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E6 processing at home, your tips and tricks


williamj

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I’m thinking of developing chromes at home using an E6 kit. Better not ask why, it’s me being stupid again. 
Do you have any tips and tricks you would share? For example, can Paterson tanks give acceptable results or would I be banging my head against a wall. Trying to talk me out of it might work too. 
My skill level is I develop black and white film every week using Paterson tanks. I used to develop chromes occasionally at work using a JOBO processor about 20 or so years ago. 
FYI over here chromes have to be sent away it takes a long time and it’s not cheap to get it developed. 

Edited by williamj
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C41 is easy, I process all my C41, and there are even options for the temperature you process at, and it’s probably even easier than B&W because there is only one development time set out by the instructions. But with E6 there is another stage in the process, and temperature control is even more important. The critical nature of it is because with slide film the image you make is what people see, but with C41 you can tweak colour balance, contrast, etc. when post editing the negative. 
 

So while a Paterson tank will be fine a water bath with the temperature controlled by a cooks ‘sous vide’ device (what Cinestill sell) is almost essential. I’ve only processed E6 many years ago and the kits aren’t even the same now, but good luck if you try.

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I’ve done it, you can do it. But as others have said, temperature is critical, so some way to accurately and consistently control the temperature will be key to good results. 
I have the Cinestill temperature controller and it works well for C41. I hope it does well with E-6 too, as I’ve got plans for 10 rolls of E100 and I’ve bought a kit to process them.  

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15 hours ago, williamj said:

it’s me being stupid again

You're not being stupid.  I have processed many rolls with E6, always in a four roll stainless steel tank.  I used the Jobo E6 chemicals which I think numbered seven in total.  The instructions were very accurate.  You can reuse the chemicals for a total of three processes, but times have to be increased.  But don't store the chemicals after use for more than a few days.  I used a small tub of water set to 100 deg F and I kept a stream of 100 deg F water flowing into the tub.  Preheat the tank and film by keeping it in the tub for a few minutes before pouring any fluid into the tank.  Never let the formaldehyde stabilizer touch any of your reels or tanks; it will not wash off.  Use a separate tank.  The reels would get so sticky that you would be able to load film if the stabilizer touched them.

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5 hours ago, zeitz said:

You're not being stupid.  I have processed many rolls with E6, always in a four roll stainless steel tank.  I used the Jobo E6 chemicals which I think numbered seven in total.  The instructions were very accurate.  You can reuse the chemicals for a total of three processes, but times have to be increased.  But don't store the chemicals after use for more than a few days.  I used a small tub of water set to 100 deg F and I kept a stream of 100 deg F water flowing into the tub.  Preheat the tank and film by keeping it in the tub for a few minutes before pouring any fluid into the tank.  Never let the formaldehyde stabilizer touch any of your reels or tanks; it will not wash off.  Use a separate tank.  The reels would get so sticky that you would be able to load film if the stabilizer touched them.

Thanks so much for your comment, it gives me encouragement to do this, and for the technical hints. Do you think it is worthwhile to get the stainless steel tanks, do they make it easier to control temperature? 

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I will definitely be looking into the Cinestill temperature controller. Thanks for all your comments and words of encouragement. From what you all have said it seems best to do this in batches rather than one at a time due to the chemicals likely going off in a short period of time. Time to start shooting :)

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38 minutes ago, williamj said:

in batches rather than one at a time due to the chemicals likely going off in a short period of time

I was processing 12 to 16 rolls a week.  If you are only processing a few rolls, I am not sure it is economical to do it yourself.  

And I should have said the the small tub I used as a heating bath held the chemical bottles as well as the developing tank.  So all the constituents were tightly temperature controlled.  I had no trouble keeping the temperature and I did not use a controller.  I did have a device to hold a thermometer in the continuous stream coming out of the faucet.  And I had a thermometer in the small tub bath.

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1 hour ago, zeitz said:

I was processing 12 to 16 rolls a week.  If you are only processing a few rolls, I am not sure it is economical to do it yourself.  

And I should have said the the small tub I used as a heating bath held the chemical bottles as well as the developing tank.  So all the constituents were tightly temperature controlled.  I had no trouble keeping the temperature and I did not use a controller.  I did have a device to hold a thermometer in the continuous stream coming out of the faucet.  And I had a thermometer in the small tub bath.

I was thinking of shooting around a dozen or so rolls so given the prices it would be cheaper to do it myself. Thanks for the added detail on your process. I do enjoy developing film so even if it was the same cost to develop it compared to sending it out I would do it myself. 

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  • 3 months later...

I did E6 for the first time in Feb. and it was easier than I expected, so I have bought the kit. I used Paterson plastic tanks or the Stearman 4x5 tank. No issues with the stabilizer touching the plastics (maybe it was not formaldehyde). 

My home setup will be an Anova Sous-Vide with the steel tank and its neoprene cover (I already own this). I will put all the chemicals in their tanks in the water bath as well as the tank I will use in it (not the reels). 

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I would stay away from the Cinestill kit in favor of the Tetnal or Arista. I got varied results using Cinestill's CS6 kit, while the other two I go great consistent results. Tip wise, make sure there is room in you're warming tank to place your Paterson tank between inversions, so your tank can stay decently temperature regulated.

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I did ECN2, E6 and C41 at home with nothing but Paterson tanks. 

It is not difficult, you just need good, sealed thermometer and large container to hold desirable water temperature long enough.

Hint, I covered water container with another one, to have less heat loss. 

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On 5/9/2023 at 11:38 PM, Sandokan said:

No issues with the stabilizer touching the plastics (maybe it was not formaldehyde). 

Formaldehyde was removed from photographic stabilizers several decades ago, because it is both highly poisonous with prompt exposure, and in the long run, a carcinogen. The replacement formula is more or less like Photo-Flo (for spot-free drying) plus a less dangerous biocidal chemical to inhibit growth of mold and such on the gelatin.

Not quite as effective as "pickling" the dyes and gelatin in formaldehyde (a.k.a "embalming fluid") - but modern photo dyes have better fade-resistance than they used to anyway.

................

The one point I would add to those already mentioned is: Do not stint the agitation at the bleaching stage. Color film bleach is one of the few photo chemicals that actually benefits from having air/oxygen mixed in, for two reasons.

1) Bleaching out silver (i.e. metal) is itself an oxidizing process (a fancy form of "rusting away" the metal). So mixing some oxygen into the bleach by heavy agitation keeps up the supply of the oxidizing ions required.

2) The bleach step also helps complete the previous color developing step, preventing the occurrence of leuco (colorless) cyan dye molecules. Which would obviously screw up the color correctness (slides too red).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuco_dye

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/17/2023 at 6:39 AM, Sandokan said:

Tetenal E-6 kits seem to be sold out across Europe. Does anyone know why and when next batch will be produced? I will need to plan restocking after this weekend. 

 

I have been in touch for several months now (about the E6 kits) with a contact at Tetenal 1847, the new company that arose from the ashes of the now-defunkt original Tetenal.  He assures me that new E6 kits WILL be available, but the date keeps being delayed.  His last communication on 16th May 2023 said:

"We are now heading towards end of June, and that is also not certain."

Because of the repeated delays, I'd estimate September-October, and I'm told there is a huge backlog of orders from re-sellers so it could be later for you and I.

FYI, in the absence of the Tetenal kit, I used the 3-bath CineStill process with the D6 first developer and am very pleased with the results.  For 120 film and a Paterson tank, it's quite expensive because the FD is single-shot, however if you can fit 2 reels of 35mm into the tank, it's a bit cheaper.  But the quality was excellent (like all E6 processing, the time and temperature of the FD is critical, time to +/- 15sec, temperature to +/- 1degF).   

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/7/2023 at 9:24 PM, Sandokan said:

I ordered the Bellini E6 kit and it arrived this week. As I am alone this weekend, I think multiple films will be developed. 

How did you get on?   I'm fed up of waiting for Tetenal so have now ordered a Bellini 7-bath kit.

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  • 1 month later...

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