Developed my first sheet of E6!

[Shootar401]

So I bit the bullet and picked up the E6 kit online. After waiting around for my water bath to come to temp I started. I was really nervous not only because I shot my friend who was really looking forward to seeing herself in glorious 4x5, but also because I had 6 sheets of Provia in my Mod54, the entire shoot was in my tank!

So I know I hear people saying you need to be 100% on with your agitation and times, so I tried to be as accurate as possible, but missed a few agitations and seconds here and there.

But was I relieved when I popped the top after the blix and saw some beautiful sheets of Provia, exactly how I get them from my lab, or should I say used to get. If I knew it was this easy I would have started E6 a long time ago! I hear about people getting color casts and their colors are off, but my 6 sheets are perfect.

Looks like I made my last trip to the lab and now have a excuse to shoot more chromes.

[sethlatimer]

I started developing e6 last fall and haven't had any problems either. I had never developed any film before. I rarely agitate consistently, my dev times randomly vary by about 10% with no ill effects. Things generally come out fine. I have read online that it is tricky, but that is not my experience.

[MMELVIS]

Congratulations, doing color slide work looks like fun. Where did you get your kit from?

[Shootar401]

I picked up the Arista kit from Freestyle. Around $40 for a 1 liter kit, well worth it considering I have to drive a hour to my nearest lab that does E6 at $8 a roll. Thinking of getting a larger kit and next month or try the 6 bath Kodak chemicals.

[alexn]

I too just started E6 development at home a few months back and will never pay for slides to be processed again. Like you said, I had been told that temperature was critical, as were the timings down to the second however because my jobo does not have a lift, my timings can be out by as much as 10 seconds depending on how good im feeling on the day. My first run I had sweaty feet, I was frantic etc and temps went to 39 degrees C.. I thought for sure they were ruined.. When I pulled the slides from the tank after blix and saw my handiwork I felt an instant sense of gratification. There is something special about loading your film holders in the dark, shooting a fully manual view camera, unloading holders, loading dev tanks and processing colour slides using your own two hands... I have now processed 24 4x5 sheets of Velvia 50, Velvia 100 and Provia 100 and 16 rolls of 120 Velvia 50 & 100. So far I have only had one slip up where two films overlapped. The leader of one film touched the last slide on the previous one causing that last slide to come out very ugly...

At the end of the day.. This is how I figure it.
Jobo CPP2 with tanks and reels. (no lift) $370 AU off Evilbay
Tetenal 5L kit $175 with shipping
Total $545.

My local lab prices
$15 per 4x5 slide = $360 for 24
$19 per 120 roll = $304 for 16 rolls

$664.

I have already saved myself $104, and I've only mixed up 1L of chemicals so far....

By the time I buy more chems I will have saved heaps of money, and have the self satisfaction to say that everything from loading film into the camera through to scanning and printing I do at home with my own two hands... Its very gratifying.