Bringing Foma 200 to 16mm film

Kamran Pakseresht · November 22, 2023

I wanted to gauge interest in bringing a new film stock to the 16mm format.

For context, a few years ago when traveling through Europe I fell in love with Foma 200 35mm and 120 film - this specific film is a bit special. It has t-grain and hexagonal grain structure, giving it great resolving power but also good sharpness and a pleasant grain structure. Many people don't realize that Foma 200 is this sleeper stock that's incredibly flexible. I think it could be a great alternative to Kodak Double-X.

So I got to thinking and eventually talking directly with Foma - and it seems they are willing to actually cut Foma 200 into 16mm format for me - given that I purchase a certain amount of it. So I am here to gauge interest. I would be purchasing 250 100ft rolls (on daylight reels) and 75 ~400ft rolls on simple cores. I have started a company and will open an online store to sell 100ft rolls at $50 and 400ft rolls at ~$175 - but only if it seems like I can garner enough interest.

My main goal is to basically bring more stocks to the format - if this were to work out well, Foma actually just released a brand new Ortho 400 stock earlier this year that I would love to discuss bringing to 16mm as well.

Please let me know if you'd be at all interested in trying out this new stock.

I've attached a couple stills examples of Foma 200 - obviously these are larger format than 16mm film so the grain size would be larger on the actual 16mm cut of this film, but keep in mind that the resolving power of Foma 200 is actually higher than that of Kodak Double-X.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Kamran Pakseresht

Samuel Preston · November 22, 2023

Totally interested and always happy to support more b&w stocks for motion picture.

Im located in Europe though so shipping it from Europe to the us back to europe seems a little inefficient

steven jackson · November 23, 2023

13 hours ago, Samuel Preston said:

Totally interested and always happy to support more b&w stocks for motion picture.

Im located in Europe though so shipping it from Europe to the us back to europe seems a little inefficient

Also in Europe, maybe it's possible to piggy back on to this order have it shipped direct to us in Europe.

Kamran Pakseresht · November 23, 2023

Yes - I will plan to put aside a portion of the order for sales originating from of Europe so we don't have to add all that extra shipping, still figuring out logistics but I think we can make that work.

Chris Burke · December 11, 2023

I would buy some on 400 foot cores. As long as it is single perf.

Sebastian Bock · January 18

Hi, Kamran!

In general, I also would appreciate to see more film stocks. I just wonder, if it is that easy, to just take a film that's made for still photography, cut it into 16mm strips and punch in the proper perforation.

Does the Foma 200 provide the specific requirements for a motion picture film stock? Regarding thickness, flexibility, back coating, scratch resistance, etc.

It would be sad if you and your backers invest a lot of money in this special order and it turns out to be not strong enough to run at high speeds trough a film camera - or if it is too stiff to run smoothly - or if it is full of scratches - or if the emulsion is not evenly enough and flickers in motion picture, etc.

These are a lot of ??? Did you do any research, if the Foma 200 is usable?

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your initiative and don't want to talk you out of it - I just want to make you aware of these questions...

Good luck,

Sebastian

Samuel Preston · January 23

Foma 200 for photo is on a different base, thats why they wont and you shouldn't just cut their photo films into smaller strips and reperforate. I asked them.

Kamran Pakseresht · January 23

Hey Sebastian, I have talked with Foma pretty extensively about this. So the base material is triacetate (which is what you want for motion picture film to allow it to break if it jams) - the thickness is the same as their existing Foma R 100 reversal 16mm stock. The differences are that there would be no anti-halo layer if they were to finish foma 200 as 16mm and the color of the base is gray-blue (same as their stills negative film).

They are working with another client to bring foma 100 to 16mm and if that pans out they will send me some test stock for me to test, but I basically gotta make a leap of faith if I’m gonna try and get foma 200 made on 16mm. I am still considering this, and still talking with foma.

David Sekanina · January 23

If you want to build up a small business, great, but I think Foma should do a Kickstarter and see if they can get minimum order in. No need for you to take all the financial risk. That way Foma could gauge the demand, and decide to offer their stocks in 16mm on a regular basis. Basically what Lomography does with their funky film stocks.