E6 Tetenal 3 bath and slight magenta cast

Roberto · Jun 15, 2014

Hello,
I am using the Tetenal E6 Colortech 3 bath kit in a CPP2 Jobo processor.
While the process is consistent and allows me to get the same results all the time, my Velvia RVP and RVP50 slides always get a slight magenta cast.
Any suggestion about what the reason may be?
Thanks!

Muihlinn · Jun 15, 2014

Depending where you see the cast the fix varies, but I'd bet you can get the rid of it extending the wash before blix and the blix itself

Rudeofus · Jun 15, 2014

There are two kinds of magenta cast, one that is proportional to density, and one that shows up as extra magenta density. The first case would show clear, neutral highlights and indicate that the developer is off, while the latter one would show a strong color cast in the highlights and would suggest that your BLIXing and/or washing is incomplete.

Roberto · Jun 15, 2014

I was thinking at the temperature of the color developer bath. In one case where the temperature of the whole process was accidentaly too low, I got a green cast.
it is possible that an excess of temperature of 1°C can bring such magenta dominant?

David A. Goldfarb · Jun 15, 2014

Overdevelopment is one potential cause. Also, if the film is expired, it tends toward magenta, and you might find that pulling it can reduce that effect, but at the expense of contrast.

I haven't used Tetenal 3-bath for some time, but as I recall, there were recommendations about adjusting the pH as well to address this sort of issue.

Muihlinn · Jun 16, 2014

My bet is that as he said slight he's seeing it in highlights mainly, so it will be fixed with a longer wash of color developer and a longer blix as well. If the cast is clear in the shadows with some blue then it's low alkalinity in the color developer

JaZ99 · Aug 13, 2014

I'm facing similar problem. I do wash accordingly to the Tetenal instructions. Any tips?

Roberto · Aug 13, 2014

I improved the situation by:
1. Using chemical strictly one-shot
2. extending blix time a little bit (probably useless due to using fresh bath every time)
3. Using faucet water which has more neutral ph than demineralized

Still there is this tendency but very very slight . I can live with that. Should I want to be fastidious I could intervene on CD bath PH , but again, now that I work one-shot I am very satisfied with the results and don't want to mess with phmeters and other dangerous chemicals.

JaZ99 · Aug 13, 2014

Roberto said:
I improved the situation by:
1. Using chemical strictly one-shot
2. extending blix time a little bit (probably useless due to using fresh bath every time)
3. Using faucet water which has more neutral ph than demineralized

Still there is this tendency but very very slight . I can live with that. Should I want to be fastidious I could intervene on CD bath PH , but again, now that I work one-shot I am very satisfied with the results and don't want to mess with phmeters and other dangerous chemicals.

Since I've acquired control strips, I tested batch re-using up to 4 times. My control strips are very much alike, regardless of which run they were developed in. It gives me great savings on chemistry ;-)
I will try to double wash time and see what happens.

JaZ99 · Aug 17, 2014

I did the test. I have extended the washing time between CD and BX to 4 minutes (8 water changes). No improvement.
Patch #2 is quite similar to previous one (from the fresh batch of chemistry) - it was 5th re-use, just for this test (jobo 2520 tank).

Rudeofus · Aug 17, 2014

According to Tetenal's instructions you need to fine tune the pH of your color developer. Given the very high pH of E6 color developer, you can use Acetic Acid instead of Sulfuric Acid, but you can not use Sodium Carbonate instead of the Hydroxide, and you have to use moderately fresh NaOH solution while you are at it.

JaZ99 · Aug 17, 2014

Rudeofus said:
According to Tetenal's instructions you need to fine tune the pH of your color developer.

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with this little strange booklet. I do correct pH of CD with NaOH, so my slides looks good on the light table. But I estimated the correction on the trial and error basis, and I want more scientific approach, so I bought control strips. The strips looks bad, the slides looks good. I'm perplexed.

Rudeofus said:
Given the very high pH of E6 color developer, you can use Acetic Acid instead of Sulfuric Acid, but you can not use Sodium Carbonate instead of the Hydroxide, and you have to use moderately fresh NaOH solution while you are at it.

Are you sure? I have a tons of lab grade acetic acid I could use.

BTW, sometimes accidents happen:

Rudeofus · Aug 17, 2014

JaZ99 said:
Oh, yes, I'm familiar with this little strange booklet. I do correct pH of CD with NaOH, so my slides looks good on the light table. But I estimated the correction on the trial and error basis, and I want more scientific approach, so I bought control strips. The strips looks bad, the slides looks good. I'm perplexed.

Over the years I must have made almost any processing error you can possibly think of, yet most of my slides look ok. These control strips are brutal.

JaZ99 said:
Are you sure? I have a tons of lab grade acetic acid I could use.

Acetic Acid behaves very much like an acid at pH above 5-6, it has no impact on chemical reactions in color developer (except for the pH change it causes), and it does not form any precipitates, so it will most definitely work with a liquid that has a target pH around 12 ...

JaZ99 · Aug 17, 2014

Rudeofus said:
Acetic Acid behaves very much like an acid at pH above 5-6, it has no impact on chemical reactions in color developer (except for the pH change it causes), and it does not form any precipitates, so it will most definitely work with a liquid that has a target pH around 12 ...

Thanks for the tip!

E6 Tetenal 3 bath and slight magenta cast

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