The e-4 process

[TRM]

Kind of a historical thread I guess but when e4 was being used with ektachrome film was push processing of it recommended ? How was it done and what results could be expected ?

In other words was it a good idea to do?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Welcome to APUG.

Push processing was done with all E series films and was accomplished by the same method, that is, the first developer time was increased. I seem to remember also that the color developer time was increased in one process, but I'm not sure now.

Results with a reversal push are never very good resulting in high contrast and low dmax with off color blacks.

PE

 

[Roger Cole]

Back in the 80s and 90s it was always said in magazine articles that, unlike pushing negative film, pushing transparency film resulted in real increases in shadow detail - that is, true film speed increases. I was always pretty pleased with the results of pushing E6 one stop and found two stops acceptable for most purposes, though I always gave more extra first developer time than the official recommendation called for. I remember E4 and shot a few rolls but that was long before I did my own.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk and 100% recycled electrons - because I care.

 

[sepiareverb]

I have a roll of exposed Ektachrome X for E4 that a friend found when cleaning out her folks house. Any chance of getting image off it with HC-110?

 

[mshchem]

Help me remember. If I recall correctly if you took a roll of High Speed Ektachrome ASA 160, and shot it at 400. You could buy a pre paid mailer from Kodak I recall it was designated "ESP-1" processing. If you had the shop send it to Kodak there was a box you checked or a sticker that designated this as a VIP film.
It looked terrible compared to Kodachrome but is was blazing fast.
Best Mike

 

[darkroommike]

Help me remember. If I recall correctly if you took a roll of High Speed Ektachrome ASA 160, and shot it at 400. You could buy a pre paid mailer from Kodak I recall it was designated "ESP-1" processing. If you had the shop send it to Kodak there was a box you checked or a sticker that designated this as a VIP film.
It looked terrible compared to Kodachrome but is was blazing fast.
Best Mike

Yup the ESP-1 gave a 1 1/3 stop push. I ran an E-4 sink line for about a year (and it was awful, that pre-hardener was a SOB in an open 3.5 gallon tank). We did regular push processing in one or two runs per week and pushed the stuff two and even three stops, as I recall, it wasn't pretty but it was fast! The shadows would get smoky looking and shift to a sort of dark green rather than black but in 1976 color print film was just starting to transition to C-41 and the old C-22 stuff topped out at ISO 80 (?) and Kodachrome was ASA 64 (but I think you could use the ESP-1 on it).

 

[Photo Engineer]

Kodachrome could never be processed in any Ektachrome process, nor could it go through any negative color process.

Ektachrome 160 could go through C-22 to yield a speed of 400 with negative color. The images of Alan Sheppard on the cover of Life magazine and many other shots were done this way with cross processing.

PE

 

[darkroommike]

Since I was working with E-4 and E-6 processes at the time I rarely shot any kind of Kodachrome, nor did I need the PK-series envelopes, I was mistaken about the ESP-1 add on but there were places that pushed Kodachrome back in the day (way back ten years ago!) From a photo.net post:

Peter Lawrence , Oct 10, 2006; 06:17 a.m.

From Kodak's website:

"KODACHROME 200 Film can be push-processed to gain film speed or compensate for underexposure. Before exposing your film, contact the lab where your film will be processed to discuss the push-processing levels they offer and the associated charges. Be sure to mark your film container with the EI number used and inform the lab that you want the appropriate push processing.

When the film is push processed, the color balance will shift in the magenta-red direction, compensating for some of the greenish artificial illumination present in most stadiums and other large facilities.

We do not recommend push processing of KODACHROME 64 Film."

So, yes, you can push Kodachrome 200, but there will be a shift in its color balance.​

I can personally attest that when Kodachrome film goes through a C-41 Kodacolor film processor only bad things happen, the emulsion melts all over the rollers and the poor, overworked and underpaid One-Hour lab manager (your's truly) had to call "time out" and pull the developer rack, clean it, drain the developer tank, replace the developer, and bring the machine back up to temp whilst all the while people are jumping up and down waiting for their fast prints of their dog or whatever. Very frustrating and a constant training issue at the store.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Kodak knew of the problem with pushing Kodachrome 200 to 400 and we were working on a 400 speed film that used t-grains. Samples were tested, but Kodachrome sales were in such a sharp decline that the project was cancelled.

PE

 

[Craig]

I know I've seen a technical sheet somewhere where Kodak UK offered push processing 1 1/3 stops to save K25 that had been exposed at 64.

 

[John Salim]

Yes, Kodak's ( short lived ) Professional Kodachrome lab in London offered push and pull processing options.
John S