TECHNICAL COMMENT
(Re-action to CRCN 74 Letter page)
From Brian Savage (Technical Advisor)
FREEZING E6 KIT SOLUTIONS FOR FURTHER USE:-
I have no personal experience of deep freezing solutions but the procedure proposed should work. I think it would only be necessary to freeze the two developers (1st. & Col. Dev.). The Blix should keep OK for a few weeks.There is a problem however about using White Light reversal in a procedure not designed for it. Because the wash after the 1st. Dev. is unlikely to remove all the developer from the emulsion and re-exposure to light at that stage could cause a lot of problems - the worst being, blank clear film, or just shadowy images instead of colour slides! The reversal bath being acidic also acts as a Stop Bath. So it would be advisable to retain the reversal bath, use it as recommended but then open the tank and re-expose to light for thorough reversal and then proceed to the colour dev. I should warn that I have no experience of doing this, but it could be tried as an experiment.
UP-RATING FROM 100 TO 200 ASA (i.e. by 1 stop):-
This should give quite acceptable results. However there is inevitably a loss of quality. Colour Balance will be different, contrast will be higher, maximum density (blacks) will be less, the slides will be more grainy. All these get worse the more the speed is pushed up.CHROME 6 KITS:-
I have no experience of of Chrome six kits so am unable to comment. However, overall greens and lack of colour saturation are almost certainly due to failure of the reversal process.GENERAL COMMENT
The Classic E6 process calls for seven baths (including Stabilizer). The reason for this is that it cuts down the contamination of each bath as the film is transferred from one bath to the other and the whole thing is designed to produce maximum working life for all the solutions for convenience and in my view, are designed to process only the designated number of films all at one go, or one after the other on the same day.
B&W FILM AT 100F:-
Trying to process B&W film at 100F seems to be asking for problems! I would think it would be necessary top reduce development time by much more than a quarter - more likely reducing the time to a quarter of the norm at 68C - i.e. if the normal time is 8 minutes it would need to be reduced to 2 minutes. In an old copy of the BJ Almanac it gives times for a tropical developer - 12 minutes at 65F which reduces to 2« minutes at 95F. Temperatures over 95F are not recommended.