E-6 kits in Canada

I find myself wanting to do some E-6 processing and my two remaining Agfa kits are looking seriously long in the tooth. But alas, JD Photochem no longer has Agfa kits (for the fairly obvious reason) and has no replacements. It seems B&H will sell me one, but the shipping they charge is brutal for lower cost stuff like this. Tried a couple of others, but "Continental US Only" is common enough.

I'd like some smaller kits (I only do 12-24 sheets of 4x5 at a go, and would actually like to do even smaller ones) ... my rate isn't good enough that I would use up a 5l kit in a timely manner.

Anyone have good pointers on companies that will ship to canada with reasonable costs (i.e. USPS ground)? I like the shorter ones (i.e. 3-bath), but wouldn't mind giving Fuji a swing since I use their films anyway...

Thanks!

Did you check with Freestyle? Can't think of anybody else.

You might want to consider batch processing. Shoot until you can justify a 5litre Kodak kit.

Alas, Freestyle was one of the "these items can only be shipped via Ground in the Continental United States. ORMD items cannot be shipped to PO boxes.". So I couldn't even have a P.O. Box just across the border and pop over to get it.

5l is a *lot* of sheets. I really love LF, but still don't shoot very many sheets.

Last time I was there, Photo Service in Montréal had some Kodak E-6 kits. You might want to give them a call at (514) 849-2291 to see if they can arrange shipping.

(homepage: Dead Link Removed)

Have you tried phototrader.ca?

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I've no direct experience with them - I just found them when searching for something else.

Matt

BTW, I nearly had a fit seeing Phototrader's online catalog: they had item # for 25 packs of Kodak Panalure! However, a quick call confirmed that none of their warehouses had any in stock, so whatever you're buying, call them first.

The Kodak 5L kit is probably the easiest to obtain and the results are great. I order mine through my local Canadian camera store.

My E6 volume is no more than yours and I use this kit. The way I get the max life out of it is to freeze my working solutions. The first time I use a new kit, I mix up the entire thing and freeze the remaining components in 500ml and 1L sized plastic bottles in my deepfreeze. Since the working solutions are mostly water, there's no precipitates that form. So far, my last kit has been frozen this way for over a year and a half and the last time I processed (2 months ago) everything looked fine. Maybe something to think about. I've posted about this before on Apug if you wanna have a look for some of my older posts and I'd be happy to share any info I can.

Check eBay. You can usually find color photochemistry there, although not all sellers ship to Canada. (A quick check turned up nobody selling E-6 right now with anything but US shipping, but you could contact the sellers or just check back every few days.)

In another thread (or maybe on Usenet -- I don't recall precisely), somebody recently described getting a minilab to order some E-6 chemistry for them. This could be worth trying, particularly if you're already friendly with somebody who manages a minilab.

Wow, lots of great replies!
Matt King: Phototrader looks pretty interesting, but also seems to have mostly industrial quantities. They also look like they have just dumped a bunch of catalogs on-line, though I have bookmarked them for the future, ya never know.

srs: I had checked eBay, but as you noticed, it is thin on the ground right now.

Rob: Freeze it?? I never thought (or heard) of that. That is a very interesting idea. I don't have a deep freeze right now, but kinda need one anyway so I would definitely consider getting one if that worked out. I sort of despise kodak chemicals (completely irrational, leftover from being a mini-lab printer many years ago), but might be willing to give it a go. My local stores are largely thieves, but it would make it easier, I admit. That one will require some thought.

mhv: I am going to Montreal soon anyway, and actually they are well within day-tripping for me (and the g/f likes to clothes shop there...). Maybe I will check it out.

Thanks for all the pointers!

Hello,

My last order (about 3 weeks ago) was for 4 - 5l kits from Technicare in Edmonton. Their most easterly store is in Winnipeg. My in-laws were travelling to the NWT (where I live) via Edmonton, so shipping was not an issue. Apparently Kodak doesn't warehouse much in Canada, so the kits came from Rochester with Technicare's regular order. It took about 5 days - not bad. At any rate, any lab that is doing E-6 and using Kodak chemicals should be able to order for you. You will need the catalogue number (107 7643) since Kodak staff have become quite ignorant of their own products. The exception is the movie film division which has always been very helpful. Shipping is the big expense, so local pickup will save you a bundle. As a last resort you could call Jeff Doyle at Technicare Edmonton 1-800-897-1844. He is in the know, and generally a nice guy - seems to work about 18 hours a day. I know it is not close to you, but you never know. The E-6 labs are thinning out pretty quickly.

Cheers,
Clarence