Coating COLOR emulsion at home

[StoneNYC]

So this is going to be way over my capabilities right now.

But I've seen many talk about coating their own B&W emulsions at home, but is it also feasible to coat your own color emulsions?

I wouldn't expect them to have a high color fidelity or anything, but they say the E6 and C41 film coating is very complex, but could you make a simple 3-4 layer color transparency emulsion, semi-easily at home? And actually process it in standard E6 chemistry? Same question for C-41.

[Domingo A. Siliceo]

Don't know if it will be easier to try some autochrome...

[Tin Can]

Stone, now you need to read some books and I know you have said you hate research.

Color is actually pretty old, but you will not make Kodachrome.

There are ways, but it won't be like you think.

[Brian C. Miller]

... but could you make a simple 3-4 layer color transparency emulsion, semi-easily at home? And actually process it in standard E6 chemistry? Same question for C-41.

NO!!!

There is one fellow down in Australia, a former Kodak engineer, who made a rather sophisticated coating machine out of a lab machine that Kodak had trashed. There's a thread about it on APUG. That machine is capable of color. Anything less than that would result in a mess.

[Drew Wiley]

Now you are freakin' looney nuts. It would probably easier to learn quad-color carbon or make your own dye transfer matrix film. If you want to see how that has
been done take a look at Jim Browning's coating machine and protocol on the Dye Transfer forum. He has since sold that coater. Hope you got a lot of money.
Otherwise you're stuck with something artsy/craftsy like color gum printing. Todd Gangler has a good on-line flick about making color carbon tissue. A few people
around here used to do it. Not a big budget thing, but very fussy and time-consuming. Dye transfer is expensive, cause you gotta make most of your own materials now, unless you have about a million spare bucks to have your own custom industrial coating order. But it should be fun to research these things. I've studied all kinds of esoteric color processes I'll never have time to attempt myself. Or do something really antique like autochrome. You can probably also buy a small batch used precision coater. Add some cleanroom setup. Probably a bit less than a million bucks in gear, if you don't mind a few hundred thousand more to
get it shipped intact. Or why not just buy out the current Kodak plant before Starbucks acquires the property.

[StoneNYC]

Now you are freakin' looney nuts. It would probably easier to learn quad-color carbon or make your own dye transfer matrix film. If you want to see how that has
been done take a look at Jim Browning's coating machine and protocol on the Dye Transfer forum. He has since sold that coater. Hope you got a lot of money.
Otherwise you're stuck with something artsy/craftsy like color gum printing. Todd Gangler has a good on-line flick about making color carbon tissue. A few people
around here used to do it. Not a big budget thing, but very fussy and time-consuming. Dye transfer is expensive, cause you gotta make most of your own materials now, unless you have about a million spare bucks to have your own custom industrial coating order. But it should be fun to research these things. I've studied all kinds of esoteric color processes I'll never have time to attempt myself. Or do something really antique like autochrome. You can probably also buy a small batch used precision coater. Add some cleanroom setup. Probably a bit less than a million bucks in gear, if you don't mind a few hundred thousand more to
get it shipped intact. Or why not just buy out the current Kodak plant before Starbucks acquires the property.

Haha hmm do you think kodak will accept coffee seed and tears as payment?

[StoneNYC]

Thanks guys, I'll check out autochrome.

I'm asking if it's possible now so I can know what to look for in the future.

[Drew Wiley]

No... but they might be willing to trade one patent for another. People already know about caffenol developer. But maybe you could figure out how to substitute
coffee creamer or donut glaze for gelatin. If your morning coffee is anything like what they serve here at the office, the ingredients to color film emulsion are probably less toxic anyway. (I bring my own coffee)... I ran into a similar snag when attempting to rethink the toxicity of chromium compounds for tanning gelatin.
Medical research has come up with several potential organic substitutes (there is interest in gelatin-based prosthetic tissues) - but all the substitutes so far turn
out to be even more toxic. I once thought about making my own mid-budget multi-layer film coater. I'm sure I could pull it off; but no space for the thing, esp
considering I'd need a totally dedicted clean room just for some new printing tweak with exactly zero long-term profit potential. Nobody is going to buck the commercial steamroller of inkjet technology at this point in history. And even it is using only a tiny fraction of the applicable patents already on file. "Good enough'
is their mantra. It's all about user convenience, and frankly, the obscene profitability of the inks and paper, for the few surviving suppliers of that food fight. I'll
just be happy if I have enough time after I retire to do dye transfer printing once in awhile. Getting from Point A to Point B in terms of very high quality convenient
color prints is now possible just doing advanced RA4 tricks. But I sure miss Cibachrome and the good ole chrome films that went with them.

[Tin Can]

Bromoil. I am almost ready to try it. Gandolfi is the expert.

Autochrome looks great, but every site is in French...

[StoneNYC]

No... but they might be willing to trade one patent for another. People already know about caffenol developer. But maybe you could figure out how to substitute
coffee creamer or donut glaze for gelatin. If your morning coffee is anything like what they serve here at the office, the ingredients to color film emulsion are probably less toxic anyway. (I bring my own coffee)... I ran into a similar snag when attempting to rethink the toxicity of chromium compounds for tanning gelatin.
Medical research has come up with several potential organic substitutes (there is interest in gelatin-based prosthetic tissues) - but all the substitutes so far turn
out to be even more toxic. I once thought about making my own mid-budget multi-layer film coater. I'm sure I could pull it off; but no space for the thing, esp
considering I'd need a totally dedicted clean room just for some new printing tweak with exactly zero long-term profit potential. Nobody is going to buck the commercial steamroller of inkjet technology at this point in history. And even it is using only a tiny fraction of the applicable patents already on file. "Good enough'
is their mantra. It's all about user convenience, and frankly, the obscene profitability of the inks and paper, for the few surviving suppliers of that food fight. I'll
just be happy if I have enough time after I retire to do dye transfer printing once in awhile. Getting from Point A to Point B in terms of very high quality convenient
color prints is now possible just doing advanced RA4 tricks. But I sure miss Cibachrome and the good ole chrome films that went with them.

Not sure the glazing is a good idea, I'd be too tempted to eat my own film...