Arista rapid E-6 kit compared to tetenal colortec e-6

[xonefs]

I use the tetenal kit and am very happy with, but it is out of stock so I am forced to consider the arista now.

It looks like the Arista kit does not include a stabilizer while the tetenal does, saying it is not needed. Is this a drawback/accurate?

is it as consistent with good color/results?

The arista kit also costs more and says it can process less. They say 500ml working solution can process 4 rolls, while tetenal gives times for 6 rolls. Can the arista kit be expanded to 6 rolls per 500ml with similar quality to tetenal?


I also have a cinestill e6 kit sitting around I decided to never use after hearing too much about it ruining film with bad first developer.

 

[Michael Howard]

I've used both, to equal success. Never tried to stretch either, though, but I imagine both can be stretched a bit. One thing, don't mix either until you are ready to process all the rolls for a kit. It doesn't keep.
For stabilizer, get some formalin, and mix 10ml of formalin in 1 liter of Photo-Flo. This was Ron Mowrey's suggestion, it's in several threads here. He felt it was probably still needed with the kits that don't come with stabilizer.

 

[koraks]

For stabilizer, get some formalin, and mix 10ml of formalin in 1 liter of Photo-Flo.

Yup, that'll work. The liter of photflo would be 1 liter of water with an appropriate amount of photoflo added to it...not a one liter bottle of photoflo!

saying it is not needed. Is this a drawback/accurate?

According to the late PE, E6 dyes were never re-engineered to be long-term stable without the use of a stabilizer. That must have been (most likely) true at least for the Kodak dye sets. Whether it also extends to Fuji dye sets (as used e.g. in Velvia), I do not know. What I do know, is that using a stabilizer won't hurt, even if it's not technically necessary. The method proposed above by @Michael Howard is easy, very cheap and poses no significant health risk due to the small amount of formalin involved.

 

[brbo]

In the accompanying instructions to most (all?) modern Fuji E-6 chemicals I've seen mentioned that final rinse must be used with certain pre-bleach (from the same family of chemicals) since final rinse doesn't contain dye-stabilising components anymore (final rinse msds only lists 'non ionic surfactant' in ingredients) .

I guess E-6 dyes still need stabilisation, but it's not necessary that final rinse needs to provide for that, so I wouldn't consider Arista's claim that final rinse is not needed with their kit as false.

 

[koraks]

I guess E-6 dyes still need stabilisation, but it's not necessary that final rinse needs to provide for that

I keep forgetting that it can also be done through the pre-bleach bath. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[Rudeofus]

I keep forgetting that it can also be done through the pre-bleach bath. Thanks for reminding me!

You can put Formalin into a prebleach (7 bath kits do just this), but then you still need a germicide in the final rinse. Since in higher concentration most germicides are also toxic to humans, these are not available to home amateurs. Formalin is available, and it is a good germicide, and it binds to the gelatin and will therefore stay in film for decades. It is pretty much the best germicide option we have for this purpose.

If you do the full 7 bath process at home with self mixed chemistry, you will likely have Formalin in the prebleach and in the final rinse.

PS: Formalin binds well to gelatin, but it is also very water soluble. If Arista put their Formalin somehow into their BLIX, the required wash step after BLIX will wash most of it out. Therefore the Formalin - if it even is in their BLIX - will tackle the "unreacted coupler" issue, but not the germicide issue.