So I just got back some Quarzchrome...

Post by DC » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:04 pm

I bought four rolls of Quarzchrome from the Widescreen centre over a month ago and shot them on my 814xls.

Just got them back from processing today. Here are a few phrases that sum up my feelings:

1. What a dissapointment, 2. What a waste of time, 3. What a waste of money..... You get the picture.

The results are terrible. At best 10% of the time you can actually see what is going on, the picture is foggy, indistinct, muddy, vague, and hardly any contrast. I shot under a variety of conditions - indoors under lighting, outside in the sun etc.

I think I have shot enough Kodachrome 40 to know that my camera skills are not to blame, so my advice is steer clear of Quarzchrome if you can (maybe you do already ;) I feel genuinely sorry for for the guy who recently posted on here saying he had just bought 50!

On the other hand, I could have had some of a bad batch, I have heard it can be a hit and miss affair with this old stock.

Post by **Angus** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:11 pm

Remember that what the Widescreen Centre calls "Quarzchrome" is Ukranian SVEMA film dated about 1991 or 1992. It is all a decade expired, and wasn't up to the standards of plus-x when it was new.

THat said, for you to have only 10% of the film with a viewable picture with a camera you know to be working suggests a problem with the processing.

Normal experience with "Quarzchrome" is that about 60-75% is very watchable with acceptable contrast and grain...with the beginning and end of the roll fogged. Some rolls are about 40% fogged, others seem perfect.

Post by **sunrise** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:20 pm

The little I shot Quarzchrome was allways perfect. A little flicker and not so contrasty, but far sharper than Tri-x under same conditions.

I must post some examples, It's more than a year ago Andreas transfered these. When I get the time.

General advise is that you should be prepared for varied results, and therefore not shoot somehing important and be ready to experiment.

michael

YouTube · Post by **Andreas Wideroe** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:46 pm

To add something here: If you take the films to a telecine studio you can probably do a whole lot to the images in terms of bringing out the information, contrast, black level and much more. I have two Quartzchrome films I have scanned already and they turned out quite nice after I did some work with them.

Here's an old Workprinter version (not did anything to this image - it's straight from the camera/WP):

http://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/gal ... aaa?full=1

Post by **danpuddick** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:05 pm

I shot some back around when the first time lapse day was... had it developed and sent it super8reversal lab in the netherlands. I've projected. I mean it is grey and white rather than black and white but I wouldn't day it is useless. I can see almost everything I shot, just a bit to muddy for things like catching clouds against a brights sky. I quite like it in fact. You just have to accept it for what it is and use it for experiments and not something vital.

I can;t decide whether to get the 10 carts of Quartzchrome for Ã‚Â£40 or to just go with k40 for a trip to NYC. I mean when I finally get all these reels I have TC'd I could shift the kodachrome to B+W anyway... don;t know what sort of results that would give me...

New york city is just crying out to be in BW imo

Post by **unxetas** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:15 pm

use Fomapan

get the 100ft carts of DS8 from wherever, slit it into 4 reloadable kaccemas and voilÃƒÂ¡!

fomapan is beautiful..

Post by aj » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:03 pm

I develop SVEMA refills (the same film) using the FOMAPAN reversal kit and they look as good as any BW footage.

The trouble with refilling is that when you are travelling or such you need as many Kaccemas as you plan to shoot cartrdiges. Beside the skill.

Or use a change bag to swap the films.

Post by **munnin** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:44 pm

hmmm... I shot some colour Svemas and developed them; most of them were actually great, although grainy (but that is considered great by me). True I shot two f.stops lower and gave some extra time in the developing, nonetheless they were ok.

Post by DC » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:02 pm

Hi everyone,

My footage just seems to be overly white and indistinct, which would suggest over exposure, but I deliberately under exposed by up to a stop most of the time, as I had heard it was better for this stock (being very outdated).

I'm just not sure its worth paying out to have it transfered. One of the films is almost completely invisible in terms of what you can (or can't) see.

I'm not gonna shoot it again though. I'll stick to K40, and maybe some plus/tri-X.

I guess it just seems like an expensive experiment gone bad to me.

Thanks anyway guys.

Post by **matt5791** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:17 pm

Angus wrote:Normal experience with "Quarzchrome" is that about 60-75% is very watchable with acceptable contrast and grain...with the beginning and end of the roll fogged.

I shot a roll once and this was my observations too.

The general "look" I have always compared as being similar to World War 1 news reel

Matt

Post by **timdrage** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:33 pm

Shame it didn't come out well. I've shot quite a bit in the past and it looked nice. Very old looking and quite gray but exposed fine + not noticably fogged or anything like that.

I've got 2 rolls being processed at the moment actually, I'll let you all know how they come out.

Post by **danpuddick** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:46 pm

unxetas wrote:use Fomapan get the 100ft carts of DS8 from wherever, slit it into 4 reloadable kaccemas and voilÃƒÂ¡!

fomapan is beautiful..

I planned to do this. I got as far as getting a roll or DS8 fomapan, but I wimped out since I was overseas with no real tools and just swapped it fo a roll of agfachrome. But I would like to try again in the future. I had some ideas to make a little mechnical splitter that would wind onto the reels in a box as I don;t trust my own hands to do this kind of thing in the dark.

Is it easy enough just to use one of those splitters you see on ebay sometimes?

Post by **Angus** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 2:24 pm

I don't know how many carts of "Quarzchrome" people here have generally shot but I've done about 10 rolls and they do vary.

However I repeat my suggestion that if 90% is beyond recognition then either catastrophic over-exposure has happened or the processing is at fault.

Our friend seems to know his way around his camera and even states he under-exposed...so I am leaning towards believing there was a problem with the processing.

I once had a roll of tri-x come out 90% fogged to clear when Andec had a hiccough in their process. Not to worry, it wasn't important footage and Andec refunded all my costs....but it can happen even with a professional lab.

Post by **unxetas** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 1:08 am

danpuddick wrote:
I planned to do this. I got as far as getting a roll or DS8 fomapan, but I wimped out since I was overseas with no real tools and just swapped it fo a roll of agfachrome. But I would like to try again in the future. I had some ideas to make a little mechnical splitter that would wind onto the reels in a box as I don;t trust my own hands to do this kind of thing in the dark.

Is it easy enough just to use one of those splitters you see on ebay sometimes?

yes, it's pretty easy.. I have a lomo splitter, which came with an old lomo regular8 processing tank.you just put the tip of the film through the splitter, and it cuts through it like butter.. ;)

I've heard there are other types of splitters, including one which has an adjustable blade.. you'd have to be very careful when "calibrating" that thing, otherwise you might end up with slightly wider film and jamming the camera..

AJ, would you say the svema refills processed with fomapan chemicals look pretty much the same as fomapan R100? Where do you get the refills anyway?

As for travelling, as long as I have access to a bathroom at night time, I can easily and quickly refill my kaccemas.. + I have 7 of them, which is way more than what I shoot on my typical vacation ;) I don't even shoot that much on my minidv.. Poor man's habit..

Post by aj » Sat Oct 30, 2004 3:34 pm

unxetas wrote:AJ, would you say the svema refills processed with fomapan chemicals look pretty much the same as fomapan R100? Where do you get the refills anyway?

I get these SVEMA refills when I visit a filmfriend who bought some 300pcs at something very low after the wall (berlin) came down. Everytime I am there I he gives me a small stack. Until the last time he never realized that these were refills instead of ready to use Svema S8 cartridges. I borrowed him one of my Kaccema and will process his film.

I would have to do a compare projection to assess the precise qualities. It is good enough to use them at will and it is cheap.

Weren't you using Kodak Tmax reversal chemistry? I noticed these cost Euro 49 at Brenner (DE) for some 910ml. That is expensive.