BULK PROCESSING FUJI VELVIA FILM
IN CHROME-SIX USING A TEMPERING BATH

By Neil Souch ARPS Area 22

I've now made a good start on my slide film processing and I am very pleased with the results obtained with the Chromesix kit and Velvia film, processed in my much modified tempering bath. I will now explain where I am to-date with my processing methods:-

30 meters of Velvia in 1200ml of Chromesix.

Getting going: After reading Les Tovey's excellent article on his open pot tempering bath I was immediately motivated to redesign my own system to use much the same methods. I decided I wanted to adopt a three spiral system and to have open chemical pots throughout - thus doing away with the need to use a film processing tank completely. I went on the hunt for suitable (plastic) container jars that would take three spirals at a time. I needed a jar for each of the first dev, colour dev, blix and stabiliser. These took some finding but eventually I located some clear plastic food storage jars with tight fitting lids at a reasonable price. The jar I chose for the first dev is slightly taller than the others in order make it easier to locate in the dark ( with its lid off! ).

Luckily, I had a good stock of old Jobo spirals to use as only these spirals would fit these particular jars. If anyone is thinking about following this method - do check that your spirals fit the jars correctly before you purchase anything. I made up an extended central column to place my three spirals on from a 12" length of plastic cistern overflow pipe ( with a suitable stop at the bottom). Agitation is achieved by lifting the spirals up and down through the various solutions. Washing and rinsing are done in several open containers that have been pre-filled with water at 40 degrees - these stand in my sink and the water is changed as required throughout the process. It is both easy and efficient moving the spirals vigorously through the various wash/rinse baths on their central column.

My tempering bath is now much more insulated with 1'' foam all round and has a home made paddle agitator ( made from Lego bits and a Lego low voltage motor ) as well as a lid with four holes cut in it to take the key jars. The UNO heater works well in this situation and I had no trouble in keeping temperatures strictly under control. In fact you can more or less forget about the temperatures and simply let the UNO and the agitator do all the work for you. When in use the temp bath sits on the draining board as a compact unit, everything is then nice and close to hand. I chose the 1200 ml Chromsix as I needed at least 1 litre of solution to adequately cover the three spirals. As I had ready 19 rolls of exposed Velvia ( from a 30 meter length purchased back in the summer ) the 1200ml kit was made up in total. 1200mls of first dev, colour dev and blix were poured into the jars in my tempering bath together with 1200 ml of stabiliser that was purchased and made up separately. The jar lids were snapped on tight and the UNO and agitator were fired up. Four hours later with everything settled at the correct temperature of 38 degrees processing started. Darkroom lights off, three films loaded onto spirals ok and drop them straight into the first dev container (the taller jar is handy here ). Timing the first dev stage was achieved by a home made time tape as it was impossible to use my normal darkroom clock accurately in the total darkness.

After the first dev stage the spirals were plunged straight into one of my wash pots and from there on with the lights on it was very easy to just dip the spirals through the remainder of the washes and process steps. Les Tovey has already described very well the full process using open pots so as my method more or less follows Les's, after the first dev, there is no need to describe the remainder of the process. All the advantages of the open pot system, as previously described by Les, remain the same of course .What in effect we have here is a home made 'Nova' system.

How many can you do: The Chromesix instructions state that 16 films may be processed with 1200 mls of solutions. I had already planned to stretch this to 18 films by having 6 process runs of 3 films each thus achieving 18 films in total. In the end I pushed another process ( the 7th ) with one film only and achieved 19 films ( 30 meters of film ). The kit's instructions recommend an extension to the first dev time of 15 secs after each third stage. So, the first two processes were timed at 6 mins 30 secs, the second two processes were timed at 6 mins 45 secs and the final two processes were timed at 7 mins. The odd film at the end end was also put through at 7 mins in the first dev. The seven process runs were done over two and a half days and the temp bath was left on for the whole of this time (the agitator was only switched on prior to actual process runs ). The chemicals were not removed from their container pots during this time and they were kept at 38 degrees for the full 2.5 days. However, I did ensure the tight fitting lids were in place at all times when the pots were not in actual use. Once the 19th film had been processed the chemicals were discarded and everything was given a through wash and put away for use on another occasion.

Results: To my eyes all the films processed up correctly and it was impossible to distinguish between the first films through the processand the last. When looking at other Velvia trannies of mine, which were processed by a well known commercial E6 processing house, I cannot detect any difference in the results. I have been using Velvia all through this year so I can certainly appreciate the impressive quality that Velvia can achieve. The Chromesix solutions did their job very well and I am more than delighted with the Velvia results in Chromesix. Incidentally, I rate my Velvia at ISO 40. The Chromesix solutions did not look at all fatigued after nineteen films and the colour of the developers was as described in the kit as being still useable. The solutions kept OK in jars over the period of time that I rquired them to be at their best and that`s all that mattered. I would not advise trying to keep solutions long in this type of pot system as the jars are obviously not as affective for storage as correctly sized bottles. However, given the ease and speed of processing of the 19 films this is not really a problem. I`m sure a few more films could have been squeezed through (with another first dev. time extension) but as 30m of film had already been processed with no adverse results I decided to quit whilst I was winning.

Final thoughts: I appreciate that this method will not suit everyone as it is rather intensive once you get going. Also, you have to wait a good while (saving up films) before you can see the results from your photography or have a go at processing. This would not suit the impatient! Ideally, this is a method for the high volume slide film user who is also busy doing other things. For me it works well as I also do a lot of mono photography and Ciba printing (Classics). It is very convenient for me to save up my exposed slide films and have one big processing session (over a few days or nights) every so often and when it is most convenient. Having the tank and chemicals ready for use at the right temperature with the minimum of preporation is very efficient on my time. I buy 30m of slide film and usually end up with 19 cassettes from the bulk roll of film. So with the Chromesix 1200ml kit coping well with 19 films I find this both an excellent and exceptionally economical combination. The next thing that I must do is to try 30m of Konic Chrome and make all this even more economical...
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