Jump to content

ECN-2 process that professional labs use?


Seth Baldwin

Recommended Posts

I'm developing still rolls of vision3 stock at home, and have gone through the process instructed from BelliniFoto's ECN-2 kit. I'm trying to refine my process and am interested on the typical process professional labs are using. My current process proceeds like this:

1. Prebath for 10 seconds in tank at 27 degrees celsius, continuous agitation.

2. Pour prebath back into bottle and fill the tank with warm water, close the lid and shake vigorously, open the lid and poor out the first bit of remjet, then run warm water through the tank until the color of water leaving the tank looks clear.

3. Developer at 41 degrees celsius into tank for 3 minutes, continuous agitation for the first 15 seconds, then 5 seconds every 30 seconds.

4. Pour developer back into bottle and pour stop into tank between 27 - 38 degrees celsius immediately for 30 seconds with continuous agitation.

5. Pour stop back into bottle and wash tank with warm water with continuous agitation for 30 seconds.

6. Bleach at 27 degrees celsius for 3 minutes, continuous agitation for first 15 seconds only.

7. Pour bleach back into bottle, run warm water through tank for 1 minutes, continuous agitation for first 15 seconds, then 5 seconds every 30 seconds.

8. Fixer between 27 - 38 degrees celsius for 2 minutes, continuous agitation for first 15 seconds, then 5 seconds every 30 seconds.

9. Pour fixer back into bottle, run warm water through tank for 2 minutes, continuous agitation for first 15 seconds, then 5 seconds every 30 seconds.

10. Rinse (stabiliser) between 27 - 38 degrees celsius for 10 seconds with continuous agitation.

11. Take film out of tank and hang, dip microfibre cloth into stabiliser and run it down film to try to remove left over remjet.

This current process left me with white spots which I believe were from left over remjet or bacteria. How should I improve this current process?

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Professional Movie Labs would ALWAYS be using a continuous Processor. with a dedicated section to remove the REM-Jet as the very first step.  The Machine will use some sort of water jet and perhaps some sort of Buffer to ensure that the rem jet is washed away and has no chance of getting in the emulsion side.

trying to do it in a still darkroom will always require some ingenuity.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I should be really making sure the remjet is *completely* removed during the first pre bath and wash. What happens if there is a bit of remjet still left on the film during the development steps following? Can it simply be wiped off the film at the end and be fine, or does it actually affect the image during development?

Edited by Seth Baldwin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Site Sponsor

RemJet removal on continuous linear processors for ECN2 is the prebath tank then followed by a rotary buffer / water jet stack to make sure ALL the RemJet backing is fully removed and washed away before going into the developer tank. There is also a air knife between the backing removal tank and the buffer jet stack and then an air knife between the buffer jet stack and the developer tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Premium Member

when I tried to do this at home, I used to hang up the film over the sink and use two photographic grade sponges, very wet and hope that the one of the emulsion side whould keep the black off the front of the film.  I found I had to rinse the sponge for about every 6 inchs of film.  still the Pictures (stills) occasionally had a white spot or three.  I was using the chemicals one shot, and they were often balck when they came out so some particles were probably enbeded before the development stage was even finished.  using that method I don't think I used a prebath so the ugly blackness was loosened by the developer.

that said Dale Neviles formulas did produce images that still had full colour 2 years later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...