John_K
addict
Reged: 03/09/2006
Posts: 560
Loc: North Yorks
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I still use a significant ammount of slide film. Usually Kodak Elite 100 or Sensia 100 and have been sending them off to either Jessops, Peak Immaging, and Fuji, and have NOT been impressed with the results. The colours are either washed out, the whole film has a cast, or they are too dark for the purpose they were intended for.
In utter desperation I bought a 1 litre kit of Tetenal E6 and this will do 8 films if I process 2 at a time. The kit is supposed to do 12 but I use one mix and discard the chemicals after. I use new chemicals with every two films
The results are a real revelation. Good intense blacks, no colour cast and just what I want. (and cheaper as well!!!!)It is a 35minute bind to wait whilst the JOBO processor does its stuff but well worth it at the end.
I have heard that mixing different E6 films in with a developing bath will affect the end result, as this is undoubtedly what the labs do, I wonder if this is why getting the good results that I am
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Benchmark
Is it safe?
Reged: 12/07/2005
Posts: 2932
Loc: Sedgefield, Co Durham
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FWIW I have had no problem mixing Velvia and Provia in the same batch, but I have not tried mixing films from different manufacturers in recent times.
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Nigel CRIPN and Bar
Beware of the Dark Slide
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welshwizard645
addict
Reged: 29/09/2006
Posts: 420
Loc: Out of my mind
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I've just had 2 batches back from Fuji and Peak....
Very, very happy with the results
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John_K
addict
Reged: 03/09/2006
Posts: 560
Loc: North Yorks
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Quote:
FWIW I have had no problem mixing Velvia and Provia in the same batch, but I have not tried mixing films from different manufacturers in recent times.
No what I meant was mixing Kodak with Fuji. The films are all E6 process but I'd bet my bottom dollar that the technical make up of the emulsions and the dyes are different
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Malcolm_Stewart
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/07/2005
Posts: 2385
Loc: Milton Keynes, UK
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Quote:
... The colours are either washed out, the whole film has a cast, or they are too dark for the purpose they were intended for.
In utter desperation I bought a 1 litre kit of Tetenal E6
...I have heard that mixing different E6 films in with a developing bath will affect the end result, as this is undoubtedly what the labs do, I wonder if this is why getting the good results that I am
I've had good E6 processing of Provia 100F from Peak Imaging.
But, like you, I went down the home processing path after my local E6 processor (now no longer trading) <slightly> ruined the first test film in what then was my most expensive photo purchase, my EOS3 complete with 28-135 and 550EX package. My EOS3 was one of the early batch which under-exposed by 2/3 stop, and my test film came back with very low saturation colours and overall much too light. I assumed that their chemicals had got exhausted during the days use, and that the morning QC check was simply a marketing gimmick.
During my use of the Tetenal chemicals, I always did one film at a time, and was very pleased with the results. (You are heat drying your films after a proper formalin based stabilisation rinse, I hope?)
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Malcolm Stewart
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Benchmark
Is it safe?
Reged: 12/07/2005
Posts: 2932
Loc: Sedgefield, Co Durham
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Quote:
Quote:
FWIW I have had no problem mixing Velvia and Provia in the same batch, but I have not tried mixing films from different manufacturers in recent times.
No what I meant was mixing Kodak with Fuji. The films are all E6 process but I'd bet my bottom dollar that the technical make up of the emulsions and the dyes are different
They should all be compatible with one-another.
The formualtion of the films will be slightly different, but basically the same - they are, after all, designed to be machine processed with other flms using E6 standard chemistry, and it would be a brave manufacturer who made a film that consistently messed up an entire processing line.
Having said that, the only problems I have ever had involved Kodak Portra 160 colour negative film (C41 process), where some (but by no means all) rolls seem to give the dev a strong green colour - almost like antifreeze - but this dissapears by the enxt time the dev is used.
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Nigel CRIPN and Bar
Beware of the Dark Slide
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nimbus
enthusiast
Reged: 29/08/2007
Posts: 313
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Could the strong green colour you experienced be the result of an anti halation dye in the emulsion? When hand processing Agfa APX400 black and white rollfilm I used to end up with a dark green liquid from the pre-soak.
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Benchmark
Is it safe?
Reged: 12/07/2005
Posts: 2932
Loc: Sedgefield, Co Durham
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Quote:
Could the strong green colour you experienced be the result of an anti halation dye in the emulsion? When hand processing Agfa APX400 black and white roll film I used to end up with a dark green liquid from the pre-soak.
I'm not entirely sure. I have seen a purple-ish colour in pre-wash water (and/or first Dev) from Velvia, but the water coming out of the drum from Portra was so thick and green I thought the entire emulsion had dissolved!
Going back a stage, I always used to pre-wash E6 reversal films (and Cibachrome papers!) before the first Dev, and it always worked well for me. (It also has the benefit of warming up the reels and film for the first Dev).
I tried the same thing with C41 films and had no problems until I started using Portra. I was quite alarmed by the colour of the wash water, and found that the scans had a fairly strong (but correctable) green cast - presumably owing to the lack of green dye in the emulsion.
What puzzled me was that some rolls of Portra turned the water dark green, but others did not. A further complication was that I had been processing (using a Tetenal kit) at a lower temperature, (30 °C IIRC) which I found easier to control.
I did speak to someone at Kodak Technical Service, who was helpful, but stressed that they had very little experience of manual processing, or processing outside of the normal C41 (at 38 °C) environment. However, he did say that pre-washing was not necessary or recommended, and also said that processing at non-standard temperatures was not recommended, as the activity of the three dyes was only matched at 38 °C.
This didn't really answer my questions, so I took 15 identical photographs on a single 120 roll of Portra 160 NC, and cut the film into four pieces inside the changing bag (whilst keeping my fingers)!
I then pre-washed two of the four pieces of film, and processed one washed and one unwashed piece at both 30 and 38 °C.
The film processed at 38 °C definitely had better colour than the samples processed at 30 °C (both washed and unwashed). However, I could not see any real difference between the washed and unwashed samples, although both were processed together, so there is a chance that dye from the unwashed sample could have made its way onto the washed sample (as the Dev was still noticeably green). Alternatively, maybe the Dev just washed the dye out of the unwashed sample! 
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Nigel CRIPN and Bar
Beware of the Dark Slide
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John_K
addict
Reged: 03/09/2006
Posts: 560
Loc: North Yorks
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Quote:
During my use of the Tetenal chemicals, I always did one film at a time, and was very pleased with the results. (You are heat drying your films after a proper formalin based stabilisation rinse, I hope?)
I had done E6 buit that was some years ago when Photocolour was still making 600cc and 1200 cc packs. The main reason for this 'mild panic' was I have a club talk booked and needed slides to illustrate it. The talk was booked over a year ago and I was going away last year to get the illustrations I needed. However for one reason or another I was unable to go, hence no slides.
I did have some negative images and some digital images which were exactly what I needed so as an experiment scanned the negs and together with the digital images sized them to 6x4 and printed them (My printer was red hot!) onto heavyweight matt paper and re-photographed them. I used Fuji Sensia 100 set at the recommended ISO and for illumination used a Metz 45CL4 flashgun on a Nikon F4.
Using the Tetenal kit I processed 8 x 36 exp rolls successfully and now have all the slides I need to complete the talk. Out of that I only had 6 failures due to the flash not firing when the shutter was released.
No I did not use any special drying technique. I did as I normally do, hang them up in front of the small boiler cupboard in the utility room and they dry in 1 hour flat with no marks at all and NO DUST. I only used the film conditioner as supplied in the kit.
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