Been a while... Getting back into the loop. Tetenal E6 Stabilizer change? (Formalin)

[jm94]

I have been away from the darkroom scene for a couple of years while living in a flat too small, but am now in a position to have my own dedicated darkroom and my partner doesn't mind, its in the shed . With all my prior negatives, slides and super 8 films nicely filed, i opted to get some more chemicals in and get going.

I have missed processing my own and printing my own, so its nice to be back in the loop having kept my gear waiting the chance!

E6 being my most common process and i remember well how to do it. I have noticed tetenal no longer does their 1L kit, they do it in 2.5L and 5L kits.

I notice the stabiliser bottle always mentioned contains formaldehyde, but now it mentions it contains other chemicals and no mention of formaldehyde anywhere. I am unsure if there is a difference in stabiliser now is there a breakdown of all ingredients, but i remember there being mention of formaldehyde. For those who do not know, formalin / formaldehyde is ESSENTIAL in the E6 process to prevent fade due to unused magenta coupler in the film, and i always ensured a formaldehyde stabiliser was used.

Does anyone here know if it contains formaldehyde in its stabiliser still? If not ill need to order some separately and do a separate bath, as i was always happy with the tetenal E6 chemicals. If it still contains formaldehyde in its new kits, i am more than happy to use it, if not i am going to ensure formalin is used after washing before the tetenal stabiliser is used.

Would be great to hear if anyone else is sure as to what is in it!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Kodak and Fuji place formalin in the pre-bleach step, and use what they call a final rinse. IDK if your kit contains such a chemical change, but if absent, then, as you say, the Magenta dye fades rapidly and a brown stain forms.

PE

 

[Rudeofus]

Tetenal's ColorTec E6 kit still contains Formalin, it's declared in their MSDS. AFAIK there is no way to formulate 3-bath E6 kits without Formalin in STAB, i.e. final rinse.

 

[jm94]

Thanks for that clarification! I wanted to make sure