2024 has been a year where I've shot more film than digital. To be honest, I've actually offloaded most of my digital gear now. I've got several 35mm cameras, a 4x5 pinhole camera and a 4x5 Shen Hao camera, which I also use to shoot 120 film in 612 format in a Horseman back.


2025 is shaping up to be a big year for film and alternative printing methods for me. I'm hoping to start doing prints in my makeshift darkroom shortly. I've not used a tray setup and enlarger since the mid 1990's, so it should be a challenge!


Recently, I've added an Ilford Ilfocolor E6 kit to my chemicals. I've been aching to shoot some 4x5 slide film, however given the expensive price of both the film here in Australia (around $150 per 10 pack of Kodak E100) and the cost of lab developing (one lab in Perth charges around $20-25 per sheet of 4x5 for C41 or black and white) I held off until I could pickup a chemical kit on sale. During the recent Black Friday sales, I managed to get a kit for $135 delivered to my door.


The kit was fairly basic when I opened it. 7 bottles in total, along with some padding. No instructions for mixing or usage, which I must say was a little disappointing. A quick trip to google and some searching later, I found a guide on Ilford's website with mixing info. The guide provides details for varying amounts of mix, and given I only have 1L bottles, I used the smallest mix ratios available.


Once everything was mixed, I then had to hunt for some info on how to agitate correctly. The Ilford guide tells you times to use, and temperature, but nothing about agitation intervals. I ended up using a combined method of the Tetenal instructions and hints from a few Reddit threads. I used the following agitation schedule for all chemical steps:


  • Agitate continuously for the first 30 seconds, approximately 1 inversion every 2 seconds
  • 1 inversion every 30 seconds thereafter, returning the tank to a 38 degree water bath after each agitation


There's a total of 9 steps, with 7 different chemicals and 2 water baths (initial rinse included). I mixed the chemicals with distilled water, but used tap water for the initial rinse and secondary rinse.


The first image I removed from the tank was the shot of the old jetty at Jurien Bay. . I honestly didn't have high hopes for the image, as it was shot on expired Fujifilm Provia 100, and I wasn't sure how the film had been stored. It was quite a feeling of elation when this appeared!


Next up was the title image. It's a West Australian Christmas Tree, a Nuytsia. These are currently abundant around WA, and are absolutely stunning when in full bloom. I saw quite a few on a recent trip to Jurien Bay, and had to go back to photograph this one. It's located just outside of the Seabird turn-off.


Following that, the images of the broken Grass Tree and the large Grass Tree were both in Nilgen, a spot where I went to photograph after large wildfires decimated the area.


There was another image, however it seems that I may have loaded it incorrectly into the tank, as there are marks all through the image from the frame holder. An expensive lesson!

So, after all the images, what are my thoughts on the kit?


I like it. It has its downsides, the worst one being a very short shelf life for the mixed up solutions. The working solution has a shelf life of just one week for the main chemicals. Ideally, you need to be shooting a lot of slide film, or saving the development process until you have around 10-16 rolls (if using the 1L mix) to get the most out of the working solution mix. Once opened, the concentrate has a shelf life of around 12 weeks, so that's a little more palatable. The kit, and the entire slide process, is quite expensive. That said, it's amazing to see the positive images on a light table once they come out of the tank.


It's something I will definitely buy again in the future. I have a lot more slide film to shoot, and with now 11 weeks or so remaining of shelf life for the concentrate, I guess I have to get moving!