Agfaphoto slide film, PINK in clear areas?

[jm94]

Hi guys! I am asking for some advice, I do not know if my process needs debugging at all.

I have shot a couple of rolls of agfaphoto Precisa CT 100 slide film, like all other agfaphoto CT100 slide film i have shot they have this distinct 'barely visible pinkish cast' even on the clear leader. No such casts appear on any of my 100D, 64T, fuji velvia 100, i shot a mixture of all of these over the past few days.

I process it like all my other E-6 which comes out flawless.

What gives? It is weird to say the least. A flaw in my processing? I do not understand why the pink is on the leader as well. Some kind of fog?

All of these have come from the same batch, all but two or three of the images look very muddy as well and not very sharp, although i have three slides which i really like from these rolls combined.

A flaw in my processing? A faulty batch? Yet all my more expensive slides/reversal comes out flawless, i maintain temps at 100F ( +/- 1 degree F) and have never had problems apart from when pH of the chemicals has shifted, I monitor that and run test shots first. (they are not control strips, i know but i have quite a good E6 process for personal use, the shots always look pleasing to my eyes and the eyes of my viewers Even friends see me as the one stop E6 shop though, saves them sending their films away and waiting days, not had a complaint yet!
The three affected rolls have been shot on different days, developed in different batches of chemicals even... I have no idea what has caused such a problem, and the images appear very muddy and unsharp to boot, only three slides looked any good from all of these! The rest looked unsharp, dull, and muddy, not pleasing to my eye. I have one roll left from the batch, if it is indeed a faulty batch i should contact the seller and see if i cannot get them replaced.

 

[BMbikerider]

Do you mean Agfa Precisa slide film. Other Agfa films if still in existence will be years over their expiry date. If it is Precisa film the clear areas should be just that, or at least they are on the cassette I developed this evening.

It may be that the bleach/fix stage has not been done adequately.

 

[jm94]

yeah it is the Precisa film.

Jacob

 

[BMbikerider]

In a post I made a month or so ago, there was a problem with how long should the 1st development be when using the Tetenal 3 bath kit. For films - non Fuji, it was 6.5 mins for other films i.e those made by Fuji 7.5 mins was recommended. The problem as I saw it was the general consensus indicated that the Precisa film was made by Fuji (allegedly) but labeled Agfa. So what was the developing time? I developed the film last night where I rated it at 100ISO and used the times for Fuji 7.5min 1st development, 6 min colour development with a 7.5 min bleach/fix stage and this was almost perfect apart from a two or three exposure differences. All the rinse/final wash remained the same. As I said before the highlights were to all intents clear and the unexposed part of the leader/trailer also clear.

As for the unsharpness, I cannot give any answer, but This has got to be down to the focussing or camera shake.

 

[railwayman3]

FWIW, I've just received some Precisa (the "Made in Japan" version) back from lab processing, and the leader looks to be clear film....can't detect any pink (or any other tint). (I don't usually keep the scrap bits of film, but, when I next get some other film processed, I'll compare with the clear leader from Fuji and Kodak E6.)

 

[jm94]

Now the debugging starts My FD time was 6:20, I use this time for all E-6. I never knew Fuji had a time increase that far... My velvia came out nice, a bit on the cool side, but that was a very pleasing to my eye, and i presume this is a property of velvia? I had some nice photos of swans on velvia and the scenery, this was late afternoon, i have some shots of the canal even more flooded this morning, should i really add an extra minute to the FD time?

 

[hairydale]

It's hard to say the exact problem but with only one roll left you can't do much experimenting. Certainly different films can be more sensitive to certain processing problems. Would you say the images have a pink/magenta cast or is it only obvious in the clear areas? Increasing the wash after the first dev might help or the colour dev might be a little under strength.

If it was me though, I'd get the last roll processed at a lab you can trust and if that had a cast you'd be on firmer ground in claiming replacement films from the seller. To be honest, I doubt a bad batch of film and if it had been badly stored or heat damaged I'd expect the colour fogging to be patchy.

It's worth saying that the results I've seen from the 'Made in Japan' Precisia have been very good, especially considering how reasonable the price is, just wish they made a 120 version.

 

[jm94]

The images are muddy, but the pink 'tint' is only noticeable on clear areas, such as the leader. Images also look 'out of focus' just.
I will send it off to a lab, if it happens then i have a firmer case for a replacement. I seldom come across 'bad' film... Its a mystery as i have never had a problem with E6 up to this point, and as i said before, only with these films, hence why i wanted to debug the process. Will shoot the roll and send it to a lab, will see what happens!

Jacob

 

[ath]

If the films are from Agfa (Agfaphoto is merely a brand today) they are really old and you might just see fogging.
If they are newer (Made in Japan) they are (more or less) Provia 100.

 

[BMbikerider]

If the films are from Agfa (Agfaphoto is merely a brand today) they are really old and you might just see fogging.
If they are newer (Made in Japan) they are (more or less) Provia 100.

I clarified that point with the originator in the 1st reply and it is Agfa(?) Precisa. I think it has to be some sort of chemical imbalance. A few years ago I had a roll of Kodachrome 64 returned processed and it had a pink tinge. Kodak in Switzerland where the Lab was apologised and replaced the film with a dozen unexposed ones. Their explanation was it was contaminated chemicals.

 

[AgX]

Now there is some confusion:

there was
Agfa CT Precisa

and there is
Agfaphoto CT Precisa

At least in its current version the AgfaPhoto one is not the same as the former one.


For those new to the Agfa subject:

AgfaPhoto is a designation used sparcely by Agfa since the late 90's or so to indicate their Consumer Branch.
However it was not used as brand.

When Agfa sold off that department in 2004 the new entity and its holding company got the name AgfaPhoto.

The life of that production company was only for some months, then it went mysteriously bancrupt. The holding company still exists.
It sold off remnants out of the film stock (either manufactured by Agfa or Agfaphoto). The AgfaPhoto APX is out of that stock. When their colour film stock ended they rebranded films from other manufacturers.

AgfaPhoto of today is not a manufacturer. Furthermore they license the name AgfaPhoto for different kind of photo-related products.

Agfa which is still alive and huge and still owner of the brandname Agfaphoto started a legal case against that rebranding with their name but lost the case.

 

[Raphael]

Agfa CT Precisa in Tetenal, and other things.

Hi all,

@jm94 : I got too not so great results from Agfa CT Precisa films with Tetenal 3 baths kits, but it was a few years ago, presumably with German Made Agfa Films.
The results had rather strong magenta/pink cast equally ! Don't know why ! I wonder if Stabilizer step or final washing can have something to do with this.

@ BMbikerider : The extended FD time for Fuji films in Tetenal 3 baths kit is sadly a rather well known "urban legend", caused by buggy instructions sheets, I know it because I once believed it !
I post right now in your thread "Confusing Instruction" on the subject, to avoid threads crossing.

Best regards,

Raphael

 

[PittP]

Pink cast = soluble dye?

Back to the original poster's issue, which I currently experience, too: The Agfaphoto precisa CT 100 has a slight PINK CAST after development in brand new Tetenal E-6 3-bath chemistry!
"My" CT100 is made in Japan, the bar code 105575 identifies it as Fuji Provia 100F. I have been using Sensia exclusively over the years, the Tetenal-Kit gave consistently good, clean results.
The strange thing with this Agfa "Provia" is: The clear chemicals have a pink stain after use, even the stabilizer in the end is pinkish after only 2 rolls!
I wonder how to effectively wash this "dye" away?
(Sorry, I don't have that much rolls to run a full test programme - and slide film got expensive, too...).
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for help.
Cheers & good light,
Pitt

 

[PittP]

E6 - Improve washing for Provia?

In (there was a url link here which no longer exists) PE writes "If the wash is pink or the fix is pink in E6 or C41, this indicates the presence of bleach and thus washing is not complete. The wash after the bleach must NOT be pink. If the stabilzer/final rinse is pink, this is bad!"

Strange thing, though:
The last washes with Sensia/Astia were always absolutely clear.
The same with Provia is pinkish, and Provia turns the Stabiliser slightly pink, too.

Thank you for any suggestion how to improve / intensify washing after the Blix?

Pitt

 

[Rudeofus]

I've had trouble with BLIX and pink stain (especially the pink staining of STAB) for many years and came to the following conclusions:

• Pink stain is not the end of the world, five year old slides that turned STAB pink still look fine today.
• Pink stain becomes worse if BLIX is not freshly mixed and/or has been used a couple of times. PE recommends extending BLIX times by 50% over the BLIX times given by Tetenal's instructions.
• Warm wash water removes pink stain much more effectively than cold wash water.
• An effective method to get rid of pink stain is filling the film tank with warm water and letting it stand for 20+ minutes. No agitation is required, so you can develop the next roll or do something else in the mean time. The wash water will have a strong pink cast when you pour it out. Do this a few times and the pink cast will become weaker and weaker, until you pour out mostly clear water. Once that is the case, proceed with STAB and drying.

 

[PittP]

Rudeofus,
thank you for the helpful advice!
I will send the pinkish slides to a serious warm Saturday-evening bath! (No scrubbing though.)
I'll try out PE's advice, which is well in line with the instructions of my machine (10' Blix).
I'll post results, may take some time for the Blix though.

 

[PittP]

A gentleman from Fujifilm Germany kindly replied to my request (I summarize):
"The pink stain in Provia is most likely anti-halation and other dyes not properly washed out. It is a rather "cosmetic" issue, as the stain should not show up in projection and does not affect long term stability of the slide. The pink stain is linked to the 3-bath process, Fuji thus recommends the 6-bath process. The 3-bath process should be completed with extra washing and an extended soak in a dilute sulfite solution, prior to the final stabiliser."
This info is fully compatible with Rudeofus' note above.
I have soaked some pinkish filmstrips for 20 minutes in ~35°C warm water (one change after 10') with 1 level teaspoon Na-sulfite per litre, then STAB again: The stain is gone.