Woodland scenes – Kodak Gold developed in ECN2

First, a quick reminder that the URL of this blog has changed.
It is now https://kevinthephotographer.wordpress.com
The old URL (filmphotography.blog) will stop working in mid-February 2022.

I almost didn’t bother developing this film, a roll of Kodak Gold 200 which I had purchased at a bargain price from a supermarket a few years ago – I think a got 3 rolls for £2. It had been in the camera – a Pentax ME Super – for about a year and I couldn’t remember what the contents of the film were. I did recall that the camera back had been accidentally opened so at least a few frames would be spoilt.

In the end I decided to use the film as my first foray into developing a C41 colour negative film in ECN2 chemicals, rather in the native C41 chemicals. I had recently purchased the necessary raw chemicals to mix ECN2 from powders, instead of using the premixed liquid kits I’de previously used.

The problem with the premixed ECN2 liquids is that they have a very short shelf life when opened, so you may need to save up your Cine films for some time to have a batch of 12-15 ready to put through a litre kit while it’s still fresh.

By mixing powdered chemicals, I should be able to just mix up 250ml or 500ml at more frequent intervals and develop a smaller batch of films at a time. I’ve done a couple of Kodak Vision films this way and the results were comparable to the ones I’d developed with premixed liquids.

Using ECN2 chemicals to develop a C41 film is a little simpler because you can skip the remjet removal stage.

Anyway I was reasonably happy with how this roll of Kodak Gold 200 came out, so now I have a method for the small number of C41 rolls I still have in the freezer.

At some point I will write about my experiences in acquiring and mixing the ECN2 chemicals, but I really need to get more experience before I do that. In the meantime the recipe is freely available on the internet.

By the way, I only lost 3 or 4 frames due to opening the camera back – when this happens it’s worth closing the back as soon as possible and carrying on to complete the film, rather than throwing it away.