Arista 3 bath E-6 "prewash" step

hwy17 · Friday at 4:10 AM

This blix kit specifies a 1 minute "prewash". I am not used to doing any prewash with the new Kodak C-41 kit, only a warmup where I place the Jobo in the rotary bath to get it up to temp.

I used 500ml distilled water at my chosen development temp (38.4c) for the 1 minute prewash in my Jobo 1540 DIY rotary water bath.

The prewash water came back out of the Jobo dark ice tea brown. This scared me! But the development was not a failure and the slides look fine at first glance while they're drying.

What do you think of the prewash step?

I would like to switch to a 6 bath after this, but the Bellini kit was not in stock anywhere for me at the time I ordered. I have one more 500ml batch of the Arista blix chemistry left and 4 more rolls of slide to go with it, so I will probably use it again at least once.

Thanks

https://www.freestylephoto.com/static/pdf/product_pdfs/arista/AristaE6.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOooR5-MpK0N1-H6nyo5ck_-ASriu9kXtuMakQg_Qk5vNjVkiJlsu

ChrisGalway · Friday at 4:41 AM

I have no experience with the Arista E6 kit, but the water prewash I do with the Adox(/Tetenal) kit comes out a lurid green colour for 35mm Provia 100f, and purple for 120 size Provia 100f ... so I would not worry at all about a "dark ice tea brown" colour! If the slides look OK, they are OK!

koraks · Friday at 4:50 AM

hwy17 said:
What do you think of the prewash step?

When it comes to prewash steps, my recommendation is always as follows:
"If you're not doing a prewash and you experience problems with uneven development, try a prewash step. If you're doing a prewash step and you experience problems with uneven development, try skipping the prewash step." Personally, in the instances where I have run into e.g. surge marks, a prewash step alleviated or solved the issue.

The dark brown color is not something to worry about; there's several types of dyes that can wash out of an emulsion. The color of the wash water depends on the film; some of the simpler B&W films yield no color at all, and some color films esp. from Kodak can result in dark green or reddish wash colors. Some Fuji and Kodak color negative films give a fairly light magenta wash water color. There are oddballs, too, such as Harman Phoenix, which gives a very bright yellow color. So it's pretty much all over the place!

hwy17 · Friday at 6:40 AM

Thank you guys. Glad to hear that color washing out in a prewash is not unexpected. I'll see the slides dry tomorrow to find out if they look totally ok, but so far so good.

hwy17 · Friday at 8:36 AM

They're dry now. First time using slide film and I have Ektachrome, Provia, and Velvia 100.

I hoped to find for cost reasons that Ektachrome would be just as good to me, and it's nice, but the Fuji films are just a little bit more magical. Both Provia and Velvia 100 render skin tones in a completely pleasing way to my eyes with a loupe, which I thought was going to be a difference I would discover between them to find a preference. The Provia seems to hit more reliably than the Velvia 100 somehow, could just be luck, but when I did get a good exposure on the Velvia 100 it is maybe, slightly, the best to my eye.

Ektachrome has no problems, and no problems with skin tones either, but all of it just looks slightly less impressive, slightly flat or dull, compared the Fujis.

Slides do indeed render pool water like liquid sunshine. I wonder if this effect will carry over through a scan and still look this unique on a phone screen.

blee1996 · Friday at 11:13 AM

Slide film on a color-corrected light table or projected with a good lens is magical. Even though nowadays it becomes a bit of luxury due to the film pricing.

hwy17 · Friday at 4:34 PM

Scanned it now and very happy with scans too. It may not be quite as magic but this low grain property of slide film I had heard about is what really stands out to me on a scan.

loccdor · Friday at 8:19 PM

I agree that Fuji slide is better. It records a little more detail, Kodak prioritizes low grain at the expense of some resolution in their modern color films.

I always do prewash steps with every kind of development to bring things up to temp, except where explicitly forbidden by the instructions.

3 bath kits always worked okay for me.

hwy17 · Friday at 9:08 PM

I always find myself missing the like button on this forum. How are we supposed to thumbs up each other casually.

Anyway it's hard to argue with the outcome of the 3 bath. It's cheap and I got my slides. If anything I'd like a six bath now not for quality concerns as much as just to avoid how nasty that blix stuff looks and behaves. It feels nasty just to rinse the dregs of it down the drain. (I'm on septic so I save the bulk quantities of all of it for disposal)

MattKing · Friday at 10:32 PM

hwy17 said:
How are we supposed to thumbs up each other casually.

Post this .

mshchem · Saturday at 12:43 AM

hwy17 said:
I always find myself missing the like button on this forum. How are we supposed to thumbs up each other casually.

Anyway it's hard to argue with the outcome of the 3 bath. It's cheap and I got my slides. If anything I'd like a six bath now not for quality concerns as much as just to avoid how nasty that blix stuff looks and behaves. It feels nasty just to rinse the dregs of it down the drain. (I'm on septic so I save the bulk quantities of all of it for disposal)

I processed a lot of color on septic system in the past no trouble with the bugs, can't say how much silver I added to the groundwater

The prewash will show color for several 500ml rinses. No worries. I like the Fuji Pro 6 chemistry, I've had great results with the old Tetenal 3 bath (now Adox)

hwy17 · Saturday at 11:08 AM

MattKing said:
Post this .

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