L E T T E R S......
"M Y W A Y"
The Editor asked me to describe my method of temperature control. I assume that all our members have a dish warmer, so to begin with by-pass the thermostat and run the heater off a dimmer switch instead (these are available for a œ4 in Woolworths at the moment, but will need a box it as well, another £1.50 or so). These dimmer switches take a load up to 250watts, more than your dish warmer takes, so they are quite adequate for the job. In fact it will also take the aquarium (or wine makers) submersible heater (100 watts) that you are going to connect in parallel with your dish warmer.
Stand a rectangular plastic washing up bowl on the dish warmer, place the submersible heater on the bottom of the bowl, and put c. 3.5ins of water at apprx. 38C into the bowl. Then switch on (not before, because of the submersible heater).
Clip a good quality thermometer onto the inside of the bowl. If the water is at appx. 38C to start with it does not take long to find the right position for the dimmer knob to maintain a steady 38C. Mark position of knob. Small adjustments of the knob will be necessary to compensate for the varying room temperature in summer and winter, but this is no problem. The five plastic (ex Dried milk) bottles stand in the water, containing first developer, Reversal, Colour developer, bleach and Fix solutions, all clearly marked with wax pencil or, better, a Staedtler Lumicolor pen (80p)., write on anything, including glass, dries very rapidly.
Circulation of the water is automatically achieved by virtue of the fact that you are going to be moving the bottles about, and moving the developing tank (which should be kept in the water all the time exept when changing solutions and washing). With very little experiment, the correct position of the dimmer knob is soon found, and it is possible to keep the temperatures within the strict limits required by E6 processing, especially for the short time that is vital to do so (that is, from first developer through to end of colour development, say 6.5 min. in 1st., wash for 4 min., 2.5min Reversal, 6.5 min. colour dev. - total, say 20mins.). After that, a degree here or there does not matter, though In usually find that at the end the temp. is still on 38C.
You may wonder about the wash for 4mns. after 1st developer. I consider this a worthwhile safeguard, so as to thoroughly eliminate the 1st dev. before proceeding, but this is a personal opinion. Incidentally, I keep a bucket of water in the sink adjacent (my dish warmer is on the draining board) at 38C. from the start, and a kettle of hot water is at hand for adjusting this to (at least) near 38C. This is used for the wash sequences, and also for the pre-soak of 2mns. - not generally recommended, but I consider essential to have the film and the tank at 38C before the 1st. developer is poured in.
I use a stainless steel tank so that temperature equalisation takes place within/without the tank quickly. A two spiral tank, the second spiral (empty) being placed on top of the first, so that when I invert the tank subsequently, the solution (220mls) has somewhere to go instead of just staying around the film, thus ensuring a good mixing of the solution.
Although I pre-soak/heat in the bucket, after pouring off the pre-soak water I then immerse the tank in the accurately controlled water bath for a minute to ensure that the temperature is exactly right before adding the 1st developer. As regards the editor`s comment about the tendency to a green cast on some film processed, I must tell you that this green cast was a problem to me when I first started making my own E6 solutions a few years ago, I had been using the old (and unsatisfactory) formulae given in the British Journal of Photography Annual 1982 & 1983. At that time I learned about the Colour Reversal Club and made the aquaintance of Brian Savage. It was he who sorted out my problem, and I began to use his modified version of the official Kodak formulae with success.
I consider it essential to ensure that reversal is thorough, and a little gentle agitation during this stage does seem to be a good thing, in spite of the usual instructions not to agitate during reversal. Also I give 2.5 minutes minutes instead of 2 for good measure. It is also important that colour developer is added immediately the reversal solution has been poured off, and agitated at once. I understand that the presence of the dregs of the reversal solution is necessary for the colour developer to function properly, so do not go to great lengths to drain off the last drop of reversal solution.
My method is to remove the lid of the tank at the end of reversal, smartly pour off the reversal solution, a quick shake while preventing the reel from falling out with the forefinger, then pour in the colour developer from a wide necked bottle. (As mentioned), I use those dried milk powder bottles with clip-on tops - they are ideal for standing in the water bath with a 1" wide strip of lead wrapped around to prevent them from floating, and the plastic is thin enough to allow quick temperature adjustment; the hinged clip-on tops are excellent for quick access and sealing and agitate by immersion immediately, for half a minute, then 2 inversions every minute for the next 6 minutes.
Dr. Peter Pollitt. ARPS Evesham. Area 14.
MORE SUPPORT PLEASE!
I have just attended - as a member! - my first meeting of the CRC at Didcot, more commonly titled `The AGM`.
For me the day was most enjoyable and one of the nicest things about it was the informality. I also enjoyed very much the wonderful company of Oliver Barron who together with my wife, Jane, and Larry Moss, travelled with us to Didcot. He really is a very knowledgable gentleman and I know he too enjoyed his day out, he indicated as much and also said that at his age it was too long a journey for him to undertake on his own.
When I arrived at Didcot and saw the venue I was a bit anxious I must admit, it has to be said that the building looked pretty `tatty` from outside, but once inside what a transformation. A lovely lounge area, a superb Bar and an excellent hall for the presentation of slide programmes.
On arrival then and once inside we found the bar open and a couple of specialised dealers were setting up their `goodies`. Larry Moss, who came with me, started to set up his superb prints that he had made from Fuji transparencies. These were pictures taken while he and his wife, Heather, were in Africa.
A little later in the day refreshments were available and these were superb and very welcome, they were available everytime there was a break in proceedings; I understand it was Bill`s family who organised these and great credit to them.
For the entertainment we had Dr. Niell presenting his slides first, now I know a lot of you have seen his work and I was looking forward to seeing it. He had driven down from Barnsley (a round trip, of over 300 miles) just to show three slide programmes. What a great pity we were unable to see them for Dr. Niell had serious problems with his twin Carousel projectors and more or less had to give up the programme as it was intended.
Glen Wilgrove and John Guthrie then screened their slides programmes. They used three coupled projectors. Between then they screened seven short programmes. I was very impressed with their visuals but to mind their programme suffered because with the exception of one programme all slides were dissolved to one record, when the music started the slide stated and when the music finished so did the slides. The seventh programme was for me the best, it was about the Battle of Britain, but here again it called out - as did all the others - for some spoken words.
I followed these two gentlemen and my slide programme on coupled GAF/Imotronic system was shown in the none-standard widescreen aspect was spoiled by being shown in `Narrowscope"!!
Before I screened my programmes about half an hour was devoted to seeing home processed slides by any members who brought some along and these were most impressive, If I could get results like they had I would process my own all the time.
Before the entertainment started we attended the AGM which only lasted an hour. Now I was very sad that only 40 people attended this event. Maybe you think it is an AGM of many hours debate. This is not the case, the business was concluded very quickly. Maybe with the bank holiday the next day it wasn`t the best of days to hold this event, who knows, but I would say that the Didcot venue would probably hold and seat at least a hundred people and in this day and age a ticket of 75p or even a œ1 would NOT be out of place.
So to those that didn`t come along I can only say that you missed a very good day indeed and I sincerely hope that the next event will be better attended. If you choose not to support your organisation it will eventually end the way of many other organisations - in failure, and that would be everybody`s loss,
So please try to make a determined effort next time to support those that willingly put so much time and effort in for your benefit.
Bob Grimes, Finsbury Park. Area 20.
`T A I L E N D E R S`
My thanks to all those members who have sent me their "Tail Ends". The concerted effort of the Club has produced the solution. (1) Measurement of commercial Bleach E6 Baths pH is 5.2.
(2) The `pH` given by E. Gehert in his latest article is 5.6 - 5.7 but this alternative Bleach using Potassium Ferricyanide is shown as 6.7 - 6.9. B.S.P. 4.9.81.
(3) We believe this is wrong, everyone using this pH and bleach submitted one or more tail ends which were pink.
(4) Glyn Willicombe (Area 20) and others using a bleach of modified constituents with a pH of 5.7 or less has produced clear tail ends.
(5) I have accordingly modified the bleach in my formula to give a pH of 5.2/5.4.
I trust we can now go ahead with obtaining some really good slides, but I will quote from Ilford`s latest publication on Ilford film. "Though primerly designed for machine processing, E6 chemistry is also available in kits for home processing. In practice automated processing is preferable because it permits a level of film to film consistency that is difficult to achieve when processing in small tanks or using hand `lines`!.
Frank White. Romford. Area 13.