ELNikkor wrote:
I also have some frozen Elite Chrome I was planning on shooting this year. There is a lab in Rochester that will process it, but I have a lot of other frozen Ektachrome, so I may buy a kit and process it myself. There may be some color shifts, but with today's scanning and adjusting, the images will be salvageable, if not acceptable from the start.
If you have a lot of it, you might consider photographing a ColorChecker test chart in noon daylight to hone the real speed rating. That would also reveal color bias or shift.
Back in the 1980s when I burned through a 20-roll brick of Ektachrome every other week, I would order a 300-roll case (all same emulsion number) keep most of it refrigerated, and do an initial test roll to establish speed and color accuracy. I ran a control strip with each batch of film I processed, then evaluated it on a densitometer and plotted statistical process control charts that told me when I needed replenishment, pH adjustment, or new chemicals altogether. Emulsion speed was often +1/3 or -1/3 stop from the box speed, and some batches had a yellow or magenta cast. I used a gel filter holder and Kodak color correction filters to compensate when I had to mix batches on a job.
(Yeah, I know, picky! But when you do a show with 800 slides in it, and the color jumps around, even the company president gets annoyed. Then your boss gets annoyed...)
E6 is best processed under controlled conditions, so consider a lab that has a bit of volume. It is a bit difficult to find one with fresh chemistry these days. If your lab uses a roller transport processor, RUN to another lab! Low utilization rates mean crystals build up on the rollers and scratch your film. Tarry sludge can form in the developer, too, and leave little black specks on your slides. A lab with a "no touch" film processor such as a Refrema dip-and-dunk, or a deep sink line using stainless steel reels and Nitrogen burst agitation with a temperature control unit, is great.
These days, if you have a sous vide kitchen cooking appliance, you can keep the process at the proper temperature at home, with relative ease.