E6 processing? youve got to be cracked!

Processed using Fuji Hunt chrome 6

 

Who's idea was it to process E6 film? I think the COVID 19 vaccine and lock down has addled my brain. Before we were trounced by COVID a friend had a stash of out dated slide film that he wanted to off load for a consideration. I considered, the films became mine. 

Fuji Hunt chrome 6, out of the box.

It was a mix of Fujichrome Sensia 100 35mm and MS 100/1000, some Provia 100f in120 format all from the early years of the millennium. He stated he did not know if they were any good because they had not been kept in a fridge. I told him no worries. 

 

I thought I would have some fun with this film because of the dubious nature of the storage. With no particular plan or theme I went a snapping before I new it I had used nearly a dozen rolls mainly 120 format. Some with my Pinhole camera but mainly the Bronica SQAi. 

 

Some of the film to be developed.

After a little research I found that there were a number of E6 processing kits the trouble was the one I would have liked to use was out of stock at a number of suppliers due to the lock down. I settled on the Fuji hunt Chrome 6X processing kit, I say settled did not have much choice. With hind sight this may have been a good choice. 

 

 

I received it really quickly from AG Photographic thanks guys. I opened the box to be presented with seven bottles of chemicals in different sizes and 7 pages of instructions I was not expecting that. It deflated my enthusiasm some what.

 

New bottles for litre dilution.

 

I should own up to the fact that I have never been that interested in developing my own slide film hence my comments at the beginning with the kit sitting in front of me I suppose I better get to grips with it. I read the instructions a couple of times chucked them back in the box and kicked it in to the darkroom. 

 

Some many month later I pulled the instruction out of the box again this time with a determination to get some film processed, about time! The first thing to note is once the bottles have been opened the first developer, reversal bath, pre bleach 2, colour developer last a max of six weeks. Which is a bit of a bummer what is also a bummer is this kit will make 5 litres of each chemical that is 35 litres in total, with a darkroom as small as mine that is a none starter I do not have the space to store it. you guessed it kicked back into the darkroom. If this carries on for to much longer maybe I should take up football instead. 

Instructions.

A few more month later I have got to grips with the instructions found a man on the bay that has supplied me with eight individual litre bottles and caps for roughly the same in pounds. I have also recalculated the chemical quantities to make a litre of each. I’m dancing in the rain now. 

 

Having watched E6 processing on the tube you are lead to assume that it will be straight forward the truth is that approaching this for the first time there are a whole load of pit falls that can beset this notion. Without mentioning some of these you cannot be prepared for them. For example: chemicals that started out at the right temperature are not when you come to use them, you cannot get the Dev tank lid sit properly allowing it to leak, you forget what comes next. 

 

 

What follows is the methodology and ideas to negate some of the pit falls during the procedure. 

 

Hot water holding tray.

You can but it is not necessary to have a water heater or some form of temperature control unit. I maintained the required levels by using boiling, hot and cold water. You will need about an hour and a half to process the film [s] if using hot/boiling water method. 

 

There are nine steps in the processing of slide film, two lots of temperature and two sets of agitation with total darkness and daylight sections Ooooh! my head is spinning just writing this. To keep things straight and more free flowing I produced an idiot list for reference. Numbering each step with the corresponding number on the bottle for easy recognition. 

 

Hot water tempering bowl with boiling water jug.

OK! let the fun begin, Just so you know I processed all the film at box speed. The first part of the development should be done in total darkness when I read this I though you must be having a giraffe can you imagine all the trouble you can get yourself into bearing in mind there are four steps to this bit alone two of which are washes. Needless to say I took a punt and did it all in daylight this turned out to be a very shroud move. 

 

I had three baths of water, two hot, one to initially heat all the chemicals bring them almost to temp and the other as a tempering bath where I put the developing tank, jug of hot water and the bottles of chemicals I was about to use to bring them up to using temperature if need be. Checked with a thermometer. The cold water bath was for those that exceeded the needed heat. 

Fuji Provia

The [1] first developer gurgled into the developing tank at 38 degrees I filled it until I could see the liquid in the center hole put the lid on, tapped the tank several times to remove any air bubbles, inverted it 8 times in the first 15 secs putting it back in the tempering tank then inverting twice every 30 seconds. For the 7 minute Dev time.

 

When the time was up I poured the Dev back in the tank. There followed two, minute washes now this is where the jug of hot water in the tempering bowl comes into play. They have the same agitation as the developer. Once you have used the water it is a good idea to refill the jug with boiling to help keep the water of the tempering bowl stable. At the same time this is happening the [2] Reversal 2 bath needs to be brought up to temperature which should be between 33 to 39 degrees. 

 

Pinhole double exposures Fuji Prova

The reversal bath went in for 2 mins tap the tank with one inversion at the start. Trouble struck, I could not get the lid to seal while mucking about, I forgot to put the [3] Colour developer in the tempering bath to bring it up to 38 degrees. It is important to get this spot on. There was a 2 minute delay in pouring in the developer it takes roughly 1 min per degree for the boiling water to bring a litre up to temperature.

What seemed like a weeks wait the colour developer went in for 6 mins, tap the tank several times to remove air bubbles from the film invert 7 to 8 times in the first 15 seconds and then twice every 30 secs. Placing it back in the tempering bath.

 

While we wait for the developer to do its trick I should mention safety. I found this processes a lot messier than black and white developing. It is a good idea to wear gloves and a plastic pinny which turned out to be a good call on my part as I spilled some of it down me. The room needs to be well ventilated although the chemicals are not that pungent they give off a lot of vapor due to the heat. 

 

Fuji Provia showing light damage

[4]Pre-Bleach 2 went in for 2 mins at 33-39 degrees, it was about in the middle temp wise, several tank taps, invert once and back into tempering tank.

Another glitch again I forgot to put the Bleach into the tempering tank fortunately I only needed to raise the temperature to 33 degrees plus just a short delay.

With the [5] Bleach at 35 degrees it was poured in for 7 mins tank tapped to clear bubbles, inverted 8 times in first 15 sec and the twice every 30 sec. 

 

 

This is turning into an epic, I understand why people batch develop their slide film it is a long haul to what I’m used to. I keep forgetting but you can fit two rolls of 120 film on the same reel and with a tank that can take two reels at once this is a big saving in time.

Now it is time to [6] Fix for 4 mins at 33-39 degrees, tap tank, invert 8 times in the first 15 seconds and then twice every 30 secs. This time I had remembered to put the fix in the tempering tank so when it was poured in it was about 37 degrees. A quick word about contamination it is inevitable as you go a long the process that the dregs of the previous stage will adulterate what come next it is only a problem if it go’s against the flow e.g. fix into bleach. 

Fuji Provia a frame from damaged film

Finally the Wash, it is for me as I do not use wash aid it is suggested that you wash in running water for 6 mins I chose to to use six changes of water with twenty four inversion with a minute stand between each. By using this method I saved 5 liters of water that I could reuse to flush the bog. I’m pleased that is over I felt like I have been on a marathon and I’ve only got ten more to do. It has got to be time for a cup of tea before I share the results.

Ah! just what the doc ordered. with all that has gone on with getting the film processed, you would think that the results would be a total shambles. I’m astonished at how good they are, colour saturation is spot on with no over development.

 

 

The results:

Eight rolls of slide film were developed it took over all about five hours over three days. All of them were spot on with the development. Of the three rolls of 35mm one roll had nowt on it half of it being clear the other black I think this is a camera fault and not processing as the other two roll were perfect. The rolls of 120 were all developed correctly with good colour saturation but suffered from camera problems in being over and under exposed and One of the film back had a light leak.

My initial thoughts on this process is never again it took a lot longer than I would have liked. Now that sometime has passed my thoughts have moved on to never say never. 

 

 For more slide pictures click this link Picture post personally processed 

All words and images in this article are the copyright of Mitch Fusco 2022

 

 

XP2 super meets Zero pinhole camera and then mugged by Kodak HC110

All of this film is beyond it's best
before date.

They say that fact is stranger than fiction - but this is not fiction! I have processed XP2 super 400 in Kodak's HC 110. It has produced some wonderfully smooth toned negatives with just the right amount of contrast. I really will not know how good these negatives are until they are darkroom printed.

This adventure started with my pinhole camera and the crazy idea that I would like to use the out of date XP2s sitting in my film cupboard. I have used this film in the past and been completely under whelmed by the flat looking photographs I received back from the lab. That is why I think I am being crazy!

So for the first time I am going to see what others have done and said about this film. I started with a bit of research something I do not usually do. When using a film product for the first time I like to approach it fresh without all the hurly burly from other people.

HC 110
Not to be mistake for golden syrup. 

First I should explain that XP2 super is a chromogenic black and white film designed to be processed using the C41 process for colour film. Super is the updated version of the original XP2 first released in 1981.

With a quick search a number of references came up, the first one I went to was the online photographer blog. Written by Mike Johnston. I took two things away from this blog. First was how to get the best from the film in different light if you are using the C41 process. He suggests altering the ISO depending on the lighting conditions as the film can become very contrasty. Not from my experience.

• For regular shooting in normal lighting ISO 200
• For shooting in extremely bright and or contrasty light ISO 100
• For shooting in low and low contrast lighting indoor or out ISO 400
• He does not recommend using it at ISO 800

The other bit of information that took my eye but was not part of the post was about cross processing using the monochrome chemicals. This made me sit up and take note. I like the idea of using black and white material to process and print the film because I could do it in my darkroom without a costly upgrade.

I found the write up about using black and white chemistry on the Ilford photo web site. It is very informative and took some time to read. The author Chris Moss has not only developed XP2s in HC 110 but has also used Rodinal and Ilfotec HC. He has posted a lot of images to back all his work up.

HC 110 in syringes

It became apparent that he preferred HC 110 as most of the work described is devoted to this developer. It was at this point I decided to use HC 110 myself so I could in part test his results and cut out a lot of trial and error on my own account - a short cut so to speak. I was however disappointed to find that all his negatives had been scanned and not printed in the darkroom. The short cut in the beginning means I will have more time to experiment in the darkroom.

Lastly before I move onto my results it is worth mentioning Erik Gouldproject web site and in-particular his article on using HC 110 to control contrast by varying the dilution of the developer. This is mainly in response to Mike's assertion that XP2s can get very contrasty in certain situations. Most of this he relates to the C41 processed negatives he has produced. This could be the case for monochrome work.

Lets just check those setting again.

What have I gotten myself into! this was going to be a straight forward article about using XP2s and my pinhole camera. I'm pleased to say we are now getting on with the photography. The good thing about it is that I will be able to take part in world pinhole Day for the first time.

 I was able to go out over a number of days with my Zero that included world pinhole day to make the images. The sun was out which made a change from the dullness we had been experiencing, but it still had a bite.

I used three rolls of XP2s that I rated at 100 ISO I did this because it was a bright day and I wanted exposures that were seconds long rather than part seconds that a faster ISO would have produced. It also occurred to me after exposing a roll of delta 100 that I could do a comparison between the two films. In most cases it took about eight seconds for each exposure or round about as I can be quite cavalier when it comes to closing the shutter. This does lead to over exposing the film, something I should take in hand because I end up with longer printing times in the darkroom due to the density of the negatives.

XP2 S 400 negatives this shows
the colour of the neg base.

 It is the first time I have experienced scepticism and anticipation in relation to the results. A bit of an April fool feeling, no matter what happens I have a plan B or do I?

Right! I loaded the first roll into the tank. Developed it for 5 mins as suggested being a first for me, I develop one film at a time so I can adjust the dev time if needed. I used the HC 110 at a dilution of 1+49. Woe! this stuff is so concentrated it is like syrup. I was warned, which means using a normal graduated measure is out. You will need to use syringe/s to get the right amount of HC 110 out of the bottle if you are not going to end up with sticky fingers etc everywhere. They should be marked out in mls and part mls as the 49 works out at 12.3 mls in 600 mls of water. I wanted it to be the exact amount that was used.

Please note: that this article was written before Kodak changed the formulation of HC110 to make it easier to pour. This makes certain bit of this post superfluous but does not take away from the overall results. 

Contact print. 2 sec using white light.

When it came to processing the film I kept to my standard method 12 inversion for the first 30 seconds and then four inversion every minute there after. the stop was for two minutes with the same inversion count as the developer. I did the same for the fix, fixing for 5 mins and then checking to see if the film base had cleared. I did this partly because there can be an issue with under fixing if the fix is old which mine was having been used for five previous film. When I looked the base appeared a little foggy so I put it back in for a further two minutes.

While I was checking the film base I was relieved and pleased to see the tell tail squares that images were there. I now had the unspooled dripping wet film in my hand. To be presented with some wonderfully toned negatives on a pinkish magenta film base, was something I had not been prepared for. What wonders are to be had in the darkroom! Let the fun begin!? 

I recently exposed and developed some XP2s that is ten years out of best before date. There is an issue with fixing, you may find that after ten minutes of fixing that the base is still quite white looking  and has not cleared.  It is a normal situation that will clear once the film has been washed and dried.   



If you are interested The second part of this post: