Combining C41 and E6 Chemistry

[CB_]

So I've finally upgraded to a non-blix C41 kit for home processing (the Fuji Hunt stuff), but I was curious if I could use the same bleach and fixer for E-6 processing.

I don't typically shoot much slide in comparison to color negative, so I'm not at the point where I can justify buying an equally expensive E6 kit - but I was wondering if it would work to sub out the blix in the E6 kit with the bleach and fixer from the Fuji Hunt kit, and if so if I would need to adjust the times.

Also - how would this affect the longevity of the Fuji bleach and fixer? I know those chemicals typically go a lot further than say, the developer.

 

[mtjade2007]

I don't know the exact answer. But one thing I am sure about is you can never over bleach and fix. This means if you are not sure about the strength of the bleach and fixer of the C-41 kit just double or even triple the bleach and fix time. If you have not bought the C-41 kit try to buy the C-41RA kit. The RA kit has much stronger bleach which takes only 2 minutes to bleach negatives. By doubling the bleach time it would be still reasonable in 4 minutes.

 

[halfaman]

You can use them for sure in E-6, but I can't tell with what dilution and processing time. Better ask Fuji Hunt.

C-41 bleach has an excellent shelf life, no need to worry or take special precautions even with opened concentrates. Standard C-41 has a similar shelf life as B/W fixer.

 

[Rudeofus]

As you probably know, dyes formed in color film are quite prone to oxidation over time, so film uses all kinds of tricks to keep them long term stable. A lot more of these tricks were researched and applied to C-41 materials due to their market dominance, but also due to their more liberal choice of dyes. E-6 film dyes have to work as they come, whereas C-41 film dyes can have all kinds of spectral impurities which are then covered up by their orange mask. As a result, it was possible to design C-41 dyes, which can withstand stronger bleaches, whereas the stricter requirements combined with more limited research budget prevented this from happening in the E-6 domain.

For this reason you can bleach C-41 materials with the more aggressive (green) C-41 bleach. If you use the same bleach for E-6 materials, the results may look perfect at first, but may deteriorate after a few decades (we all have seen 30 year old slides - often badly faded). Therefore there are two options:

1. if the C-41 bleach looks deep and very dense, almost black red, then this bleach will work well for E-6 film.
2. if the C-41 bleach looks greenish and rather dilute, this bleach will work for E-6 at first, but may or may not have adverse effects on their long term stability.

 

[Randy Stewart]

As others have noted, you no doubt can use C-41 bleach and fixer with E-6, but the differing dye sets may cause color shifts. Different pH values may cause the same problems.This is likely to be a trial and error matter. One other issue concerns use of stabilizers, If has become fashionable to omit stabilizers from C-41 kits, and with the dye changes made universally to C-41 films almost 20 years ago, there is some merit to that argument, However, E-6 dyes still require that stabilizer to keep from degrading.