I did this for a few years on the side, and made pretty good money putting them into viewers after developement which took me about half an hour to be ready to sell my pics, I had fun doing this, and did it all from the trunk of my car.
WOWZA!!!! That was awesome Dave thanks a lot. I probably don't have the patience for that so when I get back into shooting e6 I'll send it to you. I may have a few to send you to scan that I had developed 15 years ago 15 years ago is when I stopped shooting e6 and I went to my archive room and pulled out some of those slides and they're amazing still. Evidently I stored them properly. Have a great weekend.
A couple of points he skipped. While you can reuse the chemistry, (1) because the mix of used and unused solution has less developing agent in it, you have to extend the 1st developer per a formula in the instructions in order to get full development, and (2) if you reuse the chemistry, you will get color shifts. They will be quite modest for the 2nd use, but the idea that you are going to fully reuse chemistry half a dozen times without penalty is ridiculous. A way to have the cake and eat it too is to use a rotary processing tank and roller base and use the minimum amount of chemistry required (new), then discard (no reuse). This kit has the capacity to process 2 - 36 exp 35mm rolls in 8 oz of chemistry. The possible problem is whether your tank can cover the film on a roller with only 8 oz. Some can, such as most stainless steel tanks, which have a smaller diameter. The Paterson tank he uses here may not because of its fairly large diameter and huge waste volume from the internal funnel. Old style Paterson and modern AP tanks do not have such design flaws. Jjust test it on some scrap film with water to check how much solution is required to cover the film when loaded in the reels with tank on its side. Generally, a modern Paterson tank isn't a good choice because they tend to leak, and the lids are known to pop off, which would make a mess and destroy the film. If you have the tools and technique, you can do 2 rolls at a time with 8oz, or 8 rolls per quart kit, without having to reuse anything.
those flower photos are great. have couple similar ones currently shot on the roll still in the camera, cannot wait to process them. :) any chance you could give some more details about the rotary processor you are using? looks like a great piece of kit. thanks! :)
@@DavesFilmLab Awesome, thanks a lot. Seems they are currently out of stock on his webpage. But they do look handy and could potentially be cool little DIY project. :)
Sorry, I accidentally pressed the downvote and then quickly switched it to an upvote. I’ve been doing LF E6 at home a couple days now so I thought I’d check out how other people are approaching it. Nice video as usual 👍🏿
After I move I plan on developing my own film at home, and instead of starting with color negative or black and white, I'd much rather start with slide film, as I think I'll see the most savings when doing it myself... Also most labs won't process Velvia 100 anymore (thanks EPA...) so I've got to do it myself if I want to shoot it.
You can and totally should. My biggest recommendation is running test strips to evaluate your development time and temperature consistency. The savings aren’t there if the film doesn’t turn out good, so it’s always worth making sure the dev times / temps are perfect
@@DavesFilmLab I always felt bad at the idea of shooting a roll of film just use it for testing purposes, but I suppose because it *is* an investment, what's one roll of film compared to everything else you need?
@@DavesFilmLab Oh! Also, what do you recommend in terms of E-6 chemicals? I'm interested in Cinestill's three bath kit, but I've heard iffy things (anecdotally at least) about it. If you have any thoughts on it, I'd love to hear them.
I would love to do this but I am worried about the disposal of the chemistry. I am already trying to figure out what to do about black and white chems especially fixer. Any ideas I am all ears.
Good description of your process! I have a question regarding temperature. Everyone is super strict about temp, and you do measure your chemistry temp and keep it heated, however while in the tank rotating, there is no heating going on. And from the result it doesn't matter. Did you ever notice any difference ?
I keep all my sheet film in a bath so it maintains temperature but no, I’ve not personally noticed color shifts or issues using the same film stocks with rotary and 1.8° drift in temp vs maintaining constant temperature using hand inversions
Without the submergence in a heated water bath during processing, the tank/solution/film is going to lose temperature. Here are two ways to deal with that: (1) Only the first developer is super critical for time and temperature. It controls the color balance between the three color emulsions, which will produce all colors in the film. While the other steps are important, they all chemically interact until all the emulsion available has been processed, then they chemically stop. So, the goal is to get color developer and blix to "completion". If you run a bit cool during a process step, just add more time to compensate. (10-20%) You cannot over-process these steps. (2) For the first developer, do a dry run with just water heated to the specified temperature. At the end of the process time, pour out the water and measure its temperature, which will have fallen some during the step. Taken to "drop" and divide it by two, then add that half number of degrees to your starting temperature when warming the first developer. Also use that increased temperature to pre-wash and warm the tank and film before you begin. So, the first developer will start "x" degrees too high and end "x" degrees too cool. The average will be spot on the specification. This really does work; a trick from the "good old days" when a calibrated, heated water bath to hold photo chems at temp cost about $450 in 1980 dollars. (Or most of the price of a new Jobo processor today.) I cannot say how much temperature deviation from spec you can tolerate before you get off-color results. If you get off 1 degree in the first developer, you are going to get a lab measurable color shift, but you may go off maybe two degrees (F) before you will start seeing something if you look closely. A lot depends on subject color. For example, a colorful sunset over a darkened landscape is going to look like a sunset even it the processing strays well beyond tolerances stated.
Do you think transparent film provides more consistent results without requiring too much or any color editing than color negative film? I use negative lab pro and it's a good plugin but I find getting consistent results difficult and I don't like spending lots of time turning dials.
J. R. Medina Your light source may be something to address then. The best light sources for scanning are actually bright tungsten fixtures or an Einstein strobe in color consistency mode
Thanks for the vid. Have you noticed any issues with long-term color retention processing the Ektachrome w/ this kit? I've read the Arista and Ektachrome don't get along over time, but not sure how long that may take/if you'd have any rolls that are old enough to notice...
Daniel Mullaney Keep in mind... anyone can put anything on the internet so take it all with a grain of salt. Because I’m running a lab, I mix fresh very often.... but that said. Before I ran the lab, I did some Ektachrome with several month old Arista chemicals and it worked perfect
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant color retention in the slides themselves, not re-using old chemistry. The info in this old thread may be of interest to you: www.photrio.com/forum/threads/kodak-e6-kit-vs-arista-e6-kit.49848/print That said, according to that thread any shelf life issues/color fade due to a lack of stabilizer might not crop up for 7 yrs, so not sure you'd have any processed rolls that old for anecdotal evidence. The immediate results I've come across, yours included, have been uniformly fantastic.
Ok, sorry for the ramble but I've been researching this a lot lately and from what I can gather the argument against Blix is solely related to image quality, not stability (which, as I said, the quality looks pretty good to me)! At any rate, it is maybe still worth keeping tabs on how your Arista-developed Ektachrome slides age...
Daniel Mullaney My rolls from the first E6 I did 5 years ago look the same as when I first developed them. Again, remember that anyone can write anything online. Best to test for yourself. I do agree that the Kodak kit lasts longer but I disagree with the image quality / stability of it and have used both extensively
Daniel Mullaney Also, if you call Kodak. They’ve told me the new ektachrome is designed to work better with modern 3 bath chemistry kits. The same way they’ll tell you that stabilizer isn’t necessary on their modern emulsions. I still use stabilizer in my C41 process but the point is, anyone can write things and that post was 11 years old when ektachrome was all the original ektachrome (which I would never shoot at this point cause I only shoot fresh film, never expired)
@@DavesFilmLab thanks I was wondering because I bought the pint kit and it said only two rolls but I have like ten that I've shot and wanted to develop them so I was curious as to how many I could process before they went bad.
Rodrigo Perez the E6 kits don’t have a long shelf life once mixed but ive gotten plenty of good results in the first 6-8 weeks of use. My suggestions would be to save up your E6 film and do batches so it’s both cost effective and best utilization of your chemistry
Local toxic waste said it was fine for them & I wash them out so can’t see a need to spend extra on bottles. Allows for an easy / safe container to take them to the toxic waste facility in.
@@DavesFilmLab The people at the collection point do not know that you are showing this on CZcams! Your viewers will do this and put their children in danger! In chemistry there is always a warning because there are poisonings every year. Through such confusion. Be a role model! Thank you!
I did this for a few years on the side, and made pretty good money putting them into viewers after developement which took me about half an hour to be ready to sell my pics, I had fun doing this, and did it all from the trunk of my car.
I'm not here for the film development techniques, I'm just here to say thanks for your extremely simple straight to the point drum tutorials.
WOWZA!!!! That was awesome Dave thanks a lot. I probably don't have the patience for that so when I get back into shooting e6 I'll send it to you. I may have a few to send you to scan that I had developed 15 years ago 15 years ago is when I stopped shooting e6 and I went to my archive room and pulled out some of those slides and they're amazing still. Evidently I stored them properly. Have a great weekend.
Отлично!
A couple of points he skipped. While you can reuse the chemistry, (1) because the mix of used and unused solution has less developing agent in it, you have to extend the 1st developer per a formula in the instructions in order to get full development, and (2) if you reuse the chemistry, you will get color shifts. They will be quite modest for the 2nd use, but the idea that you are going to fully reuse chemistry half a dozen times without penalty is ridiculous. A way to have the cake and eat it too is to use a rotary processing tank and roller base and use the minimum amount of chemistry required (new), then discard (no reuse). This kit has the capacity to process 2 - 36 exp 35mm rolls in 8 oz of chemistry. The possible problem is whether your tank can cover the film on a roller with only 8 oz. Some can, such as most stainless steel tanks, which have a smaller diameter. The Paterson tank he uses here may not because of its fairly large diameter and huge waste volume from the internal funnel. Old style Paterson and modern AP tanks do not have such design flaws. Jjust test it on some scrap film with water to check how much solution is required to cover the film when loaded in the reels with tank on its side. Generally, a modern Paterson tank isn't a good choice because they tend to leak, and the lids are known to pop off, which would make a mess and destroy the film. If you have the tools and technique, you can do 2 rolls at a time with 8oz, or 8 rolls per quart kit, without having to reuse anything.
Nice to see a dev process that hasn’t been DIYed a lot. I wonder if Ecn2 is possible, integrating the kodak’s colour chemistry.
ECN-2 is definitely doable. @conspiracy.of.cartographers on Instagram sells kits. I haven't done it myself so I can't speak to how reliable it is.
This is perfect, thanks!
I'm gonna need more info on whatever chemical tempering setup you're using. That looks like something I could afford.
Sous Vide. Got mine on amazon for $39.99
those flower photos are great. have couple similar ones currently shot on the roll still in the camera, cannot wait to process them. :)
any chance you could give some more details about the rotary processor you are using? looks like a great piece of kit. thanks! :)
Thank you! B’s processor
@@DavesFilmLab Awesome, thanks a lot. Seems they are currently out of stock on his webpage. But they do look handy and could potentially be cool little DIY project. :)
Sorry, I accidentally pressed the downvote and then quickly switched it to an upvote. I’ve been doing LF E6 at home a couple days now so I thought I’d check out how other people are approaching it. Nice video as usual 👍🏿
Certain Exposures Thanks! Have you been having good luck with LF E6?
Dave Rollans Films yes, it’s working out nicely!
After I move I plan on developing my own film at home, and instead of starting with color negative or black and white, I'd much rather start with slide film, as I think I'll see the most savings when doing it myself... Also most labs won't process Velvia 100 anymore (thanks EPA...) so I've got to do it myself if I want to shoot it.
You can and totally should. My biggest recommendation is running test strips to evaluate your development time and temperature consistency. The savings aren’t there if the film doesn’t turn out good, so it’s always worth making sure the dev times / temps are perfect
@@DavesFilmLab I always felt bad at the idea of shooting a roll of film just use it for testing purposes, but I suppose because it *is* an investment, what's one roll of film compared to everything else you need?
@@DavesFilmLab Oh! Also, what do you recommend in terms of E-6 chemicals? I'm interested in Cinestill's three bath kit, but I've heard iffy things (anecdotally at least) about it. If you have any thoughts on it, I'd love to hear them.
@@LaskyLabs I have another video about the cinestill chemistry. I love it
@@DavesFilmLab Shoot, then I'll have to look into that. I'll be right back!
I would love to do this but I am worried about the disposal of the chemistry. I am already trying to figure out what to do about black and white chems especially fixer. Any ideas I am all ears.
Good description of your process!
I have a question regarding temperature. Everyone is super strict about temp, and you do measure your chemistry temp and keep it heated, however while in the tank rotating, there is no heating going on. And from the result it doesn't matter. Did you ever notice any difference ?
I keep all my sheet film in a bath so it maintains temperature but no, I’ve not personally noticed color shifts or issues using the same film stocks with rotary and 1.8° drift in temp vs maintaining constant temperature using hand inversions
Without the submergence in a heated water bath during processing, the tank/solution/film is going to lose temperature. Here are two ways to deal with that:
(1) Only the first developer is super critical for time and temperature. It controls the color balance between the three color emulsions, which will produce all colors in the film. While the other steps are important, they all chemically interact until all the emulsion available has been processed, then they chemically stop. So, the goal is to get color developer and blix to "completion". If you run a bit cool during a process step, just add more time to compensate. (10-20%) You cannot over-process these steps.
(2) For the first developer, do a dry run with just water heated to the specified temperature. At the end of the process time, pour out the water and measure its temperature, which will have fallen some during the step. Taken to "drop" and divide it by two, then add that half number of degrees to your starting temperature when warming the first developer. Also use that increased temperature to pre-wash and warm the tank and film before you begin. So, the first developer will start "x" degrees too high and end "x" degrees too cool. The average will be spot on the specification. This really does work; a trick from the "good old days" when a calibrated, heated water bath to hold photo chems at temp cost about $450 in 1980 dollars. (Or most of the price of a new Jobo processor today.)
I cannot say how much temperature deviation from spec you can tolerate before you get off-color results. If you get off 1 degree in the first developer, you are going to get a lab measurable color shift, but you may go off maybe two degrees (F) before you will start seeing something if you look closely. A lot depends on subject color. For example, a colorful sunset over a darkened landscape is going to look like a sunset even it the processing strays well beyond tolerances stated.
nice video :)
Do you think transparent film provides more consistent results without requiring too much or any color editing than color negative film? I use negative lab pro and it's a good plugin but I find getting consistent results difficult and I don't like spending lots of time turning dials.
J. R. Medina Your light source may be something to address then. The best light sources for scanning are actually bright tungsten fixtures or an Einstein strobe in color consistency mode
Thanks for the vid. Have you noticed any issues with long-term color retention processing the Ektachrome w/ this kit? I've read the Arista and Ektachrome don't get along over time, but not sure how long that may take/if you'd have any rolls that are old enough to notice...
Daniel Mullaney Keep in mind... anyone can put anything on the internet so take it all with a grain of salt. Because I’m running a lab, I mix fresh very often.... but that said. Before I ran the lab, I did some Ektachrome with several month old Arista chemicals and it worked perfect
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant color retention in the slides themselves, not re-using old chemistry. The info in this old thread may be of interest to you: www.photrio.com/forum/threads/kodak-e6-kit-vs-arista-e6-kit.49848/print
That said, according to that thread any shelf life issues/color fade due to a lack of stabilizer might not crop up for 7 yrs, so not sure you'd have any processed rolls that old for anecdotal evidence. The immediate results I've come across, yours included, have been uniformly fantastic.
Ok, sorry for the ramble but I've been researching this a lot lately and from what I can gather the argument against Blix is solely related to image quality, not stability (which, as I said, the quality looks pretty good to me)!
At any rate, it is maybe still worth keeping tabs on how your Arista-developed Ektachrome slides age...
Daniel Mullaney My rolls from the first E6 I did 5 years ago look the same as when I first developed them. Again, remember that anyone can write anything online. Best to test for yourself. I do agree that the Kodak kit lasts longer but I disagree with the image quality / stability of it and have used both extensively
Daniel Mullaney Also, if you call Kodak. They’ve told me the new ektachrome is designed to work better with modern 3 bath chemistry kits. The same way they’ll tell you that stabilizer isn’t necessary on their modern emulsions. I still use stabilizer in my C41 process but the point is, anyone can write things and that post was 11 years old when ektachrome was all the original ektachrome (which I would never shoot at this point cause I only shoot fresh film, never expired)
Does that kit make a gallon? Or do you need 4 kits?
You can order it in different sizes, I believe a gallon is an option
How many rolls have you been able to process from your kit ?
Rodrigo Perez 40+ usually. Hard to quantify really cause each kit gets a mixture of 35, 120, and 4x5
@@DavesFilmLab thanks I was wondering because I bought the pint kit and it said only two rolls but I have like ten that I've shot and wanted to develop them so I was curious as to how many I could process before they went bad.
Rodrigo Perez the E6 kits don’t have a long shelf life once mixed but ive gotten plenty of good results in the first 6-8 weeks of use. My suggestions would be to save up your E6 film and do batches so it’s both cost effective and best utilization of your chemistry
Pleas don't use food bottles for chemicals ! You shpuld be exemplary!
Local toxic waste said it was fine for them & I wash them out so can’t see a need to spend extra on bottles. Allows for an easy / safe container to take them to the toxic waste facility in.
@@DavesFilmLab The people at the collection point do not know that you are showing this on CZcams! Your viewers will do this and put their children in danger! In chemistry there is always a warning because there are poisonings every year. Through such confusion. Be a role model! Thank you!
Frank E Valid point, there should be more education about proper storage and disposal of chemicals. Great topic for a video, thanks for the tip!
Frank E Perhaps you could post up a video showing your standards for chemical storage and disposal, would be well received I’m sure. Cheers!