E6 film chemicals

[robMP61]

Hi all,
New to the group and having carried my cameras half-way around the world from Scotland I find I cannot get my E6 LF slides developed in Perth. Have managed to get hold of a Jobo CPE2 plus (from the UK) to do my own processing of LF and MF panoramics but cannot find Tetenal Colourtec E6 3 bath kits in Australia. Don't mention Vanbar, they have a 10 week delay in supplying 5 Litre kits and if they are as reliable as the nearly 4 months wait for a Cokin adapter ring (and then they sent me the wrong one) then my film will have gone out of date!
Does anyone know of another Australian supplier?

Rob

 

[woosang]

Can't help but interested inthe reply. I have a 1l e-6 kit but ordered c-41 months ago from vanbar. Still waiting

 

[nathan96]

Polygot is the man to talk to. He get his fuji E6 kits from Ag-photographic (I think) also in the UK

 

[polyglot]

Indeed. You do need to bug them a bit to make them send stuff (they seem overworked and disorganised), but the stuff is good and way cheaper than buying in AU.

Did you try Fitzgerald's? I'm a little surprised that they wouldn't do LF, though you'll get better quality at home for sure.

Emergency option: courier them to Dead Link Removed in Adelaide; they're very good but expensive.

 

[lordvader]

How much did shipping end up costing for the Fuji kit ?

 

[robMP61]

Greetings everyone,
I get my film from AG-photographic but wasn't sure they supplied chemicals overseas due to air-freight hazard. Will give them a try.
Use Fitzgeralds for MF, but they don't do LF processing... that would have been to easy!
Rob

 

[LJH]

How much did shipping end up costing for the Fuji kit ?

From an email received yesterday from them (in relation to the Tetenal 5l kit, though):

"We can send it – there are some risks, and it’s not cheap either. The best price we have found is around the £50-60 mark. Unfortunately, liquid chemistry is probably the worst thing to ship because of its high weight to low value ratio".

Nothing's easy down here, is it?

 

[polyglot]

Yep, shipping does cost. I tend to put together a big order to save on shipping, e.g. a C41 kit, E6 kit, Xtol and some paper, the whole lot last time cost about GBP135 to ship. That's still somehow cheaper than local and and you get it in under a week!

 

[SMBooth]

Vanbar sell a lot of separate chemicals, can you put your own kit together from them?
Older thread in same vain (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Or make your own> http://www.opie.net/orphy/photo/dr/wkft-e6.html

 

[LJH]

Vanbar sell a lot of separate chemicals, can you put your own kit together from them?
Older thread in same vain (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Or make your own> http://www.opie.net/orphy/photo/dr/wkft-e6.html

I've often looked at making my own developers (initially Pyro, but now E-6).

Any idea how easy/difficult it is to get the range of required chemicals in Oz? Especially without setting off precursor warnings!!

 

[nick mulder]

pity... I'm selling 2 5L Tetenal 3 baths kits and a Kodak 5 bath here in NZ as I'm moving to Aus.

 

[robMP61]

Yep, shipping does cost. I tend to put together a big order to save on shipping, e.g. a C41 kit, E6 kit, Xtol and some paper, the whole lot last time cost about GBP135 to ship. That's still somehow cheaper than local and and you get it in under a week!

I agree about the shipping times. I regularly get stuff shipped from the UK and it gets here in a week. Framing supplies from over east, over 3 weeks... and counting.
Doubling up on my order and and getting some BW chemicals and film to add to the E6 chemicals to make it worthwhile.
Thanks for the advice.
Rob

 

[ras351]

I'm currently waiting for some chemical kits from the UK. Unfortunately it looks like it hasn't made it out of the UK (tracking indicates it's been sitting at the "international hub" for over a week) so I'm weighing up some alternatives. I'll probably end up buying minilab supplies and accepting that I'll toss 90% of it. I'm about to set up an account with the Kodak distributor through work (mainly for RA-4 paper) so it's possible I can get some things through them but it might be by the container for things they don't normally stock/list (4x5 colour negative film for example is a minimum 20 boxes and it's still cheaper to import from the US). Apart from Vanbar (who I haven't had good experiences with) does anyone know of any other options?

 

[polyglot]

If you do end up purchasing minilab film* chemicals, I'd be interested in getting some from you.



* I have more than enough RA4 chems.

 

[Athiril]

I get Kodak chems through Vanbar, they're good at ordering shit in from Kodak. I replenish my E-6. I don't think you can beat Vanbar prices when it comes to replenishable Kodak and Fuji chemistry.

Hell I've even got them to get in stuff they don't even list from Kodak by giving them the catalogue number, got some ECN-2 chems that way.


Vanbar have Kodak E-6 chems sitting on the shelf at Fitzroy, except for the colour developer part iirc, just place it on order at their site and they'll get it in at some point.



If you are worried about the bleah cost, just remember the process is modular, just use a ferricyanide bleach (which you can replenish) which is cheap as.


For processing with a non E-6 bleach or non-Kodak bleach with the Kodak E-6 chems..

First Developer
Soak
Reversal Bath
Colour Developer
*Stop & Rinse (replacing the pre-bleach bath)
Your Bleach Here
Wash Well (may want a sulphite bath after a rinse for a ferricyanide bleach, then wash well)
Kodak E-6 Fixer (cheaper than B&W fix)
Wash Well
Stabiliser as Final Rinse (since Pre-Bleach contains dye preservative, you need to move it over here, such as using C-41 Stabiliser III which has formaldehyde in it as the final rinse).

Other option for dye stability is to use pre-bleach after colour dev step for stabilisation, and then rinse/wash it out and then use your bleach.

Here is just some of the stuff, all local, except the one bottle of HC-110 which I got from an APUG member.
Dead Link Removed



Here is an example of the above process described but using Flexicolor III bleach on E100VS in Kodak E-6 chemistry (replenished), in a Paterson hand tank:
Dead Link Removed

 

[ras351]

I wrote a long message here regarding my experiences with Vanbar over the years but deleted it. Perhaps they are better to deal with if you are able to walk into their store. Suffice to say although I will purchase things from them, I now only do so as a last resort.

My chemicals are still sitting in the UK and it doesn't look like Parcelforce will ship them so I have asked Matthew at Ag-photographic to see if he can get them back. Bummer

 

[Athiril]

I wrote a long message here regarding my experiences with Vanbar over the years but deleted it. Perhaps they are better to deal with if you are able to walk into their store. Suffice to say although I will purchase things from them, I now only do so as a last resort.

My chemicals are still sitting in the UK and it doesn't look like Parcelforce will ship them so I have asked Matthew at Ag-photographic to see if he can get them back. Bummer

I special ordered my ECN-2 chemistry from Vanbar via email, you just need to talk to the right person, not generic sales person. They added to the catalogue just for my order, they also added Flexicolor Starter late last year which they didn't have before and now have in store (last I checked) since other people started with Flexicolor but didn't want to mix their own starter.

 

[SMBooth]

Dan, if you have time and feel inclined to do so could you post a list of chemicals and part number to order from Vanber for E6. It might help out a few people here.

 

[robMP61]

I wrote a long message here regarding my experiences with Vanbar over the years but deleted it. Perhaps they are better to deal with if you are able to walk into their store. Suffice to say although I will purchase things from them, I now only do so as a last resort.

My chemicals are still sitting in the UK and it doesn't look like Parcelforce will ship them so I have asked Matthew at Ag-photographic to see if he can get them back. Bummer

I have had two lots of chemicals posted from A-G photographic last month, both 5 litre kits. One took less than a week to arrive, the other 2 weeks. If you order B&W chemicals apparently they are more problematic for Matthew at A-G photographic to send. So I ordered the B&W chemicals from PRA in Perth and guess what? Been waiting for 4 weeks. So I contacted them last week and it will be another 3 weeks for delivery. I too have given up on Vanbar.

 

[ras351]

I have had two lots of chemicals posted from A-G photographic last month, both 5 litre kits. One took less than a week to arrive, the other 2 weeks. If you order B&W chemicals apparently they are more problematic for Matthew at A-G photographic to send. So I ordered the B&W chemicals from PRA in Perth and guess what? Been waiting for 4 weeks. So I contacted them last week and it will be another 3 weeks for delivery. I too have given up on Vanbar.

There weren't any B&W chemicals in the order although it's a bit bizarre that they would be more problematic to ship than colour - perhaps it's something to do with the packaging rather than the contents. The good news is both packages finally arrived. Both were shipped on the 28th Feb, the first arrived on the 14th March, the second on the 20th. Both had a nice orange sticker saying they couldn't be shipped by air, surface only, which was dated the 28th Feb. This was covered by another sticker saying something like "Checked parcs, ok to fly" which wasn't dated. Basically it looks like they were pulled until Matthew had their account manager chase it up and determine they could actually ship the things via air. I'm still going to chase up the Kodak components when I can as the Fuji E-6 kit is formaldehyde free which I'm not convinced is as stable but nothing a soak in the Kodak C-41 stabilizer won't fix.