Anyone home processed 16mm colour negative?

[Scotness]

I'm interested in giving this a go - anyone have any experience with it?

I'm going to start looking through this document http://www.kodak.com/US/plugins/acrobat ... /h2407.pdf

- it's the ECN-2 processing specs.

Scot

[gianni1]

Just yesterday I read through that doc and a few others related to it. Two worries stopping me from souping my four Super 8's, two Regular 8, and one 16mm colour neg in the Flexicolor C-41 instant soup kit I bought off ebay for £5.00...

1. Learning to feed the film properly onto the lomo tank spiral. The only solution is to practice... and practice....

2. How do I wash the black stuff off the rear surface of the film (remjet removal)? Just water, sponge it off, squeege, etc..? The specs say a series of water jets angled just right... hmm... doesn't mention anything about using a Lomo tank.

Maybe I ought to quit contemplating it and just soak the film for a few minutes (with Borax, Sodium Sulfaate and Sodium Hydroxide, and test the ph level for good measure), then rinse with water for a few minutes more before the colour developer step. I could just process a short strip of the film that I've got as a camera test roll...

The alternative is $90 at Andec or the Widescreen Center, plus postage or Todd AO for £100, but Todd doesn't have a film splitter... nor do I... I've just bagged and ready to post a parcel to Switzerland with a bunch of still and cine Kodachromes, four of 8mm costs me £7.00 each.

I'm thinking of ordering some Speedibrews CELER 41 Kit from http://www.silverprint.co.uk/chem19.html for my fujichrome and perutz and agfachromes.

[edit]

Just spoke with the Spedibrews man who makes the stuff, and he said a value of his chemicals is the instruction leaflet included in the kit. Any C41 process will work for E-6, but to extend the developing time because of the contrast. Older films may need cooler temp and extended times too.

Gianni

[Scotness]

2. How do I wash the black stuff off the rear surface of the film (remjet removal)? Just water, sponge it off, squeege, etc..? The specs say a series of water jets angled just right... hmm... doesn't mention anything about using a Lomo tank.

Just came across this that answers your question

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004 ... opic=13784

Scot

[gianni1]

Very elucidating.... Thanks for that. But would hope for an alternative to that

HIGHLY DILUTED sulfuric acid immediately afterward. When I say highly diluted, I'm talking barely one drop in 250ml of water...

... with my small kids helping out, and using the kitchen sink....

Just today's on page two of the "Metro", a London daily newspapers I picked up at the train station, has an article titled "Chemicals threat to reproduction, Falling Sperm count" about EU legislation on regulating chemicals. It continues saying that all these house hold chemicals in use today are could be seriously harming the reproductive health of our generation. Myself with five kids I'm skeptical!

Last time I used Sulfuric Acid was in New York City Pre 9/11 for Platinum Printing. I had to get a license from the local police station before I could purchase a tiny vial of that hot stuff!

[ECNtoo]

you dont want to use c-41. john pytlak will tell you how to do this, he gave me the details yonks ago and ive lost them since. just ask.

[matt5791]

Just today's on page two of the "Metro", a London daily newspapers I picked up at the train station, has an article titled "Chemicals threat to reproduction, Falling Sperm count" about EU legislation on regulating chemicals. It continues saying that all these house hold chemicals in use today are could be seriously harming the reproductive health of our generation. Myself with five kids I'm skeptical!

Ansel Adams never suffered any ill effects from handling photographic chemicals for 60+ years!

Matt

[audadvnc]

I had to get a police permit to purchase a tiny vial of sulphuric acid...

Or you could have gotten some from your car battery, no questions asked.

Ansel Adams never suffered any ill effects from handling photographic chemicals for 60+ years!

Matt

Ansel Adams handled photo chemicals for 60+ years and now he's dead! Well, he'd probably be dead anyway ...

I've processed ECN film with C-41 chemistry and a Morse rewind tank, it worked OK. But when ECN labs will process for $.16/foot and less, it's hardly worth the trouble.

[gianni1]

If my employer or client paid for it, I'd Fex Ex it to Todd AO's overnight service with telecine inclusive. While plenty of London labs do 16mm Color Neg nobody in London wants to split my 8mm reperfed color neg films. I must prove my allegiance to the 8mm Goddess by continuing this quest. Even if she is sometimes cruel... for example today, the Borax wasn't at Boots the Chemist, I'll have to try again in a few days or do without.

The mainland European labs will process and cut Standard 8 but at £13 each plus postage. I dislike spending more than 2 or 3 times the cost of my film for processing. For those prices I can get a splitter from Olexandr, with a few Kassemas carts for Super 8. I'm still determined to exploit and prove that all these inexpensive 8mm cameras (I see each weekend and on Ebay) have life in them yet.

While communing with the 8mm Goddess she told me to try Black and White for home processsing. How do I know this? I just keep finding this outdated stuff that nobody wants to shoot and process. Just this morning I picked up four 100' cans of unused 16mm B&W, for 50p each, £2.00 total. O.K. It's maybe it's twenty or thirty year old....



Gianni

[John_Pytlak]

... I just keep finding this outdated stuff that nobody wants to shoot and process. Just this morning I picked up four 100' cans of unused 16mm B&W, for 50p each, £2.00 total. O.K. It's maybe it's twenty or thirty year old....

Gianni

At the high price of silver today, you probably come out ahead if you just recover the silver from the film.

Almost all of the silver in color film is recovered by labs when they process it. And about half of the silver in a B&W film can be recovered (the rest is used to form the image).

[gianni1]

I read somewhere that Ilford almost went out of business in the early 80's because of the skyrocketing price of silver... Google tells me the silver is recoverable from letting the fixer soak overnight in a gallon buckets filled with brillo pads (steel wool) attached to a battery. Supposedly the silver collects on the steel wool? Sounds Dangerous. I like using aluminum pie tins with a silver spoons in it. Like panning for gold in the Yukon. Almost struck gold!

Gianni

[Scotness]

While communing with the 8mm Goddess

I like the sound of this 8mm Goddess - is this her??



Scot

[ECNtoo]

i have a friend that has heaps of 16mm vnf, kodachrome and tri-x. he mentioned he might send it all over to a silver recovery firm. i scoffed at the idea. how much silver can you expect from 100ft??

[John_Pytlak]

i have a friend that has heaps of 16mm vnf, kodachrome and tri-x. he mentioned he might send it all over to a silver recovery firm. i scoffed at the idea. how much silver can you expect from 100ft??

The amount of silver varies with the product -- faster films tend to have more silver. Properly recycling film is better for the environment, and helps increase the supply of silver (hopefully bringing prices down).

Silver recovery can be as simple as putting steel wool in silver-laden fixer, but most motion picture labs use electrolytic recovery, plating out almost pure silver on the cathode of the recovery cell.

[FilmIs4Ever]

According to my friend Lou Flemming, who used to process VNF for an auto crash-tester a year or two ago, there's about 1 ounce of (recoverable at least) silver per 400 feet of 16mm, so extrapolate from that. There'd probably be about 1/2 oz. silver in 100 feet of still film, using those numbers. Halve that again if it's exposed B&W you're souping.

Regards.

~Karl Borowski