E6 & C41 home developing

[frontdrive34]

I'm wondering what kits/chemicals people have had access to to do home colour developing? The various online suppliers I have contacted list items but don't actually have stock and while the Kodak website lists 5 litre chemicals reasonably well contacting them has proven useless.

 

[dwdmguy]

B and H photo but I have to drive into the city to pick up after 9/11.
It's getting tough because they are expensive to ship. Weight.

I use Kodak 6 Bath for C41 and Tent for E6

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Tetenal kits are available locally (i.e. in Australia), and are reasonably priced and work well.
I hesitate to mention Vanbar because their customer service is sh#$@ouse, but try them anyway.

 

[frontdrive34]

Thanks dwdmguy but I should have mentioned here in Aust. The suppliers you have in the US are great but shipping some stuff here is, well, an issue.

Vanbar are one of the online suppliers who list the tetenal kits but have not had stock for MANY months (I rang them today to be told none "yet").

I'm happy to use the Kodak 5 litre bottles and work with that but even finding a source for that has been harder than I would have thought.

 

[Ian Grant]

As the Tetenal kits are imported into Australia go for them, they are particularly good. Contact Tetenal direct and ask who stocks the kits, they are a very helpful company.

Ian

 

[Athiril]

I just got my Kodak E6 minilab chemicals (fixer and colour dev replenisher and colour dev starter) from Vanbar.

If you want bang for buck, I would recommend mixing your own bleach (vanbar has all you need in raw components) or getting Agfa bleach from Vanbar, Kodak E6 fixer ($13.70 approx), and Fuji E6 Colour Developer Replenisher which makes 235 or so litres (ill be going Fuji next time) - mix the starter yourself, its only 2 components, if youre into it I'll look it up for you.

And mix your own first developer, save a shit tonne



Ive used the Tetenal C41 kit before @ 31c (easy to stabilise temp - actually no need to, it doesnt drop during summer with the short processing times ) with excellent results - actually better than any lab I've had 120 C41 processed at - theirs have thin range compared to tetenal negs - also no roller scratches.


Hell, you can make a good first developer from paracetamol (the cheapest stuff you can find), sodium sulphite (made from sodium metabisulphite which is sold in the wine/beer making section of a super market for $4 for 250 grams) and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, $5 for 500 grams of 98%) <-- I've made it a few times, let me know if you need help there too

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

I had a chat with my local supplier, and they mentioned they've had the Tetenal E6 kits on order for a few months now, which is quite a pain. I'll have a look at the home brew route over summer, I think.

 

[nsouto]

Coll stuff, Athiril.

Still got a box kit of Tetenal E6 around, but the labe has been good to me so far.

Can you elaborate more on all those options? I'm interested, just in case my current lab vanishes.

Maybe a long post and we can get a mod to "stick" it so it remains visible?

 

[Mike Wilde]

There are other ways. I have mixed from scratch e-6 in the past.

I currently am using up different bits of Kodak 6 step 5L E-6 kits, but plan on home brew mixing to fill in certain steps. I will eleborate.

I mix the kits up in 500mL increments and thus process 2 rolls of 35mm 36 exposures per 500mL tank. Some chemistry steps last longer after mixed and process twice as much before exhaustion than others.

So at some point I will start to optically re-expose between the stop and cd, since the reversal bath does not last as long as others. Then I am likely to start to home brew the fd and cd, and keep using the longer lived kit components.

 

[frontdrive34]

Today (finally) I picked up 3 x 1 litre Tetenal C41 kits from Vanbar in Sydney. A friend hed been there in the morning for something for herself and mentioned seeing them. I took 3 of the 4 on the shelf! Now for the fun...

 

[RobertV]

Rollei has a 1 ltr. kit made from Fuji Hunt C41 chemicals 10 ltr. professional and can be ordered via the different Rollei distributors.
It works fine if you follow the instruction manual.