E-6 Wing Lynch 6-Step FE-6 Kit woes

[Kino]

A cautionary tale here...

Back in the last days of August, I purchased a Wing-Lynch 6-Step FE-6 one-gallon kit for E-6 from an Ebay seller, BigAlfish0. The text of the auction read, " ..Unicolor 6-Step E6 chemistry kit. Can be used to process any Ektachrome or E-6 compatible film. Includes written instructions for processing. 1 Gallon Size. We manufacture all Unicolor chemistry kits. Other size kits and photo chemistry available, give us a call at number below. If you have any questions, give Photo Systems, Inc. a call at 800-521-4042. Our hours are 8:30am-5pm EST., Monday through Friday. We charge sales tax to Michigan and Washington State residents..."

OK, so far so good. Sounds like a complete kit, right?

So today I finally get the time and space to fire up the Jobo ATL, mix the chemicals and run 3 rolls of 120 and one roll of 35mm together, only to have the blacks of the trannies be deeply biased toward blue.

Now, before you jump in and tell me I should have run a test roll, I agree; I should have done that... I also should be 25 years old, 160 lbs and have a dazzling white smile, but I'm not and I don't...

I barely squeezed the time in to do this as is, so I knew I HAD to take the chance or never see it done. (getting to the point now)

Anyway, after researching online, I find that the kit (which came in a heavily shop-worn box and was obviously resealed with packing tape) should have held additional instructions for rotary tube processors that instruct the user to dilute the reversal bath 60% and to add 1.5ml of Sodium Hydroxide (per liter) to the color developer OR the slides would exhibit a "heavy blue cast".

Indeed.

I have sent the seller an email asking for some sort of adjustment; either a total refund of purchase and hazmat shipping fees OR replacement of filmstock and ship me the sodium hydroxide that would make the kit complete, but we shall see if he makes it right .

I will report back how the seller handles the complaint and would caution others to be extra careful when buying chemistry on Ebay.

PS: I don't have a scanner with a slide attachment so no illustrations, dang!

 

[Kino]

a brief follow up...

Now that I have had time to mount and project the 35mm roll of Ektachrome 100, all I can say is... "weird" and sometimes, "cool"!

Depending upon exposure, the more under exposed shots tend to show a solarization type effect in the deepest shadows and the "blacks" that should be the ultimate DMax black are anywhere from sepia-like to a hunter green and the out of focus background on some shots has a edge-effect on the boundaries; a Mackie line?

Overall the shots that are on or slightly over-exposed tend to be reasonably neutral in color (in a relative sort of way), but interesting things happen when you underexpose and use a shallow depth of field.

The effect on some shots is rather nice; I will try to borrow a scanner from work to scan a few slides and put them up here.

May turn out to be a new tool to add to the arsenal...

More later.

 

[DKT]

that kit is just old...Wing Lynch doesn't make chemistry--but that company PSI, the one that makes Unicolor--they were big in selling new & refurbed WLs back in the 90s. They actually came & did a sales call where I work, before we bought a WL from a competitor...but their thing was total support through the machine and the chemistry....they did RA4, E6 all sorts of stuff as well. but I haven't heard anything about them in years though...and WL (the company) has always pretty much pushed Kodak chemistry as far as E6 goes....so my gut feeling is that the kit is probably some pretty old stock, especially since it's not complete.

The sodium hydroxide & reversal bath dilution is pretty much normal for E6 in a rotary tube though--you have to do that with Kodak as well, so that's no big deal....

 

[pandino]

Bummer! It's good to hear that the film was at least salvageable. Hopefully this guys makes good on this deal.

I may have Unicolor instructions in an old case of expired chems, but I'll have to check. There may be some NaOH in there also, but I really have no idea. If you still need them, let me know and I'll see what's in the box.

I'm getting ready to fire up my newly acquired CPE-2 (Thanks, Frank! ), so this info is helpful to know. Once I get it tuned up, I think I'll try RA4 first, then C41 and E6.

 

[Kino]

Here is one of the 35mm Ektachrome Slides. Best I could do with the crappy scanner from work. However, except for the noise in the shadows, colors are pretty accurate, but density is a bit MORE on the scan, but not much. Best I could do...

 

[Kino]

one more...

 

[Kino]

that kit is just old...Wing Lynch doesn't make chemistry--but that company PSI, the one that makes Unicolor--they were big in selling new & refurbed WLs back in the 90s. They actually came & did a sales call where I work, before we bought a WL from a competitor...but their thing was total support through the machine and the chemistry....they did RA4, E6 all sorts of stuff as well. but I haven't heard anything about them in years though...and WL (the company) has always pretty much pushed Kodak chemistry as far as E6 goes....so my gut feeling is that the kit is probably some pretty old stock, especially since it's not complete.

The sodium hydroxide & reversal bath dilution is pretty much normal for E6 in a rotary tube though--you have to do that with Kodak as well, so that's no big deal....

Sorry for the delay in thanking you for this post, DTK!

Thank you for letting me know that.

So, after looking at the slides above, do you think dilluting the reversal bath to 60% and adding the sodium hydroxide to the color developer would solve the majority of the problems in these slides?

Again, thanks!