Thank you for this video! Really informative and clear footage of the various steps. We watched it with Guglielmo Bellini, founder and CEO of Bellini Foto, yesterday and he was really impressed with the knowledge displayed and the results. Thanks also for demo-ing good practice by wearing the gloves! Bellini Foto

I miss your original intro..."where I will be exposing myself..." Always gave me a laugh. Great videos!

Thank you for this video. I have been using Tetenal for my E6 but even though this will make producing the films take longer, i can see via your example that it is worth taking a look at. Now that the colours of spring are in the air here in the UK it will be a great excuse to get the Fuji 6x9 out and shoot a roll or five of Kodak E-6. I wish you well and thank you for taking the time producing this simple to follow video.

Bellini also makes a black and white reversal kit that works with ilford pan f and fp4+ that you should look into!

I've been using this kit since Fuji 5-liter E6 kit was discontinued. This looks like a good quality product in my opinion. I add a 2 minute rinse between the bleach and fixer, to protect my fixer from carryover. This is probably not necessary, but as this is not a replenished process, I remember reading a Kodak instruction suggesting this. Of course, rinse can' t be added anywhere in E6, as some steps rely on carryover. For instance, reversal works in combination with the color developer. For stabilizer, I have never heated it. After washing, I just let the film stand a few minutes in room temperature in an open tank before stablilizing. The emulsions of modern slide films are quite strong - it is not like Fomapan 400. I have never had any issues with reticulation. Same goes with Kodak and Fuji C-41 films. Of course, you must rinse the reels and tanks well, if they get in contact with stabilizer, as it would act as an inhibitor for developer in the next batch. This is a "real" stabilizer, not just Photo-Flo with miconazole, as in modern C-41. What I also like in this kit, is that the mixed solutions will keep quite well for an E-6. For slide film, I can still get Provia for 15€ a roll. It is cheap compared to Ektachrome, which costs about 25€ a roll. Provia has been my "standard" slide film since Kodak canceled all their slide films. When the new E100 arrived, its availability has been patchy here in Europe. It is also a great film. Velvia, especially the 50 ASA variant, is a bit too saturated in colors in my opinion. For now, I will use Provia, as long as I can get it easily. You never know what Fuji is up to.

Hello party people, to answer the questions about rotary processing all times are essentially the same as processing by hand. The E6 process and it's outcast cousins C41 and RA4 are standardized processes, they were designed like that so developing labs can maintain quality control. With exception of the 1st developer all other steps are run to completion. When the time for a particular step is up then all of the work has been done, there is effectively no more that takes place is you run the step for any longer. All color processes are temperature sensitive because reactivity rate is largely a function of temperature in the case of color film. B&W film is the same, however we have more latitude in controlling variables like agitation to create the contrast we find pleasing to the eye. Color films are quite insensitive to agitation as long as you do it enough. Too little agitation can cause problems with dye formation rate and cause nasty colors, but to each their own. It's only a little weird if you are into it. Since color film and paper are designed for mechanized processors the films dye and inhibitor package does that for us. In a perfect universe identically exposed rolls of Velvia 50 processed in any lab worldwide would look just as bad as the others, dependent on your personal taste. Haha, please don't get the pitchforks after me🤣 That being said the 1st developer is critical because it "sets the stage" for color dye formation. In the last 10 years I have ran easily 600 rolls on a Jobo, out of those probably around 20-30 have been bad. Usually it was because I put the bottles in the wrong place and ran the sequence out of order. The other times were forgetting to put the lid on the drum and turning on the lights, etc. Counterintuitively it is a forgiving process if you follow the steps and maintain temperature control. I have made huge errors after the 1st developer and my film looked acceptable. Best practice is shoot a sacrificial roll of the same exact scene in the same exact conditions and run clip tests to determine 1st developer time. Once you are find the time that works for you stick with it! Don't screw around with anything after that. If you are an Obsessive/Compulsive with disposable income then use Fuji Control Strips and a densitometer with "Status A" filters. Personally I do both because a) I'm kind of OCD and b) I work with statistical process control, which is the foundation of color processing. If you use 3 bath kits then disregard the above and get a 6 bath kit. True, you can get perfectly fine results with one. They just violate the laws of nature, bring imbalance to "The Force" and upset chemists. I'll see myself out now and watch the comments section war begin about that last one.

3:00 The bleach step is an oxidizing step using iron iii as the oxidizer. The fixing step is the reducing step, usually using sulfites as the reductant.

This kit felt like a workout, but the results were spectacular. I can't use it all the time, but if I really need to nail something, this will be what I use.

Thank you for this very interesting review of the Bellini kit. A few years ago, I did use the Fuji Hunt kit with good results for Velvia films. The problem was that being a 5l kit, I could not use it all in a short period. Then I tried the 3 bath 1L kit (Tetenal) with mixed results. I developed 2 films in the same batch, one Agfa CT Precisa (presumably Provia) and one Velvia 50. The Agfa came out absolutely fine but the Velvia was way too dark, like underexposed. I read somewhere that it was a known problem with the 3 bath kits and I stopped using that. I will now try again with the Bellini kit and hopefully get the same good results as with the Fuji Hunt kit.

Bellini kits is good and reasonable price.I did use Bellini RA-4 Kits ,it’s great !

Before watching, do you know what the shelf life is like prior to using, once opened/half used, and mixed.

Another way to approach E-6 without blix is to buy First Developer and Reversing Color developer from Cinestill, and use C-41 two solution bleach and fixer (Flexicolor is fairly easy to get in 5L sizes, and is what I use for C-41). Reversing developer combines the reversing bath (fogging solution) and color developer, but otherwise, you have the same full process: First Developer, Reversal/Color Developer, Bleach, Fixer, Stabilizer (it's possible to mix your own stabilizer, but not really worth it, IMO, since it's available as concentrate, likely for less than you'd pay for the ingredients). In fact, First Developer is just a high contrast black and white developer, so it's *possible* to use something like Dektol (may be somewhat expensive in terms of film cost to dial in the first developer time, however, and you might find you need to add something -- sodium thiosulfate, for instance -- to clear highlights). FWIW, I got my sous vide on eBay, paid just a couple dollars less than you did, and I've had no complaints at all. It holds temperature well, its display matches my bimetal darkroom thermometer to less than 1 F variation, and it has a shutoff timer, so I can leave it set up all day to have my chemicals hot when I get home from work, and if I get caught somewhere else, it'll stop heating not long after I'd have developed. There's no good reason to pay Cinestill's price, unless you just want to support Cinestill, and I'd rather do so by buying film and chemicals.

thank you for the video. have you used the tetenal kits before? if so what would you say about the two? do you know how tetenal is able to consolidate many of the chemicals in this process?

During such a difficult time for the E-6, I had the opportunity to try several 6 and 7 bath development kits (like yours), 1 concentrated, and the other powder. Both are made by local craftsmen and cost about $20. Comparing them with cinestill, I can say that in addition to a long development, the result is much better, cinestill seems to be less bleached as slide needs it. But lifetime of some chemicals, like B&W developer is too short. So my question is how long you will store your used kit? And one more question - do you plan to make a video about marginal overdevelopment in different 4x5 tanks and how to avoid it? Thanks for video🖐

Man, its really hard to get over how cool slide film is, especially in medium format. I just did my first e6 120 rolls at home two weeks ago with the 3 bath Arista kit I got from FPP and lost my mind when I saw how good they came out. I wanted to ask your thoughts on the archival difference between the 3 and 6 bath, particularly with regards to the use of formaldehyde in the prebath. I read from a former Kodak engineer (though of course this is all on an internet forum so who knows) who basically said e6 will never be archival as designed without formaldehyde in the prebath. That said even the 6 bath Fuji Hunt kits I saw online no longer contain Formaldehyde. Not sure if Bellini contains this, though I emailed them for the MSDS. Obviously I have some pretty big reservations about doing that at home in a small room (I love slide film but maybe not enough to give myself throat cancer). Just wondering if in your opinion you think formaldehyde is really crucial to good archival transparency and if not what's the advantage in that regard to the 6 bath over the 3 bath (not talking about color accuracy or anything else)?

ebay > amazon, got my sous vide used for $25

What about the edwal 6 bath kit? Have you tried that? Also, between the 6 bath and 3 bath kits, which produces better results on the film?

Hi Mr. Naked. Quick question: does the kit include instructions for rotary processing in terms of agitation? Specifically, I'd like to use it to develop 4x5 in a jobo 3010 expert drum on my CPP2. Thanks!

I hear that Velvia works far better in a six bath kit, so I've got to get this together to do it. Where do you get all that wonderful glassware?

Thanks!

Thanks

That kit processes 12 films? I assume you can reuse it a few times

How did you use this kit with rotary process (Jobo CPE) machines

Is it necessary to use distilled water for all baths or just for the last one with the stabilizer..?

Why do you take it off the reel and stabilize in a beaker?

Thanks! The online suppliers all say the kit is good for 8-10 or even 8-12 rolls of 35mm 36 frames, what about 120 film?

Amazing that this works without using a machine like a Jobo…. I wonder what the temperature and agitation tolerances are?

Hi, did you wash between all steps?

Can you still enlarge it somehow via enlarger?

How’s the shelf life of working solutions? I realistically shoot one roll a month, so that’s what’s keeping me away from E6. There is no lab that does it in my area. Buying such a kit for 4-5 rolls would make no sense. Thanks.

Since the dyes are formed in the color developer, will someone explain how formalin in the pre-bath (1st step) would stabilize those "yet-to-be-created" dyes?

This is twice as long and complecated than tetenal e6 process and double the price😢 And cinestill cs6 kit is already impossible to find in Germany. 😢

If you want to go thru the trouble of using a six bath kit, more power to you. But the claim that a three bath kit is substandard or will cause problems is simply not true. Six baths were used in commercial labs because the chemicals are consumed at different rates, and some can be replenished while others can't. I've developed hundreds of rolls in the Tetenal kit and every one came out as good or better than a commercial lab. You could have done a nice, informative review of the Bellini kit without misleading folks down a potentially frustating and discouraging path.