Ektachrome 64 Colour Cast

[Colin D]

A year or so ago I bought on spec 3 unopened boxes of expired 4x5 Ektachrome 64 quite cheap off fleabay. They have been stored in a freezer because the first 25 came out of Tetenal developer spot on with no signs of deterioration. Recently I made a fresh batch of Tetenal soup but blue colour cast is evenly across the film sheet.

Does the problem lay with the developer or the processing technique? With my success earlier I'm discounting the processing and leaning towards the developer.

On the Ektachrome instruction sheet it refers to blue/magenta colour deviation and suggests adding sodium hydroxide to the mixture. Unsure if this is the answer I haven't tried this yet, has anyone else had a go at doing it?

E6 developer stocks are hard to find over here and taking it to a pro lab is costly. If I can resolve this using my current solution that would save me a headache.


CD

[koraks]

Did this film come in boxes of 50 sheets with the sheets divided into two packs of 25 each? And if so, am I correct in understanding that you successfully processed the contents of one bag, and are now running into problems with the second bag you try?

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but this film is heavily expired. As such, no guarantees can be made regarding color rendition. If one individual bag fared well but another hasn't aged nicely, I would suppose that such are the woes of dealing with heavily outdated film - you can never be quite sure what you're in for.

My apologies for being of little help; I understand what you're trying to do, but I'm just not sure if it's a good idea to get your hopes up with this particular film, given its age.

[Colin D]

Thanks Korak, I've probably simplified my description and I was well into the second pack of film before the colour change. What seems to be the defining issue is the change in soup.