More E-6 developing questions from a newbie

[Jim C.]

Jumping back into shooting and developing film after a 20 year hiatus, I decided to give
color processing a go with Kodak E-6 chemistry and some sheets of Fuji Astia, all went
well except for 4 sheets of grossly underexposed night shots but the 5th, a portrait,
was the charm.

Having never seen freshly developed color slide film before, is it normal for it to look
very opaque with just a hint of an image when it's wet ?
I thought I had fubar'd the whole developing session since I over agitated the Color
Developer step by 2 min, but as it dried it seemed to 'spring' to life as a 4x5 slide.
It looks a bit magenta to me which I'm attributing to the over development of the
ColorDeveloper step, but I could be wrong.

And what exactly does the Final Rinse component of the Kodak E-6 kit do ?
It was such a small bottle and quantity I figured it might be a wetting agent like
PhotoFlo, but it didn't smell like it and I couldn't find any info about it on Kodaks site.
Can it be skipped and rely on a water wash ?

[Ben Syverson]

IMHO Astia can often take on a magenta cast, so I wouldn't fault your development too hastily... Looks great to me!

[Jim C.]

It's been a while since I shot any reversal so I figured that the magenta cast might be the Astia itself, but since I messed up my developing timing I leaned towards that conclusion.

[Louie Powell]

E6 film typically looks cloudy at the end of the process, and clears as it dries.

The final step in the Kodak process is a stabilizer intended to prolong the life of the final transparencies. Some other manufacturer's kits omit the stabilizer, so I suppose you could just use a distilled water (and perhaps photoflo) rinse. But if its included, why not use it?

[Jim C.]

I wound up using it anyway, but Googling E-6 Final Rinse got me the info and it is a wetting agent & stabilizer. Thanks for confirming that cloudiness is normal.

[Lenny Eiger]

I wound up using it anyway, but Googling E-6 Final Rinse got me the info and it is a wetting agent & stabilizer. Thanks for confirming that cloudiness is normal.

Yes, it isn't needed....

You can also use Rapid E6 - its a 3 step process from Unicolor. they sell it on EBay...

Lenny

[Jim C.]

Yes, it isn't needed....

You can also use Rapid E6 - its a 3 step process from Unicolor. they sell it on EBay...

Lenny

Is that Unicolor Rapid E-6 similar to the Tetenal ?
I guess the developing quality is the same but with less steps.

I didn't see any on eBay but B&H has the Tetenal 5 Liter kit version and it seems costlier than the Kodaks E-6 which i have plenty of.

[Peter De Smidt]

You might want to do a search on Apug for Photo Engineer's posts regarding different e6 kits. In a nutshell, he thinks that many of the non-kodak and non-fuji kit's aren't ideal.

[Lenny Eiger]

Is that Unicolor Rapid E-6 similar to the Tetenal ?
I guess the developing quality is the same but with less steps.

I didn't see any on eBay but B&H has the Tetenal 5 Liter kit version and it seems costlier than the Kodaks E-6 which i have plenty of.

I saw Peter's comment about these kits not being ideal - it made me curious about that info. I'll have to go and check it out... I have had good luck with it - but I am not a color shooter - I only used it to do fine art reproductions and it was way better than my local lab did (and it was here, I could leave the shot up until I got a perfect exposure). But could it be better - I don't know...

Here's the link the their site on EBay, they have Rapid E-6 and K2.

http://stores.ebay.com/Photo-Systems-Inc-Store

Lenny

[Gene McCluney]

In a nutshell, the E-6 kits that have blix instead of separate bleach and fix are less than ideal, as there is a great danger of not getting all the silver removed from the film, thus leaving an overly dense image. The "final rinse" component not only has a wetting agent, but has an anti-bacterial agent to prevent mold and other airborne nasties from growing on the processed film over time. This is important, as gelatin emulsions are (of course) made from organic gelatin (animal bones) and will attract mold and fungus growth. In b/w films, the actual silver, (which is removed in the bleach and fix step from color film) acts as a mild antiseptic to prevent this. In the E-6 process, the dye-stabilizing is done in the pre-bleach component. If you are using a kit that does not contain a "pre-bleach" then the dye stabilizing is done after the lasst wash step, in the final rinse, which must contain some formalin.