what did I do wrong now?

Hello everyone
I would like to introduce myself as a new member, and would like to say how helpful this forum has been for me. I haven't written in before because there people here with SO much more background and experience that I don't know how much I could contribute; so I just go soaking up the knowledge as it comes along.
I have been taking pictures now for about 2 years, mostly slide film with a Mamiya 645 1000s and a big clunker of a RB-67 Pro-S. Now I had been using the Kodak 5L kit to process the film at 500ml of chemicals per run, and with the processing machine I put together, I went through about 60 rolls of e6 without a flaw.
Now that Kodak has discontinued the 5L kit,I purchased the 5gal sizes of the chems, with the exception of the bleach. For that I used a E-4 bleach which consisted of

Potassium Ferricyanide 120 gram
Potassium Bromide 24 gram
Disodium Phosphate 45 gram
Sodium Thiocyante 10 gram
Water to 1000ml
Now I split the chemicals as shown in picture 1 ; then I processed the films according to the times on picture 2(these are my standard times), but the slides came out horribly as you can see in pictures 3 and 4.
what bothers me is that the Provia has the green tinge, especially in the shadows, while the Asita has a bad magenta cast to it ,but they were run in the same batch, so I am at a loss besides blaming the bleach.
I did put 2 water rinses in before the bleach, so I didn't forget that
Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated, as I really want to go out and shoot more film,but I've got to be able to process it as well
Thanks

Well, with a Ferricyanide bleach in E6, you really need a good wash and clear before the bleach and after the color developer and you need a clear and wash after the bleach so the cycle would be:
......
Color Develop
Clear
Wash
Bleach
Clear
Wash
Fix
etc....

IDK how the lack of a prebleach or conditioner would go with this either. The Ferricyanide is so strong that it can oxidize the CD3 and form dyes and it can also react with hypo and form Sulfur. The lack of the prebleach or conditioner may mean that you will need a formalin step in there as well. IDK what else may accrue from this many changes.

Good luck.

PE

R Paul,

Welcome to APUG.

PE is the best person to help you. He worked at Kodak on R&D in film and developers.

Steve

Thank you,PE. I have some Photo-Flo solution mixed with formalin to use as a last rinse/conditioner , so what I will do is a run thru with both rinse and clearing solutions(this with sodium sulfite added) and see what happens. It's just that 130.00 USD a bottle for Bleach III really makes me want to find a less expensive way to go

R Paul

The Ferricyanide bleach is likely your problem. As PE points out, E-6 was not designed for that older chemistry. I have had no problems using a persulfate-quinone bleach with E-6. It works well for me with both C-41 and E-6.

For this type of problem, you cannot fix it. The harm is done to the colors. For dye stability, you can fix the problem with Formalin in the final rinse.

PE

Well it was a good try anyhow, as it only cost me 2 rolls of film, nothing I couldn't afford to lose, and I got saved a lot of running in circles
mts --you mentioned a presulfate-quinone bleach; I would like to try it, if you could pass along the formula.

R Paul

It worked !!

Just to let everyone know that the latest run of e-6 film went very well indeed, with only the usual problems in spooling on the film (35mm seems a lot harder for me ). The quinone bleach worked wonderfully with the Kodak chems (thanks mts) and I am once again a happy camper.

R paul

Hi R
Can you share your bleach formula and any steps that differ from the standard E6 process that you use?

Thanks, I'm always interested in any and all E6 or C41 bleach substitutes.

brucemuir said:

Hi R
Can you share your bleach formula and any steps that differ from the standard E6 process that you use?

Thanks, I'm always interested in any and all E6 or C41 bleach substitutes.

Click to expand...

Copper Bleach (C41/E6/EP2/RA4)
cf. D. Neville SuperBull, #28, p.2 1986. Darkroom Tech.
Nov/Dec 1985, photochemistry. Believe it or not this bleach
works, although you can expect a significant shift in color
balance as compared to ferric-EDTA or quinone bleaches. The
trick to successful copper bleach is to use a good stop bath and a
rinse before it, because any carryover from a developer step will
surely result in stains.
The copper bleach formula has to be the very cheapest
bleach possible owing to the ready availability of copper
sulfate at the hardware store where it is sold to clear/kill
tree roo ts from sewer lines. Consequently this is not
environmentally friendly bleach but it works well if you have
trees growing over your sewer lines.
Water 130-140F 600 ml
Copper sulfate pentahydrate 360 g
Sodium chloride (not iodized) 300 ml
Water to make 1 liter
Decant / filter mixed solution. Shelf life 12-24 month minimum.
Film: bleach 6-7 min @ 75 F, capacity 30 36 exp. Rolls/liter
Paper & film: stop & rinse before and following bleach is recommended.