Kyle Mikolajczyk Posted January 21 Posted January 21 Hello all, I was curious to learn about the manufacturers and models of Cinema Film processors, more specifically 65mm and 70mm. I know very few labs still process these formats, that being at least Fotokem and Kodak London, but I figure there were more at one point (such as either Deluxe or Technicolor), and wanted to know more details about who actually made this equipment and the models that existed. Were they just standard 35mm processors with different rollers? There seems to be very little info on the internet about them, thanks in advance.
Premium Member Tyler Purcell Posted January 22 Premium Member Posted January 22 16/35 is pretty common place, but yes 65mm and 70mm was absolutely a specialized product because most processors had inputs and outputs that had fixed maximum widths. Photomec and Calder both made wide gauge linear processors. I'm fairly certain Fotokem still uses a Photomec setup for 65mm ECN-2 processing. Unfortunately they are pretty custom machines, so there isn't a direct part number that I know of.
Site Sponsor Robert Houllahan Posted January 22 Site Sponsor Posted January 22 The PhotoMec machines can be currently ordered with 35mm or 70mm rollers but a 70mm fitted processor will either have to be built larger to run at the same speed in Ft/min as a 35mm one or it will run at half the speed for the same tank volume as a 35mm roller equipped machine.
Steve Switaj Posted January 23 Posted January 23 Robert: Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not a lab guy and I can't imagine how this works. The film processors I've seen pictures of look like a long system of rollers that move a continuous strip of film (or placeholder leader) through a series of tanks. I can see how you might have interchangeable rollers for the various film widths, but I can't envision how this changes the processing speed, which I had imagined was all built around time-in-the-soup which was determined by the speed of the film.. I don't see the correlation between strip width and processing speed. To me it feels like a wider strip would move just as fast as a narrower strip to keep the timing the same, although I can see with twice the surface area how you might have to replenish the chemicals on a stepped-up schedule. Does the film take fewer loops through the tanks but run at half speed or something like that, to keep the surface are per minute the same?
Premium Member Tyler Purcell Posted January 23 Premium Member Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Steve Switaj said: I can see how you might have interchangeable rollers for the various film widths, but I can't envision how this changes the processing speed, which I had imagined was all built around time-in-the-soup which was determined by the speed of the film.. You can't fit as much film in each bath if the film is wider. Each tank has the appropriate size for the length of time required for each step @ X amount of feet per minute. So if you increase the width, you decrease the amount of film in each bath, hence the speed has to change.
Ludwig Hagelstein Posted January 23 Posted January 23 2 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said: You can't fit as much film in each bath if the film is wider. Each tank has the appropriate size for the length of time required for each step @ X amount of feet per minute. So if you increase the width, you decrease the amount of film in each bath, hence the speed has to change. Tyler this is not correct. 65mm processors run with 65mm wide tracks/rollers. The machines are designed for a speed of around 75ft to 120ft per Minute and dimensioned for wide gauge. However, you can also run Super8, 16mm and 35mm on 65mm machine. The narrower film runs at the exact same speed. No rollers are changed etc. Same with a 35mm machine that runs 16 or 8. Speed is a function of how many racks / loops per tank and that is determined by machine design. On your average 65mm machine a color developer tank has about 850L developer in it. Regardless if it runs 16mm or 65mm. Just the replenisher rates change. 3
Site Sponsor Robert Houllahan Posted January 25 Site Sponsor Posted January 25 On 1/22/2026 at 11:42 PM, Steve Switaj said: Robert: Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not a lab guy and I can't imagine how this works. The film processors I've seen pictures of look like a long system of rollers that move a continuous strip of film (or placeholder leader) through a series of tanks. I can see how you might have interchangeable rollers for the various film widths, but I can't envision how this changes the processing speed, which I had imagined was all built around time-in-the-soup which was determined by the speed of the film.. I don't see the correlation between strip width and processing speed. My PhotoMec ECN2 processor was setup as a 100ft/min machine and that is to keep the film in the developer tank for 3min at 100ft per minute with the number of rollers in the tanks. If I ordered the 70mm rollers for this machine it would have half the amount of film in the tank as the 35mm roller setup. If I ran it at 100ft/min the film would only be in the developer for 1.5min instead of 3min so I would have to run it at 50ft/min for the same 3min in the developer tank. I reduced the speed of my Photomec to about 70ft/min by bypassing a number of rollers in the tanks as 100ft/min is not needed by us at this time. Most new processors are designed around 50-75ft/min not the faster machines of the past which would do anywhere from 100ft/min to 300ft/min.
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