Recommendations for 3-step E6 chemistry kits.

In the past, I used the now long-discontinued Kodak 6-step E6 kits for my E6 film processing. I had a large supply of them that I purchased when rumors surfaced that they would be discontinued. Unfortunately, I used the last of those kits last year so I'm going to give a 3-step kit a try. I would like to hear which 3-step kit that is available in the U.S. people here think is the best way to go. I see that Freestyle has E6 kits by Arista and Tetanal but I'm open to any other 3-step E6 kits available in the U.S. that I'm not aware of. Which do you prefer and why? I'm interested in the quality of results, of course, but also about their keeping qualities. I would especially like to hear from those who have tried both kits. I'm not going to go the route of buying each chemical separately for the full-blown Kodak E-6 process because the minimum quantities that must be purchased are way more than I will need.

I process my color film in a Jobo processor.

Thanks in advance.

I have used the Tetenal kit extensively and got good results. If you process medium format negatives, it is imperative that you use a stop bath and a brief wash between color developer and BLIX. If you prefer separate bleach and fixer, there is an article in the articles section which tells you how to convert a BLIX kit into a bleach&fixer kit with a few easily obtainable chemicals.

Rudeofus: Thanks for the info.

Years ago I used to use a 2-step (or maybe it was 3- step ...it's been a long time) for RA-4 print processing and I always used a good rinse between steps and found it gave better results than not doing so. It also prolonged the life of the chemistry because it prevented carryover. However, with color film I have always used my chemistry one-shot. But based on that experience, I assumed that I would give a good rinse between steps.

I generally shoot color only in large format but, on a trip this June, I will be shooting in medium format as well and I appreciate your advice about that. The reason I'll be shooting more MF in color on that trip is simply that Velvia 50 is no longer available in sheet film formats and I don't like Velvia 100 so I plan to shoot color in MF and B&W in my usual 4x5" and 8x10" formats. In fact, when I shot what Velvia 50 sheet film I still had on hand a couple years ago and also Velvia 100 when I ran out of V50, I thought something had gone wrong with my process when so many sheets had a magenta cast. Then, as I sorted them, I realized that all the bad ones were the Velvia 100. Velvia 100 exposures were fine (rated at E.I. 125) but color cast was bad. The Velvia 50 (rated at E.I. 32-40) sheets were beautiful as always. I miss that film in LF but at least it's still available in MF. I'll test other E6 sheet films to find a good sheet film replacement but not before my trip in a couple weeks.

It sounds like the Tetenal kits may be the way to go for me. However, I did contact a European supplier of the full-blown (6-step) Fuji Hunt kits to see how much shipping would be. I haven't heard back from them yet.

I see that some people feel that the 3-step E-6 kits may not produce archival results. Based on my experience, I'm guessing that if there is such a problem, it may be due to insufficient washing of the film but I may be wrong and there may be something else that could cause that problem.

Now that you wrote Velvia this and Velvia that, I reread your original post and quickly discovered that you wanted to know about E6 when my statement with stop bath between CD and BLIX applies to C-41. Sorry, my bad A good wash, as prescribed in the instructions, and as you write you do anyway, is all you need between E6 CD and BLIX.

About BLIX and archival stability: our APUG authority, PhotoEngineer has stated on several occasions, that BLIX doesn't remove all the silver, which will render slides unstable over time. While I have not seen any evidence of that, PhotoEngineer has spent years working on BLIXes at Kodak, has his name on a few BLIX related patents, and saw the actual measurement results which form the base of his claims. Since measuring residual silver requires complicated machinery unavailable to us, we might as well take his word for it.

I recommend you do a search first and read other recent threads which cover your questions: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

wildbill said:

I recommend you do a search first and read other recent threads which cover your questions: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Click to expand...

I actually did search APUG for the info I was looking for without much luck. Thanks for the link.

I contacted the source for the Fuji Hunt E6 kits. The reply I received provides hope that they may soon be available again in the U.S. Here's what the response said:

"We are currently working with the shipper to get approved to send these – the problem is that, in the last couple of years, things have been tightened up shipping this sort of stuff. We used to have no problems and regularly sent these kits to the US and other international destinations, but we have an issue with the one component being in a 3 litre container – they have a thing about the size of the individual containers not exceeding 1L

If you haven’t heard from us in the next 3 or 4 weeks by all means drop me another line,

Best regards,

Matthew"

Rudofus,

Thanks for the info about 3-step issues. The photo engineer you mentioned should know. Good information but bad news until the Fuji Hunt kits become available in the U.S again as mentioned in my previous post.

Tetenal E6, fantastic pristine results. Easy to mix up, has stabilizer for long term stability, easy to use, fewer steps.used to use the Kodak 7 step kit, but would never go back even if they reintroduced it. Tetenal, German made chemistry. They know what they are doing and make a top notch product.