Hello, so I'm trying to process ECN-2 in proper ECN-2 chemicals mixed mostly as specified in the Kodak publication. Specifically my tweaks:
* I'm using the alternative ferricyanide based bleach, with 1.5g of borax added and then enough sulfuric acid to bring it down to pH 6.5
* I excluded AF-2000 from the developer
* I'm processing in a hand tank. Developer I do 15s initial agitation, then 2x agitation per 15s and otherwise keep the tank submerged in 106F water (sous vide)
* Instead of the specified final rinse, I'm using simple photo-flo+distilled water (I've also tried Kodak C-41 Final Rinse)
My problem is remjet, calcium stains (note I'm including anti-calcium #4!), and weird orange dots when rewashing. I initially tried to remove the remjet using running water and gloved fingers. This appeared to work, but upon scanning there was a lot of remjet left behind that was too small or subtle to see on the negatives but show up in scans obviously. I then tried to remove the remjet by doing a rewash and switching to a microfiber cloth. This did succeed at removing all the remjet, but then left behind a frankly insane amount of calcium deposits. I then added ~0.5ml of anti-calcium #4 to 300ml of photo-flo and soaked again. This didn't completely eliminate the calcium deposits, but made it basically a non-problem for scanning. However, after doing this the colors shifted. Comparing scans processed and done the same way, the color shifted to slightly warmer tones. This could easily be corrected for, but the bigger issue was that small orange dots (blue dots in positive) appeared in the center of the negative. This was most obvious in areas of smooth upper density, but was visible even in dmin. I attached two screenshots showing the effect. The dots are very small (this is a high resolution 100% crop) but it's obvious enough to give a weird mottle to the skin tone in the zoomed out picture.
Why does this happen? I've had the weird calcium deposit problem come up before with rewashing as well as the blue dot problem. Surely it is possible to rewash without this but I have no idea how photo-flo would cause this on rewash but not on initial final rinse. Does anyone have any leads for terms to look up or something for how this happens? Do I really need to mix the proper ECN-2 final rinse and/or PB-6 pre-wash? My understanding is PB-6 is only really necessary if I'm intending to heal scratches or doing the rewash several times (too many times will shift colors toward magenta), but give that this shows up after the 1st rewash that seems unlikely.
* I'm using the alternative ferricyanide based bleach, with 1.5g of borax added and then enough sulfuric acid to bring it down to pH 6.5
* I excluded AF-2000 from the developer
* I'm processing in a hand tank. Developer I do 15s initial agitation, then 2x agitation per 15s and otherwise keep the tank submerged in 106F water (sous vide)
* Instead of the specified final rinse, I'm using simple photo-flo+distilled water (I've also tried Kodak C-41 Final Rinse)
My problem is remjet, calcium stains (note I'm including anti-calcium #4!), and weird orange dots when rewashing. I initially tried to remove the remjet using running water and gloved fingers. This appeared to work, but upon scanning there was a lot of remjet left behind that was too small or subtle to see on the negatives but show up in scans obviously. I then tried to remove the remjet by doing a rewash and switching to a microfiber cloth. This did succeed at removing all the remjet, but then left behind a frankly insane amount of calcium deposits. I then added ~0.5ml of anti-calcium #4 to 300ml of photo-flo and soaked again. This didn't completely eliminate the calcium deposits, but made it basically a non-problem for scanning. However, after doing this the colors shifted. Comparing scans processed and done the same way, the color shifted to slightly warmer tones. This could easily be corrected for, but the bigger issue was that small orange dots (blue dots in positive) appeared in the center of the negative. This was most obvious in areas of smooth upper density, but was visible even in dmin. I attached two screenshots showing the effect. The dots are very small (this is a high resolution 100% crop) but it's obvious enough to give a weird mottle to the skin tone in the zoomed out picture.
Why does this happen? I've had the weird calcium deposit problem come up before with rewashing as well as the blue dot problem. Surely it is possible to rewash without this but I have no idea how photo-flo would cause this on rewash but not on initial final rinse. Does anyone have any leads for terms to look up or something for how this happens? Do I really need to mix the proper ECN-2 final rinse and/or PB-6 pre-wash? My understanding is PB-6 is only really necessary if I'm intending to heal scratches or doing the rewash several times (too many times will shift colors toward magenta), but give that this shows up after the 1st rewash that seems unlikely.
