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View Full Version : R.I.P. Kodak E6 Kits



Tony Flora
14-Aug-2010, 11:45
A sad day I guess. I just bought one of these kits from Adorama about 3 weeks ago. Correct me if I am wrong but it would seem to me that Kodaks only market for E6 chemistry is the small batch home user. This must be the beginning of the end of E6 chemistry from Kodak. They might as well just stop producing any chemistry or film and get it over with.



RIP E6 Kits http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=detailsdisc&sku=KKE6SU5L

Tony Flora
14-Aug-2010, 14:24
Processing E-6 requires each of the following chemicals:


............................................Unit Price............Makes
First Developer Replenisher..........-23.00..............-10L
First Developer Starter................-8.25................-100L
Reversal Bath and Replenisher......-8.79................-10L
Color Developer Replenisher.........-34.95..............-10L
Color Developer Starter II............-6.25................-25G
Pre-Bleach and Replenisher..........-10.50..............-10L
Bleach Replenisher.....................-135.95.............-10L
Bleach Starter...........................-24.40..............-25G
Fixer and Replenisher.................-10.06..............-10L
Final Rinse and Replenisher..........-4.95...............-5G

Total: ......................................................$267.10

Pricing is from Unique Photo which is one of the few places that has smaller bottles available.

www.store.uniquephoto.com (http://www.store.uniquephoto.com)

vinny
14-Aug-2010, 15:54
I just began my own e-6 processing last year. I hope it's not true because I've got enough film to last for decades.

domaz
14-Aug-2010, 16:39
Glazers in Seattle still has them. It may be that Adorama just doesn't want to carry them anymore.

Tony Flora
14-Aug-2010, 17:25
From Kodak E6 Pub at http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j83/j83.pdf (http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j83/j83.pdf)
the E6 Kit is made up of the following items and Manufacturers numbers
Processing Kit - To Make 5 Litres

CAT No.................................. Description
107 7643 ..............................KODAK PROFESSIONAL Single-Use Chemistry Kit, Process E-6, to make 5 litres

Replaces 156 4632 KODAK PROFESSIONAL First Developer, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 156 6850 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Reversal Bath, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 116 2510 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Color Developer, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 164 6058 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Pre-Bleach, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 156 2461 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Bleach, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 156 6082 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Fixer, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon
Replaces 195 1128 KODAK PROFESSIONAL Final Rinse, Process E-6, to make 1 gallon

These items all seem to be available at Glaziers with the same manufacturers catalog numbers. Not sure why I am having a hard time finding them elsewhere. Glaziers is out of stock of the E6 Kits maybe for good, maybe not. Total cost for the individual bottles at Glaziers is close to $100, compared to $59 for the kit. Better than the $267 + shipping I found at unique photo but still a significant increase over the kit pricing. I shot mostly E6 and I enjoy developing my own film so I am going to continue to search for ways to do it as economically as possible and still get the same results that I get from the Kodak E6 kit.

domaz
14-Aug-2010, 18:59
You can also look into Photo Lab Supply Shops and get Trebla kits instead. They are generally cheaper. A lot of people go with Trebla's C-41 kit for just that reason. Glazers runs out of the E-6 kit often- but they generally re-stock it.

brad martin
15-Aug-2010, 14:49
For a long time I've used nothing but the Arista kits from Freestyle.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/c1002-Color-Chemicals-Color-Slide

IanMazursky
15-Aug-2010, 21:54
I spoke with one of the labs i order with and they are still able to order the kit as of last week.
It may just be an Adorama website glitch or they don’t want to ship it. Kodak doesn’t have it as discontinued in their site…yet.
Check with Calumet, ive ordered it from them in the past and picked it up in the store.

Btw, If you go the individual chemistry route, just make sure they don’t require the starters.
They are a pain to use in small quantities. Ive tried it and its hard to measure those tiny amounts.

Sevo
16-Aug-2010, 02:14
On the Kodak web site, the 5l kit is prominently advertised, so we can safely assume Kodak has not dropped small quantity E6 altogether - Kodak may have plenty of organisational deficits, but not when it comes to product discontinuations. Other than Fuji (which lately seems to suffer outright libel from its very own local subsidiaries when it comes to self proclaimed product cancellations), they are well disciplined in that domain, and it is only dealers (or even dealer staff) spreading rumours about supposedly cancelled products.

It seems to be the current policy of Kodak to streamline their catalogue by metricating their packagings. It would be absolutely in line with their strategy to drop the gallon kit in favour of the 5l.

Tony Flora
16-Aug-2010, 07:03
Sevo,
I see that on the Kodak site http://www.kodak.com:80/global/en/professional/products/prodChemicals.jhtml?pq-path=13318/13629 and that does give me hope. With all the fuji madness of late I just never know when kodak is going to pull the rug out. thanks.
Tony

Tony Flora
16-Aug-2010, 13:59
Well I have confirmation from Kodak that they are in fact discontinued.

Kodaks response to my email inquiry:

"Dear Tony,

Yes, the Kodak Professional E-6 5L Kit was discontinued and is no longer available. This decision was based on the lack of sales of this product. We continue to offer the 10-liter sizes of the Kodak E-6 Chemicals through most dealers of Kodak Professional products. Please be aware that you would also need to use the 1st, CD and Bleach Starters when making your working tank solutions.

Please let us know if you have future questions on this or other of our Kodak Professional products.

Sincerely,

Peter V.
Kodak Professional
Technical Support
800-242-2424 ext. 19"



That's bad news.

IanMazursky
19-Aug-2010, 19:07
Thats some bad news Tony. Hopefully they have some left in the pipe.
Time to stock up while we can. At the 10L prices, it makes sense to buy some of the chemistry in the E6AR cubitaners.
In the end it would be a little less expensive but not convenient at all.

I wonder if and when Kodak will put the announcement on their site.

Jim C.
19-Aug-2010, 20:46
I can definitely confirm that the 5 Liter E-6 kits are gone with no availability
date from B&H ( someone beat me to the last 2 kits in stock :( ) Adorama
has none of the 5 Liter kits too and according to the salesman the haven't had
them for quite a while, Adorama does seem to have the individual 10 Liter chems.

Paul Kierstead
20-Aug-2010, 07:46
Well, that seriously sucks. I guess I'll have to be ducking across the border, since most US vendors can't/won't ship chem international (or at heart-attack rates), and they seem very thin on the ground in Canada. I did order a Kodak kit here and got a 'back-order' status, 6-10 days, we'll see; the vendor has done this before and later figured out it was unavailable.

eric black
20-Aug-2010, 08:21
This may be the straw that breaks my back on shooting film. I currently have enough film to get me through the next year and a half to two years, but only enough e-6 chems to develop a third to half of it. I took some time to do some web searches and came up with only 25 gallon chems at Adorama and a few other places that dont ship or had only a couple of the ingredients needed. Is anyone finding suppliers with 10 liter chems availability that either will ship them or is close to the Wash DC area? A digital back on my 4x5 is currently (unfortunately) under investigation.

Tony Flora
20-Aug-2010, 09:34
eric check post number 2. unique photo has 10L chems listed and will ship. Price wise, I think working capacity with the 10L is not much better than the kits. Still looking into storing unmixed chemicals and shelf life. Looking into Fuji-hunt as a possibility. Also considering switching to C-41.

dave_whatever
20-Aug-2010, 09:36
I don't know about the USofA, but over here there's still Tetenal and FujiHunt 5ltr E6 kits. Are these not available over the pond?

John Brady
20-Aug-2010, 11:01
I just ordered some kodak 5L kits from Jeff at badger. He doesn't stock it but checked and can order it. All the same I ordered four kits just to play it safe.

I hate to think of not having this available. Eighty percent of my current work is velvia 50.

I looked at the information on the Arista kit and it looks bizarre, no reversal and blix!

www.timeandlight.com

Bob Salomon
20-Aug-2010, 11:33
Did you try Samy's, K&S, Bear Images, Gasser, Ace Photo Photo Mark, Tempe Camera, or other professional camera stores?

eric black
20-Aug-2010, 12:35
Did you try Samy's, K&S, Bear Images, Gasser, Ace Photo Photo Mark, Tempe Camera, or other professional camera stores?

This is the kind of list that is helpful- none of these folks show up on a google of kodak e-6 (or at least they done show up on the foremost pages where only dealers that are out of materials are the front end results)
thanks- Ill check into these guys

mercadov
21-Aug-2010, 16:22
I confirmed with Kodak Japan that E6 kits are discontinued and no stock to be found with retailers. Fuji also confirmed they do not sell FujiHunt to consumers in Japan, they produce E6 chems strictly for their labs.

~vm~

gdavis
23-Aug-2010, 13:00
I looked at the information on the Arista kit and it looks bizarre, no reversal and blix!


I just tried doing my own E-6 for the first time using the Arista kit and it seemed to work fine, though I'm obviously far from an expert :o

Sounds like it's a 3-bath process similar to the tetenal kit. Reversal and CD are combined into one bath and bleach, fix and stab are combined into one bath. Don't know if there's much advantage to 6 baths

Tom Keenan
27-Sep-2010, 17:45
Over the weekend, I processed some E-6 slides and used the last of my 5 liter E-6 kit chemicals. As I normally do, I went to the Calumet website and reordered. Today, I received a UPS tracking number. Seems business as usual to me.
Tom Keenan

vinny
27-Sep-2010, 18:06
Over the weekend, I processed some E-6 slides and used the last of my 5 liter E-6 kit chemicals. As I normally do, I went to the Calumet website and reordered. Today, I received a UPS tracking number. Seems business as usual to me.
Tom Keenan

The must have got some in, maybe last order cuz when I called them they didn't have any and didn't know if more would arrive. That was about 3 weeks ago. I got the last couple that another supplier had.

IanMazursky
27-Sep-2010, 18:19
I was able to order 8 kits last week through one of my partner labs.
When they asked kodak directly, they said it was not discontinued and we could still order them.
Maybe its some sort of supply chain issue or communications snafu? Don’t know but i really prefer the kits.
I really hated having to use starters, It makes mixing that much more difficult.

Im stocking up while i can (and have room). Hopefully Kodak will continue them for a few more years…fingers crossed X.

Tom Keenan
27-Sep-2010, 19:26
I think its time to take a serious look at how long those 5L kits last on the shelf unopened, unmixed. Has anyone looked at that?
Tom Keenan

eric black
28-Sep-2010, 07:02
I think its time to take a serious look at how long those 5L kits last on the shelf unopened, unmixed. Has anyone looked at that?
Tom Keenan

Ill be doing just that with the 5 kits I was able to obtain. I am assuming that I have a year and a half worth of developing with those kits and enough to process my film inventory. To date I can tell you the following-

when the first developer starts crystallizing out- it can be redissolved with warm water.

I have had kits that have been opened and portions (unmixed) go unused during slow periods of time for 3-4 months that have worked just fine despite yellowing in the first developer.

when I know Im going to have some down time with limited use on an open kit- I use Argon gas (wine preservation spray can) to help out with eliminating oxygen from the top of each bottle but based on the note prior to this one, it isnt necessarily needed IMHO.

My primary curiosity is how long kits that have been unopened age. I store them in my relatively cool basement and my experiment on this is just beginning now....

Wayne Crider
28-Sep-2010, 07:36
I researched these kits last year with thoughts about doing my own E6 developing and for one reason or another I had to shelve the idea. If push comes down to shove and you guys have to buy larger quantities, has anyone thought about taking on more work to offset costs or the increase of possibility of the stock going bad? I'd just as soon send any stuff I do in the future to someone from here. I was hoping to begin shooting E6 again on an extended stay out in AZ.

baronvonaaron
28-Sep-2010, 20:24
as a recent bfa grad, i'm still pretty much a novice to most processes. I've been looking into doing my own E6 for quite a long time, but never really had the courage to risk throwing away my precious few dollars. (and before anyone says 'go digital', I have gone digital for a few years, and I've hated it every step of the way. film is the only medium i'll use for my own personal work.)

ok, getting to my point, i know it's been talked about briefly in this thread, but the Arista kit is passable? That's the one i've been looking at to get started. I've read that it isn't really hard to manage, but it seems like there are different chems than the kodak kits. I'm just trying to get my info straight before I do any ordering.

domaz
28-Sep-2010, 21:58
Arista kits use BLIX which is supposedly a no-no. The results come out ok in my experience, probably good enough if your scanning anyways and can modify color. Better to just slowly migrate to C-41 I think though- easier to develop and cheaper.

IanMazursky
29-Sep-2010, 00:41
I think a few years past expiration wouldn’t be to much of a stretch if they aren’t stored improperly.
They are all super saturated solutions and if unopened should last a while.
The ones that will probably go first are the color and first dev then reversal and pre bleach. The last 2 form bio scum overtime.
The Bleach and Fixer can last a long time. I have some Bleach that was over 6 years old from an E6AR cubitaner that still worked.
My big worry is either a loss of speed in the first dev or a major color shift from the color dev.
Its finicky as is and age doesn’t help at all. All of my kits are dated mid or late 2011, but i will go through them long before.

I even have a 3 or 4 year old kit somewhere thats mostly unused, i wonder how well its holding up.

SamReeves
29-Sep-2010, 08:02
I got a Kodak E-6 kit stashed away. I'm still working on my old Tetenal kit. :p

Chems will last a pretty long time as long as they're stoppered nearly full.

tgtaylor
6-Nov-2010, 15:39
I just bought one that was ordered from Kodak a couple of weeks ago and the kit is still prominently displayed on the Kodak website. The date of Mfg is January, 2010 with a July 2011 expiration date.

I believe that the developers are the first to go bad. I have been working out of a kit with a Mfg date of April, 2w008 (Expire October, 2009) and the developers are medium yellow in color. They turn brown when they are bad. And, SUPRISE! SUPRISE!, hidden in the back of the cabinet is a partial kit with a Mfg date of Sept, 2006 and expiration date of March, 2008 AND THE COLORS ARE STILL GOOD!!! I now remember that I stopped using it because it was past the expiration date but evidentially didn't throw it out!

So the stuff seems to last.

Rob Landry
27-Nov-2010, 12:40
Over the weekend, I processed some E-6 slides and used the last of my 5 liter E-6 kit chemicals. As I normally do, I went to the Calumet website and reordered. Today, I received a UPS tracking number. Seems business as usual to me.
Tom Keenan

Just checked Calumet's website and it's now listed as "Discontinued". :mad:

Jan Pedersen
27-Nov-2010, 13:18
B&H still have in stock but they don't ship it. Get it while you can if you are in that part of the country.

ZoneIII
15-Mar-2011, 13:01
As anyone who has searched for this topic knows, there are a lot of us that have been hurt by Kodak's decision to discontinue the 5L E6 kit. I suggest that anyone reading this contact Kodak and urge them to reintroduce the product. Other products have been brought back by consumer demand. Fuji Velvia 50 is just one example. Since Kodak still makes E6 chemistry, it really seems to be an issue of packaging. Contact them and urge them to bring it back. Serious color photographers are still using E6 films but often don't have a reliable pro lab to do their processing these days so they need the home kits more than ever. And many of them shoot Kodak E6 films so they will stop buying those products too if they can't process them. Let Kodak know that you want this product back. It's obvious that there are a lot of us that need this product.

vinny
15-Mar-2011, 13:11
if you are interested in aquiring fuji's 5L e-6 kit, see below.
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=73571&highlight=fuji+e-6