I will start doing clip tests immediately and salvage an 35mm color negative film for that. The single most important factor when deciding if home color processing is feasible, in my opinion, is the shelf life of mixed chemicals (and opened stock bottles). When testing E-6 I found the shelf life very short, and even the same with stock so I decided not to do E-6. However, I found the excellent Compard digibase C-41 chemicals, which have great shelf life of stock chemicals. However, I found out the hard way that 3 months storage of mixed developer was a mistake, so I probably will never exceed 2 months, and at least the second month I will do clip tests. If some company could reformulate or invent E-6 chemicals with better shelf life, that would be the only feasible enabler for home E-6 in my opinion.I encourage all photographers to try shooting and hand processing b&w film in any format before they dive into 4x5. Here is an article I wrote on three easy ways to develop b&w film at the kitchen sink and the equipment necessary.
Black & White Film Developing: Stand, Semi-Stand, Standard | photoscapes
This article is about how I process black-and-white (B&W) films. I choose to hand process my 4x5, 120, and the occasional 135 films. Here, I will share the processing equipment I have used and what I have been using for the past decade.photoscapes.com
Best to you,
Darr
Stand or semi-stand is my prefered dev with Rodinal for BW. But there is always the damned risk of bromide drag or development ’drag’ with plastic Paterson reels, much less with Mod54. The bunching active streak is so apparent when scanning, so this defect is really annoying, when it shows up.
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