AREA NEWS
Ken Saville:- Area 4 is a small area of the CRC number wise and the members are either old hands at the photography game or relative newcomers. We meet usually on the first Thursday of the month at my house and use my darkroom for practical sessions. Earlier this season I spotted an advert for the Lingcolour E6 kit plus three films for a trial. As I have three members who have done very little processing of colour slides I ordered this for our October meeting. The films were Konica so we were very hopeful that this kit would be a success.
It is very easy to mix being all liquid concentrates. The films were given out to the three least experienced members to take on whatever subject took their fancy. The results were good but not as good as I have seen using the CRC kit.
The autumn colours on the shots Dave Mallaby took were superb but a path in the picture showed a definite cast but this was not enough to detract from the picture. I persuaded the three members to share their thoughts etc about this process and they follow this. I think for those not prepared or not wishing to mix their own chemicals this system could be a viable option. I must add though that I used a Jessop E6 kit with some Jessops slide film at the end of the summer and I cannot find fault with them. so this could be another option. The Lingcolour kit worked out much cheaper.
Dave & Marion Mallaby:- We met at Dave`s house and trooped up to the darkroom. Dave took up his teaching role to guide us through the processing schedule.
Marion Mallaby developed her film first. All went well and the result was OK. She had some very nice slides, more than likely some entries for the bi-monthly competition in her other club, Middlesbrough Camera Club.
I went next but unfortunately I was not concentrating hard enough. I was paying too much attention to an interesting conversation taking part in the darkroom. I must blame Ken Smith and the two Dave`s for raising such riveting topics. The end result was that I got the timing wrong on the first developer. I finished up with a set of overexposed slides with a colour cast. Still all was not lost. I had at least learned how to use the `Lingcolour Kit` for future use in my own darkroom.
The third and last film was developed by Dave Mallaby. His results were the same as his wife`s. He also had some nice slides. Dave, unlike me, had paid attention to his timing, which proved the point that the first development must be accurate.
All in all it was a successful exercise with the added bonus of a pleasant evening spent with fellow club members. It must be one of the most enjoyable ways of pursuing ones hobby. Taking, talking or processing slides.
We are both members of Middlesbrough Camera Club as well as CRC. It was at one of our weekly meeting at Middlesbrough that Ken Smith gave us a free colour film with instruction from Dave Morrell to use it before the next month`s meeting of the CRC when it would be processed. Sod`s Law being what it is we had bad weather and other problems and it was not until the last day that the sun came out and we were able to get out and finish taking the films. We arrived at Dave`s house and went into the darkroom. The free film was good news but the bad news was that we had to process it ourselves
The chemicals were mixed and waiting at the correct temperature and Dave took us through the process. We had done an E6 process before and had had a fair result but the results from this were a great deal better. We will certainly try this again and we know that if we get into difficulties our friends at the Colour Reversal Club are always ready to help us out.FROM AREA THREE
Ken East:- Chrome 6 is very convenient and reliable. I find the method of processing two films back-to-back, as mentioned in the Newsletter, interesting. It must reduce the labour and tedium by half. But I was surprised that it was possible. Normally film has an anti-halo backing which needs to be awash in the processing baths; otherwise opaque areas are left on the back of the film. It must be that 35mm stock is different from sheet film. Age reduces the motivation and need to photograph. I find that my stock gets past the "use date" very quickly. But film kept in the fridge seems to be in excellent condition long after. I have the feeling, however, that Chrome 6 stock is best not kept after the date on the box.
B. Mogilnicki:- I have been playing with photography since I was 11 (66 years ago) rocking the dishes and later developing roll film in my mum`s little bowls, used a mile or two of Ferrania and early Agfa, processed at room temperature, with a geared motor contraption for continuous agitation. I was an early member of the then CR50 Club and then the CRC, which I lapsed for some forgotten reason, or without it. Now I use the No.1 CRC formulae finding it simpler. I have always re-exposed the film by white light, immersed in a white enamelled bowl with a No 1 Photoflood circling over it for 10 minutes, suspended from a doorway frame.
This, on a friend`s suggestion I now achieve successfully with a "Sunpack 124", manual on full power, (similar would do), firing it from 4 angles, distanced approx. a yard, both sides of the reel, without removing the film. I must stress the tanks and reels I use are the ancient paterson major 1, the reels being transparent as opposed to the modern white ones. For simplicity of this method it might be worth somebody`s time to experiment with the white reels. Please blow your own trumpet if successful.
I had a laugh reading about the white exposure in the sun; you must be having us on with hanging your films on the line. As for the reversal bath - is it not an unnecessary use of chemicals, with extra cost, with further pollution, without any enhancement of quality reported on these pages? Furthermore some of your writers suspect it of causing the tobacco effect which I have never experienced. Please comment.
`Freezing': I freeze everything photographic and other subject to ageing: Reversal, developers complete, Films of all kinds, C41 Developer with CD4 in 125ml. plastic bottles for single application in a smallest of tanks (Envoy), portions of fish, and if my Pools come up I may have my body deep frozen for future awakening. `Entertaining no zest for competitions my processing may be somewhat sloppy. I don`t own a pH meter and work on a kitchen sink with a good thermometer and timer. To spend some hundreds of pounds on equipment, like a processor, would buy me a lot of top quality laboratory work.
(An enclosed sample strip of film showed excellent dense blacks, all of scenic views, on Ilfochrome 100 film, perfectly exposed and processed) Ed.
Mike Puttick:- The keeping properties of Photocolor Chrome 6 kits is relatively short. I found that over a week can cause trouble. I therefore save up my films and process over a couple of days without any trouble. I have once left it for a couple of weeks between use and had the green type colour casts with the blacks. The only trouble making up one`s own from raw chemicals is that you require a pH meter in order to obtain correct pH balance in the solutions as this is critical, because the deviation from correct pH leads to colour shift to either blue or yellow cast. Modern films are now much more pH dependent than they used to be. Like you, I stick to kits as it is quicker. I would like to go back and make up my own if I had more time.
I have no experience of high temperature processing of B&W film. I use normal film development tanks so can adjust temperatures satisfactorily. My own photography has been in the doldrums lately and I need to get out and about, working up enthusiasm again.
John Slater:- I use Photocolor Chrome 6 kits for slide processing, mostly Konica, and am often asked at the end of my public lectures how I obtain such good colour. Here is my method on avoiding green shadows.
In order to get neutral blacks, with my tap water, I modify the pH of the colour developer with a 10% solution of Sodium hydroxide. I buy a 1200ml kit and mix the amount required, in multiples of 300ml. Most of my mixes are, however, of 300ml. and these will give me 7 full length films of top quality. I wait until I have this number of films to process before mixing. Once mixed, however, the solutions will keep for at least 6 weeks, with developers in brown glass bottles, full to the brim, using if necessary, glass marbles to fill the air space. Part used solutions will also keep this length of time. Mostly the films are processed two at a time, loaded back to back.
With my tap water, slide shadow tend to be slightly magenta and the effect increases with successive runs through. The Sodium hydroxide therefore is increased after each pair of films is processed. With Kodak duplicating film 5071, the shadows tend to be green, therefore I add a 10% solution of Sulphuric acid.PROCESSING CHART (J. R. Salter)
(not including washes).Films --------------- First ---------------- Colour --------------- 10% Sol. -------------------- Blix
processed ---------- Dev. ---------------- Dev. ----------------- + Sod. hydrox.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 & 2 ------------- 9 mins. -------------- 6 3/4 mins. ------------ + 1 drop -------------- 10½ mins.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 & 4 ------------10¼ mins. ------------ 7¼ mins. --------------- 4 drops --------------- 11½ mins.
------------------------------------------------------------------ (i.e. add 3)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 & 6 ------------ 12½ mins. ----------- 7 3/4 mins. ------------- 8 drops --------------- 13½ mins.
------------------------------------------------------------------ (i.e. add 4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 ----------------- 14¼ mins. -------------- 8 mins. -------------- 12 drops ------------- 14½ mins.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------An eighth film may not have top quality but, if attempted would need a First Dev. of 17 minutes., a Colour Dev. of 8¬ mins. with 24 drops of Sodium hydroxide (i.e. + 12). The Sodium hydroxide counteracts magenta shadows. Sulphuric acid (10%) would counteract green shadows. I do not posses a pH meter.