Like most people in the C. R. C. I’m
not much of a chemist, more a weigher & mixer, so if I’m
to get good results from my processing then a consistent method of working
must be used every time.
The equipment did not cost a lot, and
can be made quite easily. The vital piece is what the trade term a
tempering tray (it’s really a water bath) This consists of a
gardener’s pot plant tray fitted with a UNO thermostatically controlled
heater. (from most good photographic dealers at around £18). Getting the
processing baths to 100F is simple; put the bottles in the tray, pour in
hot water, leave for an hour or so and the heater will cut off when
temperature is exactly right.
My developing drums (tanks) have four
layers of polystyrene of the type sold by decorator’s merchants, wrapped
round them. The sleeve will insulate the drum enough to keep the
temperature constant during the short developing times needed with E-6
work. The sleeve need not be used with the ancillary baths or washes as
there is a much greater temperature variation allowed with those.
Washing is also of great importance, try
a speck of colour developer and bleach in water if you doubt met, I
don’t trust the running tap
because the water pressure drops every time any other cold tap is turned
on. In the sink I have a 5 gallon plastic can with it’s top cut off;
it’s filled with water from a mixer tap. It’s easy to adjust the water
to 100F. The water is transferred to the drum with a 2 litre jug. There is
enough room beside the water container to pour away washing water etc.
Chemicals are weighed up the day before
use, so that they can have 24 hours to stabilise. When I’m ready to
process, the bottles are put in the water bath. At the same time, I set up
the light for re-exposure, the washing can and tray to put the tank in to
avoid the chemicals going everywhere while I’m working.
When the chemicals are up to
temperature, you are ready to start processing. The clockwork timer is set
to 7 or 71/2 mins. and the developer is poured into the insulated
tank. For the first 30secs the tank is continually inverted, then I can
relax and invert the tank 6 times every 30secs. With a minute to go
I pour out the tank solution. The new bath goes into the tank as near
to the end of the last process as possible.
All
washes are much longer than the Ones described in the Official process
times. There is two reasons for this:
1.
Official times are for processing machines with gas burst agitation arid
pres pressure washes; they do not take into account the nooks and crannies
in our spirals and tank lids.
2.
Agfa’s comprehensive book on processing 50S and 50L film is constant
that long washing consists of giving thefilm as many changes of water as I
can in the. time stated in my processing details. The tank is inverted
constantly between pourings. It’s the. hardest job of all but you
don’t need to worry about exact times; a little longer washing isn’t
going to hurt.
Re-exposure:- This is done with another
piece of home made equipment. It’s a plywood base with an upright like a
gallows fixed to the rear. On the gallows is fixed a bulb holder and a
No.2 photoflood with shade. The bulb is fixed 6ins. over the water in a
plastic washing up bowl, which stands on the base.
While the spirals are in the water (up
to 4 transparent type) I turn them around with a glass rod for 4 mins,
They are then turned over and the process repeated for another 4 minutes.
Colour Development, Bleach and Fixer
receive careful timing with 30 secs. constant agitation in the colour
developer, and then .the normal 6 inversions per minute. The other
baths just receive 6 inversions per minute.
Chemical mixes of Bleach, Fixer and
Stabiliser are made up in 1. litre, quantities and will last for 24 films.
The developers and the Stop baths are made up according to the number of
films to be processed, having found that 1 litre will do 8 films without
the quality dropping. By this method the chemicals are always fresh.
Dissolve chemicals in the order given below.