First Time, In Reverse

It’s why I wanted to develop film in the first place. Slide film! E-6! I can think of perhaps three or four labs in Canada that will develop slide. Development is expensive. The film is expensive. And uncommon.

And it’s absolutely gorgeous!

So on Wednesday, nearly one year to the day that I first developed film (and eight months since I first developed C-41), I nervously mixed the bottles in a Unicolor Rapid E6 kit, allowed them to cool, went out to expose a roll of expired Fuji Velvia 100, and came home to face the music.

And you know what?

It worked!

It was pictures!

Now, I’ve become very rusty where good metering for slide is concerned, so most of the roll’s twelve frames were overexposed in some way (phone app metering comes with some pitfalls), but the feeling of magic as I pulled the roll from the tank was everything I hoped for and more.

I also exposed a fresher roll of Ektachrome E100 in 35mm earlier in the week and developed it today. Although 35mm will never be as magical as larger formats coming out of the tank, everything looked great and, gosh, I’m pleased as punch!