able to do the first E-6 roll yesterday. The hard part of the whole process is mixing the chemicals for the working solution. The rest was as straightforward as the B&W process. My agitation process was twisting the center column back and forth every 30 seconds. I think Arista's kit worked well. Here is a picture of my setup. I had picked up the water temperature control bath on eBay for a song - I set the temp. and walked away until the temperature stabilized to 105 F in the 1st developer.

And here are some sample shots I just scanned from my first roll of Fuji Velvia 100, taken with Mamiya 6.

 

[wblynch]

Wow great work !!

 

[bananasplit]

I am impressed.

How did you scan those negs? Would you mind share some detail?

 

[kmallick]

I scanned my negatives on a Canon 9000F flatbed scanner. I have been using the negative holder for 120 film with ANR glass from betterscanning.com. Except the part where you have to clean the glass from smudge, dirt etc, it works well.

My ulterior goal is to mount the 6x6 slides on GEPE slide mounts for projection. Scanning really doesn't do justice to the beautiful see-through chromes. Let me rephrase that - its downright discuraging fo me to scan the 120 slides. But that the best option to share online.

 

[bananasplit]

Thanks for your answer. Canon scanners are supposed to be the best for MF unless you can afford something else...

Good luck for your 6x6 slides project!