35mm Motion Picture Film in Still Cameras? Using Exotic Film Emulsions Part 1

As the first part of my shooting exotic film series,  I want to talk about my adventures with shooting 35mm motion picture film. It is gaining a following with film shooters.  I stumbled across this idea several months back and decided to dig a little deeper and find out what the buzz is all about.

Having a wide variety of film types to choose from in the year 2014 has become a let down.  Thinking back 10, even 15 years ago, there was a  multitude of film flavors.  Before digital, photographers had to choose a film type geared toward the subject matter simply because film scanning and editing in photoshop wasn't an option.  There were of course color negative, color slide and B&W negative films of many varieties.  Film was available to accentuate or even create subtle saturation, grain, and contrast.  There were films available for skin tones, wedding dresses, vibrant colors, low light, course grain, high sharpness and vivid colors.

Taking a look at what's available to today, there are amateur films and professional films. The main difference being that amateur film has a longer shelf life, designed to sit on the drug store shelf for months or in a warehouse of unknown temperature with little affect on the color balance.  Professional films are often stored in a refrigerator and peak sooner (expire sooner) and aren't meant to be kept in a warehouse.  The price often reflects this difference.

Kodak made film specifically for skin and portraits for many years.  VPS 160, VPH, Pro 400MC and PMZ 1000 were the predecessors of the new Portra series.  On the amateur side, there was the standard Gold series, Royal Gold, Select Series, Max series, and so on.  The speeds ranged from 100-800 and reflected various color saturation and grain levels.  For B&W shooters there was Panatomic-X (ASA 32), Technical Pan, and of course Plus-X pan, all of which are extinct now.  Fuji offered Reala, Velvia, NPS, NPH 400, and Astia 100 transparency film, just to name a few.

Today, Kodak has a Max 400, Portra 160, 400 and 800. Ektar 100, Ektachrome 100 and Fuji offers Pro 400H, and 400 speed amateur color negative film just to name a few.

Since the variety of film is dwindling, film shooters are looking towards other types of film. Kodak makes a variety of motion picture films, all of which can be used in still cameras. Motion picture film by Kodak falls in the "Vision" series.

Vision film is available in 8mm, 16mm and 35mm.  There has been three versions of the film, starting with version 1, or Vision, then Vision 2 and now at Vision 3.  These are color negative film stocks that are used as originals, shot in the movie camera that will be processed and then later used to create the positive image used to project in movie theaters.  The options are 50D, 200T, 250D, and 500T respectively.

The D refers to daylight balanced, around 5500 kelvin, or standard daylight.  The T is for tungsten, around 3400 kelvin and will provide a natural look in tungsten balanced lighting.  Most of the these film types are available on eBay.  Sometimes they are sold as recans, or film left over from a movie or commercial that didn't get used.  It will have an approximate length left written or taped on the outside of the can.  The film is available brand new in 400 foot and 1000 foot lengths.  Vision 3 is the newest generation that provides outstanding color balance and tonality.

Check out the specs here:  Kodak Vision 3 series.

Kodak offers a B&W motion picture film which is extraordinary.  It is referred to as Eastman 5222 Double-X.  You can get the skinny here.  Double-X

Sometimes you can find folks on eBay that have bought a 400' spool and cut the film into 24 or 36 exposure lengths and spooled it onto standard 35mm cassettes.

I received a 400' reel of Vision 2 500T as a gift this past Christmas. I have spooled a few rolls in the darkroom and shot it, playing with filtration and ASA settings attempting to find a sweet spot.

When shooting a tungsten based film in daylight, a filter is required to correct the color balance as tungsten film is blue/cyan based to offset the yellow/red color of tungsten lamps.   When shooting in daylight or with electronic flash, the T series Vision films require a #85 filter, which is yellow.  No filter is necessary under tungsten lighting.  The film is exposed at ASA 500 in tungsten and ASA 250 in daylight with a #85 filter.

Double-X film is generally exposed at ASA 200 and can be processed at home in standard developers such as D-76.

Vision color film is a different animal and may not be for everyone. Here's the scoop.

Vision caveat #1:  The remjet backing.  The rem-jet is a black carbon type layer on the base side of the film and is used as an antihalation type backing. The black color prevents light from passing through the film and then bouncing back through the base twice, causing halos on the highlights.  This layer must be removed during the processing stage.  There are folks that choose to remove it first, others remove it last.  In a commercially processing lab, the rem-jet is removed first, using a special jets of alkaline water.   I choose to remove it last and I will explain this in detail in the processing section below.

Vision caveat #2:  Vision color negative films are not commerically/professionally processed in C-41 chemicals and cannot be processed in drug store, big box photo labs as long as the rem-jet is still on the film. Color motion picture film is processed commercially as ECN-2 or Eastman Color Negative processing. The main difference is in the developer stage itself.  Kodak provides the formula for the developer and remjet removal chemical formula as a PDF file download from their website.  The developing agent used in C-41 color negative processing is CD-4, while the agent used in ECN-2 is CD-3.  I understand the C-41 developing agent does not react with the color dye couplers in the exact same way as it is intended to in ECN-2 developing.  That withstanding, you can process Vision film in C-41 at home with great results.

If you are interested in mixing your own ECN-2 developer for your darkroom, use the link above to download the formula for the first developer.  The only company I know of online that sells CD-3 is Artcraft Chemicals. You can also buy through their eBay store.   It's about $28 for 100g with 4g used per Liter of developer made, so about 25 liters worth of CD-3 for that price.  Not bad!!

If you want to go the C-41 route, you can purchase the kits from B&H and Freestyle. The kits are powder or liquid and will make 1 or 2 liters. I have been able to process about 30 rolls with a 2 liter kit.

If using the C-41 kit, here is the process:

Water bath:  106 degrees F.  1 min
Developer :  106 degrees F   3 min
Blix              106 degrees F   7 min
wash            106                   2 min
remjet removal:  106 degrees  2 min
final rinse and then photoflo or wetting agent of choice

Remjet Removal for home user:   

Starting with 500ml water add 1 tablespoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or washing soda (sodium carbonate).
I have had success with both.  Soak film for 2 minutes, then remove film from reel and use soft sponge or fingers to remove backing from base side. You will see it on the film and will likely see it some on the plastic or stainless steel reel.

Very Important!  If you shooting Kodak Vision film, do not attempt to take it to a traditional photolab, drug store lab or big box store for processing!  Many photographers will reuse old 35mm Kodak and Fuji film cassettes to bulk load the film. These cassettes have the "process C-41" indication on the cassette. A lab technician will process the film in the C-41 machine as such and it will destroy the chemicals.  Here is the explanation:  Even though the chemicals are the same variety in home processing kits as those found in automated machinery, the home enthusiast will use plastic and stainless steel reels to load the film onto.  The film itself (the edges) only touches the reel. The remjet surface never makes contact with anything but the tinest edge of the reel.  In a C-41 automated machine (not dip and dunk) the film passes through squeegees, rollers and other surfaces that come into contact with the remjet.  The carbon backing will come off in the machine as the film passes from tank to tank and will leave the remjet floating in the tank. This will attach itself to other rolls of film and will gunk up everything.  If you process Vision film with standard C-41 process film at home, you will likely get remjet on the other rolls as well. Process Vision film by itself.  

Here is an example of Vision 3 500T processed in C-41 chemicals.  Scanned and color corrected in photoshop. 

Eastman 5222 Double-X processed in D-76 stock

Kodak Vision 2 500T processed in C-41 Chemicals: ASA 200

Quality Control in the Darkroom & Lab

Quality control or QC as it's often called is the basic set of developing practices and standards set forth to achieve consistent and accurate film and print processing.  I'll start off discussing these standards for color negative and color paper processing as the variables are not designed to be shifted as they would in traditional B&W processes.

There are 4 factors that go into achieve accurate developing of film and paper. Whether or not your are developing your film at home in a tank or you are using/operating a C-41 film developing machine such as those from Fuji or Noritsu, the concepts are the same.

• time
• temperature
• agitation
• concentration (dilution or strength of the chemicals)

As in all processes (C-41, B&W, RA-4 and E-6) the developer itself is the most critical in terms of applying these four principles.

All of the processes include a developer step. B&W has a stop to arrest the development, then a fixer to remove the remaining silver and clear the film.  Color negative (C-41) and color paper (RA-4) have either a separate bleach and fix or a combined Blix step. These two steps convert the silver metal reduced in the developer back to a silver solution that is soluble and removable, leaving only a dye image behind and no silver.

E-6 has a separate color developer where the dyes are formed, a reversal to make the negative image positive, and then a bleach/fix step.

For color negative processing, the developer time is specifically 3:15 or 3:30 depending upon the temperature.  In a tightly controlled process, that temperature is 100 degrees F.  A variance of +/- .25F can affect the color balance of the film. You can use the developer at 102 and 104 degrees F and adjust the time accordingly. I use a kitchen stove and a pot of water to create a warm bath.  Once the chemicals are in the 100 degree range, they are ready to go.  Film processing machines use heaters, similar to aquarium heaters, submerged in the tanks of chemicals. These heaters maintain the perfect temperature throughout the process.

The agitation factor comes in the form of the developing tank being inverted during the developing cycle. This allows fresh developer to come into contact with the emulsion of the film to act on the silver halide to reduce it to silver metal. If there were no agitation and the film were to sit in the developer, the developer itself would exhaust at the location point on the emulsion where it does its magic.  Typically, in a developing tank scenario, you would invert the tank about 3 times every 30 seconds or 10 times every 60 seconds.

In the case of automated machine processing, the agitation comes in two forms.

1: the movement of the film through the chemicals. The film is typically taped to a plastic card. The center of the card is outfitted with gear holes, similar to sprocket holes. The card is inserted into the machine and contained in each tank of chemicals is rack containing gears and rollers. These gears grab the card and pull the film through the tanks and through each chemical step. The movement of the film through the tanks allows fresh chemicals to come into contact with the film.  This movement action coincides with the time factor. The tanks are a certain depth and the racks are a certain depth inside the tank. As the drive motor moves the gears which in turn pull the card with the film attached, the film enters and exists the tank for exactly 3:15. The time in which the film is developed is not adjustable. The motor only operates at one speed.

2:  Circulation.  In order to keep the chemicals from becoming exhausted, a pump is used to move the chemicals from the top of the tank, through a filter and down to the bottom of the tank and back up again.

Finally, concentration is the last factor in quality control.  The dilution of the developer along with each chemical in the processing steps.  Most home developing kits for color are prepackaged as powders. Some are in liquid form. These are then diluted in water to make a final "working" solution ready to use for developing.  In the case of C-41 processing, once the chemicals are mixed, there is no further diluting as is an option in B&W developing. C-41 is a fixed process.  Most photo labs purchase the chemicals for film developing in pre-mixed containers.  Some have on-board mixing, where you add the developers directly to a tank on the machine and then the machine adds water. This eliminates user error in mixing.

As you can see, if any of the above 4 factors are altered, you can get inconsistent results.  Too much or too little agitation, time, too low or too high temperatures and finally, too strong or too weak chemicals will either over or underdevelop the film.

So, how do you keep track of these factors and maintain QC?  For the photographer that processes film at home, the simplest way is to keep very good notes.  If you mix the chemicals properly, you can eliminate concentration as variable.  The time you develop the film is critical.  Keep your timing accurate between steps.  A good thermometer will provide you with the proper temperature.  Finally, following a consistent agitation scheme to keep fresh chemicals in contact with the film.  Take notes on each roll of film you develop that include data for time, temperatures and total rolls developed.  Your agitation and concentration* should not alter.  For the home darkroom user, the time and temperatures will be the biggest factor in getting good results.

In the photo lab industry, there is a much more technical way to keep up with QC.  A small strip of film called a control strip is used.  The control strip is pre-exposed by Kodak or Fuji and contains certain patches of exposure. The control strip is developed and then the developed film containing the patches is read by a machine called a densitometer.  This passes light through the film and onto a light sensitive optical eye. The densitometer then calculates the amount or Red, Green and Blue light that is recorded as the light passes through those individual and different density patches.  These RGB values are converted to a number. This number is then plotted on a graph.  The graph contains upper and lower limits.  After the values are plotted, the operator can look at the lines and determine if the control strip has been developed properly within the designed limits.  The RGB lines in the graph can converge, split, raise or lower depending upon one or more of the above 4 processing factors.  An experienced QC technician can determine which one or more of the 4 factors are contributing to an incorrect processing of the film.  Each one of the patches on the control strip has an identification such as LD, HD, etc that is used to form a corresponding RGB plot line on the graph as seen below.

The home darkroom user would likely not go to the expense and training necessary to purchase control strips from Kodak of Fuji (and they aren't cheap!) along with a densitometer (also, not cheap!) to maintain tight QC.  Simply keeping good notes will help you maintain good developing habits at home.

* now for the caveat.  When developing film at home the developer solution will with time and usage begin to exhaust.  Developers are active solutions that are sensitive to light and oxygen, both will kill a developer over time. In addition, the more a developer is used the more silver it reduces to metal during development. Eventually, after X number of rolls processed, it can no longer reduce silver effectively. As this happens, the quality of the development decreases. In the home darkroom, you will need to alter one of the 4 factors to continue getting acceptable results until the results are no longer desirable.  Usually, you will simply add more time to the development, which is what I do when processing color film at home.  Once I add more than 1 minute additional time, or total about 30 rolls developed per 2-Liter mix, I discard the chemicals.  The photo lab does not have the same issue as the machines automatically add fresh chemicals to the working tanks at certain volume intervals, keeping concentration consistent.

There are several more incidental factors that occur downstream to achieving good QC.  These include the concentration of the bleach and fixer, aeration of the bleach along with the time steps for each of these chemicals and so forth that are too detailed for explanation on this blog and really only apply to photo labs and not the home darkroom user.  But because the developer itself is so critical, I concentrated on this step for basic educational purposes.