Souping Slide Film

[Larky]

Hello.

I have decided to take the plunge and try developing my own slide film, Velvia etc. Now, in reality, how hard is this? I have about 20 rolls I need to get through before they are way out of date but cannot afford £6.00 a roll to develop them later.

Has anyone here developed slide film, can I do it in my kitchen and will the chemicals melt my face off?

Thanks.

A.

 

[kipkeston]

I hear the hard part is keeping the temp consistent. I had a friend who did it for a little while until he realized home E6 was just not economical.

 

[ZeissFan]

I don't know where you live, but Freestyle sells an E-6 kit that works very well.

The key to E-6 is keeping the chemicals at a certain temperature, which means using a small tub of almost-hot water for the chemicals.

I've used this kit, and it works very well and is not too difficult to use.

 

[Larky]

I live in the UK, and I'm struggling to find a supplier. I know there is a place in London that is supposed to do it but can't find out who.

 

[kully]

www.silverprint.co.uk sell the kit.

You don't have to pay £6/roll, try 'peak imaging' - they're good.

 

[DeeCee3]

A Piece of Cake

A Piece of Cake

Doing your own E-6 processing is as simple as it gets (well, almost...) and the results will warm the cockles of your heart. I haven't done my own slides in some years now but for a long time, I processed Ektachrome using a tiny apartment-sized kitchen and floating the tank in a sink of nearly hot water, as an earlier poster suggested.

I encourage you to take the plunge. Nothing ever satisfied me more in darkroom work than unreeling 24 frames of color shots I'd processed myself.

dc

 

[steverett]

I've developed my own as well, using the 6-bath Kodak kit. When I was in college, I used a Jobo CPP, which made it really easy, but my friend and I did some in my bathtub recently and it came out just fine. Just keep an eye on the temp and add more hot water as needed.

When I used the Jobo, the heater maintained the temp to a tenth of a degree C, but our bathtub method was much less precise and the colors still looked good. Just make sure to keep the chemical bottles in the water bath as well, and the water temp within a degree or two.

 

[steverett]

Whatever you do, don't use them after two weeks. I used some 3- or 4-week-old E-6 chems once, and my blacks came out as red (pretty much impossible to fix in PS).

 

[Larky]

Hmm, Peak Imaging do seem quite cheap. I think I'll give them a go as you get a good discount for multi-film souping.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Tetenal E6 and a Jobo CPE-2 or better, and it's dead easy. I've not had E6 devved professionally since I left the UK in 2002, except in China in 2005.

Tashi delek,

Roger

 

[wintoid]

I might be wrong, but I thought I saw some E6 kits in Mr CAD when I was there last weekend. Definitely C41, but I thought E6 too.

 

[oscroft]

I had my first go at E6 processing a few months ago, and it went really well. I used the Tetenal kit (3 baths plus stabiliser) and, as others have said, the temperature and timing are critical.

I did it using water baths and constantly checking temperature, but I've just bought a Jobo thing for future use - I'll be doing all my own E6 in future.

As for cost, using a 1L kit (which is enough for 12 rolls), it worked out at about £2 per roll.