Questions on E6 kits

[Jim C.]

E6 and C41 cost the same to buy and to develop, so I prefer to shoot chrome for the relatively rare times I really want color. Right now that means Velvia 50 in a roll film holder, but I'd like to go back to sheet film (which will be Velvia 100, since it is significantly cheaper than the 50).

I don't plan to re-use chemistry. From what I have read it only lasts a week once mixed (I've never developed color). If I buy a 5 liter kit, can I use it 500ml at a time. Does the remainder have a shelf life?

I'm not sure what the Fuji/Hunt E6 shelf life is of the stock ( undiluted ) chemicals are and how well they
stand up to time past the expiration, but two of the components of old Kodak E6 kits, I'll have to look
when I get home, tend to form hard crystals that defy any attempts to re-dissove them back into solution.
With the Kodak kits this happens even with factory sealed kits as well as partially used kits, developing with the
chems seems fine.

[tgtaylor]

For a visual guide to determining whether or not a particular chemical component is still viable, see Table 2-3 on this Kodak pub: http://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/z119-2.pdf. This should apply to the Fuji kit. Hope this helps.

Thomas

[spacegoose]

I bought a boatload of FUJI PRO 6 chemistry several years ago (the gold standard of E-6) and only ever developed twice.

It cost around $640, but was magic to see my own amazing chromes developed with no one's help but my own! It was not a good move financially.

I did have a mishap on the first go, where I think the film came out clear, or maybe it was all black, but the next time I tried, it rivaled (or more likely was _as_good_as ) the best E-6 developing I've seen.

But it was a real p̶a̶i̶n̶-̶i̶n̶-̶t̶h̶e̶-̶a̶s̶s̶ challenge to do right. Lots of baths, lots of timing to be right-on about, and it takes longer than C-41 or B&W.

That's not to mention all the mixing to get right and math involved to mix smaller amounts, and clean up and storage.

I didn't bother replenishing due to the large amount of chemistry I had.

C-41 is MUCH easier. I think you can develop E-6 in C-41 chemistry, though you won't get chromes. I stocked up on Astia and now it's very difficult to find a quality E-6 line.

Unfortunately, my lab, LTI in New York, ceased its E-6 line a few months ago . I haven't found anyone who does it as well yet.

I had a Fuji-Hunt C-41 kit several years back which was quite good, but I like and think Kodak Flexicolor C-41 chemistry is better, and is cheaper.

With regard to the Fuji-Hunt E-6 kit, I'm not sure how many baths it is, but if it's only 3, it may not be up to snuff with professional standards; though it may be a much easier process to do at home.