Short Ends 40 Cans of Value?

[alex pollini]

For the film nerds and lovers, I have about 40 cans of short ends primarily ranging from 150-300 feet. Various stocks listed below. Recanned between 2010-2012 on commercials.  Stored in an apartment closet.

I have access to Fotochem and plan to snip test about 10 cans to start. I'm sure it's user preference, but where would you start?  What would have value?  My intention is to sell these cans as my clients don't have the budget or desire to shoot on film.  

5201, 5217, 5218, 5219, 5212, 5205

8543, 8592, 8583

I also have a few unlabeled cans. What would you do with those? Any way to determine stock?

Thanks!

 

[Tyler Purcell]

Yea, you can sometimes get close to telling. 

What I do if I have random cans, is to cut 5203, 5207, 5213 and 5219 pieces in the dark. Then I cut a section of the mystery can. I will tape the 4 known good pieces flat. Then I quickly turn the light on and compare the emulsion color. They all have a unique look and even the older vision stocks, look very similar. So you can usually tell right away what it is. Fuji has an entirely different look. You can't run the lights for more than a few seconds tho, the film fades FAST in direct light. So you gotta turn the light on, look very fast, match it and turn the light off. 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Can’t you simply cut off 2x10cm of each mystery film, then process one strip as B&W negative and the other one as ECN2 and then take a look at the edge codes/keycodes of the processed strips?

https://www.kodak.com/content/products-brochures/Film/post-production-35mm-keykode-diagram.pdf

http://www.theodoropoulos.info/attachments/076_fujifilm_motion_picture_film_manual.pdf

Of course you can skip the B&W-reversal test when you are 100% sure that you have never bought Double-X, Kodachrome or other B&W films.

Edited April 7 by Joerg Polzfusz

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Edit: please check Fuji‘s/Kodak’s documentation whether 10cm are sufficient to have the full filmtype and year edge information at least once. (Looks like this information is repeated less often than on 35mm still photography films.)

[Aapo Lettinen]

12 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

compare the emulsion color. They all have a unique look and even the older vision stocks, look very similar. So you can usually tell right away what it is. Fuji has an entirely different look.

yes the emulsion color will differ and different films often have different smell as well, sometimes one can pick up the difference from the smell alone in the darkroom without looking at all

[alex pollini]

Ok thank you for the insight. 

Any thoughts on my initial question?  I realize it's subjective, user dependent, and based on the snip tests, but do you think any specific stock would hold more value or interest to prospective DoP/buyer and what the price per can/foot would be?  More less, trying to determine which stock to snip test first. 

Thanks

 

 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

As they have not been stored in a freezer/fridge, the films might have lost one f-stop (or more - was the attic in an airconditioned room?). This might still be interesting for experimental filmmakers or for people on a budget. But I doubt that you will make a lot of money with these films.

[Aapo Lettinen]

1 hour ago, alex pollini said:

Ok thank you for the insight. 

Any thoughts on my initial question?  I realize it's subjective, user dependent, and based on the snip tests, but do you think any specific stock would hold more value or interest to prospective DoP/buyer and what the price per can/foot would be?  More less, trying to determine which stock to snip test first. 

Thanks

 

 

I think they only have some value if they are tested and otherwise one would likely pay the scratch test film value. Especially the higher speed films don't like 14 years of warm storage at all, they would suffer a lot even in fridge

[Tyler Purcell]

17 hours ago, Aapo Lettinen said:

yes the emulsion color will differ and different films often have different smell as well, sometimes one can pick up the difference from the smell alone in the darkroom without looking at all

Yea smell for sure!

[alex pollini]

Ok thank you for the insight