Where to find E-6 with seperate bleach, and fix

[Ozzietx]

Although I live in a city of 1.2M people, it appears that there are no labs doing E-6 in house.
I think I am going to have to start doing my own.
As I think I understand the E-6 kits that are readily available use blix.
As I also think I understand using a combined blix can have some adverse effects on both
the image quality, and durability of the chromes due to uncleared silver.
I don't shoot a lot of color film so I can't justify purchasing a commercial size kit of chemicals.
Is ther somewher that I can get a small (hobby size) kit of E-6 that has seperate bleach and fix?
Is there a way to use the kits with blix, and just mix a seperate bleach and fix?
Thanks for any input

 

[Rudeofus]

There are these 7 bath kits made by Fuji, sold among others by Freestyle.

 

[Ozzietx]

Rudeofus
I have seen the hunt kit. I was hoping for a smaller amount of chemicals. My fear is that the chemicals would go bad before I have a chance to use them.
I may go that route anyway.

 

[Rudeofus]

Small kits are outrageously expensive per liter compared to bigger kits. If you really only process a small amount of slide film per year, and really want to do it yourself, you could convert a BLIX kit into one with separate bleach and fixer. This would require just a few extra chems which are easy to obtain.

 

[Rolfe Tessem]

Since Kodak discontinued their 6 step E6 kit several years ago, I think the Fuji Hunt kit is your only option.

FWIW, I've tried the 3 step kits and find them to be just fine. Maybe there were some issues years ago, but the current formulations deliver a nice, clean result. I've used Tetenal and have just ordered a one gallon kit from these folks, who OEM the Unicolor and probably Rollei and Arista kits. They will sell directly, however.

https://www.photosys.com/photographic-chemistry

Rolfe

 

[thuggins]

As I also think I understand using a combined blix can have some adverse effects on both
the image quality, and durability of the chromes due to uncleared silver.

You know what they say about opinions...

I have developed a couple of hundred rolls in Tetenal kits and not single frame has turned out less than perfect. The results are as good as any professional lab. Neither elemental silver nor silver compounds remain after BLIX. Either one would be immediately visible on a tranny. If you have concerns just extend BLIX time. The process runs to completion.

 

[koraks]

PhotoEngineer seems to have a different opinion. Given his experience with formulating BLIXes for Kodak, I kind of tend to value his views...

 

[halfaman]

According to PE, retained silver is not an issue for stability of color film but it has an impact on image quality. In negative color film reduces saturation and sharpness, and I can confirm it really happens.

 

[Rudeofus]

According to PE, retained silver is not an issue for stability of color film but it has an impact on image quality.

If retained silver reacts with environmental Hydrogen Sulfide, and if it does this non-uniformly, then you do have a stability problem.

BTW lots of experts have stated that BLIX is bad, and they also stated "but Tetenal's BLIX is excellent". This tells me that not all BLIXes are created equal, and that there are/were some really bad ones out there.

 

[thuggins]

PhotoEngineer seems to have a different opinion. Given his experience with formulating BLIXes for Kodak, I kind of tend to value his views...

I am very familiar with PhotoEngineer's opinions and comments, but he is not the only engineer on this site.

Either elemental silver or silver compounds would be immediately visible as an opacity on the finished transparency. Unlike negatives, you can easily see if a slide is "right" or not. With Tetenal kits the slides are as right as they can possibly be.

As posted above, not all BLIXes are created equal. It is a generic term and no doubt some formulations are less effective than others. My only experience is with Tetenal, and the results are as good as any professional lab.

 

[koraks]

I think a small amount of silver will be quite hard to distinguish from the gelatin layer itself - at least initially. It'll be converted into silver sulfide eventually and then it may give a warm cast to the slides. But if you get good results with your blix, that's great!

 

[RPC]

"but Tetenal's BLIX is excellent".

Do they say how they test it, to prove this? And does it have a life as long as separate bleach and fix, especially used?

 

[Rudeofus]

The only scientifically sound way to test bleach/BLIX effectiveness is some X ray based method to quantitatively determine retained silver - completely off limits to amateurs, and not sure whether Tetenal ever went through this. What I do know is that Tetenal's BLIX contains a decent bleach accelerator, so it's not just some mixture of Ammonium Ferric EDTA and Ammonium Thiosulfate and crossed fingers.

BTW I don't speak for, or on behalf of Tetenal. What I write here is a cursory summary over what I have read during the last couple of years, and I have successfully user Tetenal's products for a couple of years before I started home brewing.

 

[halfaman]

In C-41 my eyes tells me that Tetenal Colortec kits with Blix produce less saturation and sharpness than others with separate bleach and fix (Compard/Rollei Digibase or the lab I use), with Rollei Colorchem kits it is even more pronounced. Both issues are described as effects of retained silver.

It is not neccesary a bad thing, that softness could be nice for some applications like portraits...

 

[halfaman]

One additional thing to mention is that I don't know any profesional C-41 chemistry that uses Blix. Even Tetenal professional line uses separate bleach and fix.

 

[Rudeofus]

One additional thing to mention is that I don't know any profesional C-41 chemistry that uses Blix. Even Tetenal professional line uses separate bleach and fix.

That's most likely the case because BLIX is more expensive and not as easy to replenish.

The easiest way for you to determine whether insufficient bleaching is the reason for your muted/blurry results would be re-BLIXing a strip. If optical appearance of these slides/negs indeed improves, then retained silver is indeed the culprit and you can repair all the other negs/slides by re-BLIXing.

 

[koraks]

Will the retained silver after blixing disappear with re-blixing? It won't work if it's converted into eg silver sulfide. I'm not sure what the nature is of the retained silver when Blix is used.

 

[halfaman]

The easiest way for you to determine whether insufficient bleaching is the reason for your muted/blurry results would be re-BLIXing a strip. If optical appearance of these slides/negs indeed improves, then retained silver is indeed the culprit and you can repair all the other negs/slides by re-BLIXing.

Not using anymore C-41 chemistry with Blix, I suppose that bleaching and fixing will be also valid. It would be a nice trial if find some time...