CINESTILL CS2 ECN-2 Bath Powder Kit

Manufacturer's Description:

After years of research and development, CineStill has now created the Cs2 “Cine Simplified” ECN 2-Bath Kit, the only safe and consistent way to process still images with the same characteristics Hollywood has come to expect, from the comfort of their own home.

For those who want to get into the film workflow, we've developed some original home solutions that conform exactly to Eastman Kodak's sensitometric standards. This 2-bath process simplifies the original ECN-2 process in 10+ steps with uncompromised quality and accurate curves while making it safe and foolproof for home use. Any film or still film can be processed with this simplified 2-bath powder kit, resulting in a low-contrast color negative suitable for motion picture workflow and scanning.

Our Cn2 COLOR NEGATIVE developer is combined with the pre-bath accelerator (which initiates development) to produce the correct ECN-2 density. The bleach and fix baths are combined with the stop and wash baths in our only Bf2 bath “BLEACH & FIX + STOP” to reduce health and safety risks and processing errors from dangerous chemical carryover. After a final wash of your film, you'll have CineStill negatives that conform to Kodak's signature curves for proper film processing.

It may be a less complicated process than ECN-2, but Cs2 is actually more advanced chemistry, using chemical compounds and technologies that did not exist when ECN-2 was originally developed. ECN-2 was formulated in the mid-1970s using the technology then available. While our Cs2 kit is simplified and more secure, we have not skipped or compromised any of the designed features of the ECN-2 process. Whether in the color developing agents or the combined baths, we are not satisfied with incomplete formulas that omit essential active ingredients (e.g. antifoggant to prevent base fogging, anti-calcium to prevent precipitation and impurities, ammonium thiosulphate to fully clarify silver and dyes , development stop to avoid color stains, etc.). Correct ECN-2 negatives. No compromise. No BS. We'll cover you.

* Not intended for RA-4 chromogenic printing.
* If Rem-Jet is present, it can be removed manually under running water after development.

+ CS2 ADVANTAGES
Ideal for extremely high-contrast scenes or to achieve the low-contrast cinematic look of film negatives
Optimized for logarithmic scanning of cinema films and printing of ECP films
Advanced chemical agents developed for film processing
Simplified and safer 2 bath solution
Reduced risk of health and safety and processing defects due to chemical carryover
None of the caustic compounds or toxic by-products associated with ECN-2 processing (such as caustic, sulfuric acid, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide fumes, or highly toxic cyanide gas)
Worldwide shipping with no Limited Quantities of Hazardous Substances Regulations (ORM-D).
No special processor or additional components required
Use standard processing tanks and coils
Excellent for bleach-bypass processing with the F96 rapid fixer

- CS2 CONS
Not compatible with RA-4 chromogenic photo paper
It is more difficult to maintain a higher development temperature than Cs41
Less film capacity than the Cs41 process
Recommended +1 stop overexposure
Thinner, low-contrast negatives can be more difficult to scan

CS2 VS. CS41 FILM PROCESSING
ECN-2 and C-41 processes were originally formulated in the mid-1970s to produce negatives for different purposes. Large-scale ECN-2 processing is designed to produce consistent, thin negatives for rapid printing on high-contrast ECP-2 film with short exposure times to save time and money. Printing or scanning higher density C-41 negatives can take up to 8 times as long, and time is money when printing at 24 frames per second. ECN-2 negatives have an optical density range of around 1.6 while C-41 film is around 2.2, inherent to the process rather than the emulsion itself. This equates to an increase in tonal and contrast range of up to 30%+. The target contrast gamma of the Cs41 process is between 0.6 and 0.65, but Cs2 processed film is only between 0.45 and 0.55. Even if you adjust the processing time to get a denser ECN-2 negative, it still doesn't increase the contrast or color separation enough to match the curves of a C-41 negative, as it also raises the base density of the film. Films developed in Cs2 have much lower color contrast, with muddy whites and blacks when printed on RA-4 color paper. Conversely, any film processed in Cs41 would have too wide a contrast and density range to be compatible with cinema film printing. When creating a photo, cross-printing is more of a problem than cross-processing.