My first E-6 On Super 8. Me and my partner in Bath VNF 1 film cross process

[jm94]

Yesterday me and my partner decided to take my super 8 camera into bath... my newer film has not arrived yet so settled on a fridge-stored ektachrome,which required the VNF 1 process. hours of researching turned up just that I would get a blue/magenta cast and that it was like a push process of several stops. So I said lets just shoot it and see what happens. I was supposed to be in scotland but have had to move the date forward... It was filmed on a chinnon 671 camera at 18fps with the intention of playing it back at about 8.

Back at home in the darkroom I slowly uncoiled it into my developing tank, E-6 chemicals bought up to temperature in the kitchen sink (38C).
I developed for 5:30 in the first developer, deciding to knock off 30 seconds due to the extreme push process that E6 apparently does on VNF-1 film. 6 in the colour one and blixed for 6 minutes but then decided it wasn't fixed enough so fixed for an additional 3 minutes. Then washed for several minutes then used the stabiliser.

The colours came out so well and focus was sharp! On this video though the iPad camera kept trying to focus so was blurring parts of the video!
We loved watching this video and we had the intention of slowing it down to 8fps or thereabouts. My first E-6 processing and It was easy as anything! A couple of areas had uneven development where it had contacted the sides of the tank but otherwise for such an old film it came out so well! There was quite a bit of grain but it was fun to film! I was surprised at how sharp the film was, but the digital upload lost alot of the sharpness among other things, it had a reasonably good representation of the colours. The youtube upload has also added loads of pixelation and there is very little contrast on the video, but the actual film when projected is stunning! I do plan to upload a higher quality version when I get the chance to borrow a good digital camera, I do not own a decent digital camera as I do not use digital much!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ajYnqQcHBI

Having a stab at E-6 and super 8 paid off and it was so rewarding! I had no lightmeter as my battery has not arrived yet as its coming from the U.S, most of it was filmed at f.11 but the river bit at f 5.6.

 

[SkipA]

Very cool. It looks like Super 8 alright. I love Super 8, it's in a class by itself. My main cameras are a Beaulieu 6008s and an Elmo 1012S-XL.

It looks like you had quite a few processing artefacts, which is to be expected if you processed the film loose. If you can, get a Lomo UPB-1A developing tank. It's the one that holds a 50 feet of 8mm or 16mm film. It's really hard to learn how to load it in total darkness, but once you do, it's a terrific daylight developing tank.

Which specific film was that you were using?

 

[jm94]

It was kodak ektachrome 7240 process VNF 1. The processing artefacts I expected and they added to the 'hand process' atmosphere, I am looking to invest in a lomo tank. It was processed in an AP 2-reel processing tank with just the centre shaft in it to make the hole light tight, no reels, apart from the refix, rewash, and stabilizer which was done in a tray. I constantly turned the developing tank in the heated water bath. (I just used hot/cold water in the sink to bring it up to temperature then ensure it stayed there for a bit with the bottles in, adding a couple of drops of hot water here and there as the temperature dropped by like 0.5 of a degree. I use clear white bottles the sort you let alcohol beverages ferment in as they are thin for the hot water to warm them up, cheap, airtight and can be squeezed until the chemical is at the top of the bottle neck. For a hand processed one plus its age (it had been stored in a fridge according to the seller) the quality was stunning as was the sharpness, apart from the processing artefacts bit. It was not viewed at it's native 18fps but slowed down to like 8 as I stated because it was filmed with that intention Slowing down things like the seagull flying over and into the background of the trees, or just life in general. This has made me want to shoot more! I have one more of the 7240 rolls and a couple of new ektachrome ones, and two plus-x B/W ones and one Tri-x B/W. I think for super 8 mind that I prefer colour to black and white, but with my photos I generally prefer black and white over colour so i have kind of found something to do colour work with I wasn't going to judge my future super 8 on the old VNF films but they gave me much better results than we expected and initially it wasn't going to be used for serious shooting but one thing just lead to another and my view of just 'shoot it and see how it goes' paid off I knew it had the same colour developing agent but i read E6 was missing things like benzyl alcohol and was like a 'push process' hence knocking off 30 seconds off the time. I expected a colour cast too as many had stated, although I think that has a lot to do with storage conditions, too. Cannot wait to shoot more viewing even a good quality electronic copy would not beat the film what I like is the actual rays of light from that scene made the change to the film which was made visible when processed. So it is like it captured 'part' of the scene and not just a representation of it. I see that about film in general but especially with a direct positive.