When will PhotoWarehouse put us out of our misery?

[Donald Qualls]

If you're using your Flexicolor developer one-shot (as I seem to recall) you could try an RA-4 printing trick: adding a small amount of sulfite to the developer will reduce contrast (where a little bit of peroxide will increase it). Not sure how much to add -- but for RA-4, it's not much.

 

[AnselMortensen]

Freestyle has some bulk rolls of Vision in stock, discounted to $39.95 due to minor edge fog.

 

[ciniframe]

First bulk load ever. I may never buy a prepackaged roll again. I love being able to load 12, 24, 36, or any other number of exposures.

View attachment 273648

Bulk loading short loads is very handy with half frame. Seventy two (or more) exposures on a roll can sometimes be a challenge to complete. I don't bulk load anymore so with my Olympus Pen half frame cameras I'll sometimes go into the darkroom and snip off the exposed frames, load them into a tank, and then reload the rest of the roll.

 

[btaylor]

Interesting... I was turned off by my results with Cinestill films, and I suspect that had something to do with abusing cine film in the C41 process. Been thinking to try this ECN-2 kit some day. The price is insane though... Flexicolor chemistry is just so much cheaper, and delivers breathtaking results, so I'm on a fence. Maybe just once. for science...

There is a guy on eBay and local (LA) Craigslist that is selling 1 liter kits for $20, but bring your own fixer. The Freestyle kit is just ridiculously expensive.

 

[Donald Qualls]

The color palette seems to be heavily skewed around green/magenta axis, with channels diverging strangely in the shadows and highlights unlike normal CN fims.

I don't have the eye for color to reliably spot things like that, but you might be seeing the color shifts due to Visions films being ECN-2 (so designed for CD-3 developer) and processing them in C-41 (CD-4 developer). The dyes formed are slightly different. Or it might be that your temperature or pH are off a little, causing a cast and crossover. C-41 is technically a cross-process for that film -- probably closer to using a C-41 color dev for in a reversal process E-6 films (also designed for CD-3) than what you'd get processing E-6 as a C-41 negative (Visions has the orange mask, E-6 doesn't). Also worth noting that a couple of the Visions/Cinestill films are tungsten balanced -- I don't think Cinestill sells the 50T (they do have the 50D), but their 800T is the Visions 500T (gains some speed because C-41 develops to higher contrast than ECN-2).

If you do your own developers, you could order in some CD-3 and make up ECN-2 color developer (published formula), use C-41 bleach and fix (or blix) and final rinse, develop to the ECN-2 times, and see if that fixes the colors. You can always add contrast in printing or post if you find the results too flat.

There is a guy on eBay and local (LA) Craigslist that is selling 1 liter kits for $20, but bring your own fixer. The Freestyle kit is just ridiculously expensive.

Cinestill has both their Cs41 and an ECN-2 kit (I don't recall their catchy name for that one) for about $40 for a liter, capacity sixteen or so rolls. However, any neutral to alkaline rapid fixer should work with color negative films. Bleach is the expensive component, anyway, but bleach is also the one that lasts longest in service.

 

[lantau]

Mixing your own ecn2 dev is very easy. Nothing fancy in there, except Kodaks AF2000 antifoggant. I have it, but I don't think it makes much of a difference if you don't.

Any neutral fixer will work. The ecn fixer is a simple recipe, too. And ecn2 film can handle ferricyanide bleach. Easy to make, it's the original bleach for cine film. Supposedly it gives the 'real look'(tm). But you really have to properly stop with acid after development. I happen to use sulphuric acid as described in the process, but others seem happy with acetic acid. I had a long ecn2 break and really should start using these films again... I'd love to print onto print film, hybrid alone is not that satisfying.

V3 was the first film, which I bulk loaded. I calculated the circumference of the roll and estimated how many loops I'd have to take off for a couple of rolls. I didn't want 100ft in my loader.

It was convenient to place the roll in the lid of the can. That way it is accessible and it won't unfurl onto the floor in the worst case. Then I took off loops and formed a loose roll in my hands, which I transferred into the loader. Probably around 5x36, which was more than enough to get me going.

They say film is more relatable than digital, because its physical. But you have to hold a bulk roll in the dark to really 'feel' film. I love that. And the convenience to load as you please. I do full 36 exp rolls most of the time, but sometimes it's great to deviate. Also I can load my Zeiss Ikon canisters for my Contax2. Less need to torture it with 135 type rolls.

It makes it worth it and enjoyable for me to buy Ilford 100ft rolls. It's not just the (smallish) savings over individual rolls.