TESTING THE JESSOP E6 LIT

By Mike Puttick (Area 3+)

 

I normally use Chrome Six + kits, but for a while they were not obtainable, so I bought a Jessop’s E6 kit instead to try it out. It is for processing six films, but I pushed it to 8 films without noticing any deterioration in the seventh and eighth films. Full volume is 750mls., more than enough for two films in my triple tank, but not enough for three alas, which would have speeded up the processing time. The comprehensive instructions came on a folded pamphlet. These instructions covered appearance of the solutions — handy for novices at this lark — mixing, agitation, processing sequence and various tips and precautionary advice. Altogether the sum total of what you require to successfully process your trannies.

                The kit comes in a blue box that consists of concentrates for making First Developer, Colour Developer (A & B), Bleach-Fix (A & B), and Stabiliser. These each make up to 750mls maximum and the instructions give several working volumes so that you do not have to make up the entire amount in one go. I do, because it is easier to make full volumes and process all the films in one session rather than in ones and twos. This is mainly due to the difficulty of keeping opened concentrates from oxidising over a period of time, which can be months rather than weeks. I find that the films don’t seem to suffer if they are ‘saved up’ until I have the required number to process. 

                I used both Jessop’s Slide film and the new Kodak Elite Chrome Extra Colour in this kit, but did not have any Konica film to process as a comparison. I normally obtain the Kodak film by mail order, but the last lot I got from Jessops at £19.98 for 10 on special offer at the time of going to print.

 

               The kit is similar to Chrome Six and both will process eight films. I put the Jessop kit into glass litre bottles (I couldn’t get 750ml size, whereas 600 ml bottles are available for the Chrome Six Kit). The bleach-fix has to be in a partially filled bottle so 1 litre size is fine. The films are processed over one or two nights as time allows. The process is done in a bowl of hot water at about 40ºC using a fish tank heater and thermostat control with a fish tank pump to circulate the water and give even heating.

                  I am pleased with the results of the Kodak EC film, samples of which are illustrating this article. The Jessop film was of the Red Arrows. This was a very great disappointment as the results were totally under- exposed and dark. This was the result of exposure and not anything to do with the kit. Bright conditions and sky readings fooled the automatic exposure.  I made sure the Kodak film was rated at its given speed of 100ASA but I will experiment in the future with slightly altered speed ratings, to see the best exposure for my way of working, although I am pleased with the results shown here.

                I am looking for ways of salvaging the under-exposed slides. One could say the only answer is to scrap them and put it down to experience. But what if the content is of great importance? How do we make the best of a bad job? There are several ways to go about this which I will hopefully be able to write about in a future article.

 

                I use kits for processing now, due to lack of space and equipment. At one time I used to do my own weighing and mixing, but due to change in circumstances took the kit way of processing my films. This Jessop’s kit is an excellent buy and produces very satisfying results. Comparing price with that of the Chrome Six kit shows a saving for the smaller size but the larger size Chrome Six kits win on price:Jessop kit £14.99, processing 8 films (although only six recommended by the makers), works out to £1.87 per film. In Chrome Six 600ml size the cost is £2.12, but this falls to £1.43 in a 1200ml size and even better in the 5 litre size (a mere 80p per film). This only applies of course if the chemicals are used to their full capacity. 

                Perhaps a number of members could get together and split such a large 5 litre kit to reduce their costs?

                Obviously the most economic way is to weigh and mix from chemicals, although I don’t have a costing worked out for this. Perhaps our Chemical Sales expert, John Pearle, could come up with some figures to convince us to return to W & M!

Editorial

CRCMain