Has anyone had any experience with UN54?

Gillian Donaldson-Selby · September 15

I'm looking for some 'budget' film and processing to run some camera/lens tests and maybe a few experimental shots. Has anyone had any experience with UN54 - a B&W neg/reversal film? I had some negative feedback from a lab about Fomapan so I was wondering if UN54 might be an alternative to Tri-X. Any suggestions for UK processing would be helpful!

https://www.wittnercinetec.com/epages/WittnerCinetec-Super8-16mm-Film.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WittnerCinetec-Super8-16mm-Film/Products/2148

Mark Wiggins · September 15

I tested the 35mm version of UN54 for ORWO a few years ago. I thought it was a fantastic stock. Unfortunately ORWO never made my UN54 tests public.

Edited September 15 by Mark Wiggins

Sebastian Bock · September 18

Yes, UN54 is a great film stock and a good alternative to Tri-X.

Aapo Lettinen · September 18

I used to shoot UN54 in 16mm when it had better availability and made under original Filmotec. It was great alternative to Double-X actually, a bit "older looking" and the characteristics curve more balanced in shadows making it easier to expose than doubleX.

Have not shot it in almost 10 years and don't know if the manufacturing quality is the same under Wolfen. But it is surely higher quality perforation than Foma so should work fine as low cost stock in any case.

I nowadays shoot lots of Foma. Poor perf quality but cheap and has nice grainy old school look. The fomapan400cine resembles Orwo stocks a tiny bit contrast wise, foma is lower quality but fits arts projects perfectly

Gillian Donaldson-Selby · September 19

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I've ordered a few rolls to try it out.

Dave Beling · September 20

I also shot with 35mm UN54 and will agree, its a good stock.

Dr. Thomas Faehrenkemper · September 22

It is perfect when reversal processed 8min in D19 with 3g KSCN/ l and 50 mg KJ at 68F, 160 ASA.

Gillian Donaldson-Selby · September 22

11 hours ago, Dr. Thomas Faehrenkemper said:

It is perfect when reversal processed 8min in D19 with 3g KSCN/ l and 50 mg KJ at 68F, 160 ASA.

Interesting! I'm not familiar with reversal processing - please could you provide more details or links?

Chris Burke · September 27

The grain and the contrast are lovely, but it could jam in an Aaton LTR 54 and Aaton XTR Plus. The perfs were not the correct spec. This was 15 years ago.

Gautam Valluri · September 27

The 'UN' in the UN54 name means 'Universal Negative' and can be processed as a negative or reversal. My friends were shooting a feature on 16mm version of this stock but had to switch to Double-X midway because the Orwo kept jamming their Eclair ACL.

Here's a comparison test between the two stocks:

Gillian Donaldson-Selby · September 29

Looking at old threads on this site it seems that a) Eclairs and Aatons were most affected, and b) there may have been a batch of out of spec stock released in Europe.

Hopefully this is not a poor generalisation on my part and all is good now.

Mark Wiggins · September 29

5 hours ago, Gillian Donaldson-Selby said:

Looking at old threads on this site it seems that a) Eclairs and Aatons were most affected, and b) there may have been a batch of out of spec stock released in Europe.

Hopefully this is not a poor generalisation on my part and all is good now.

Certainly when I was testing it for ORWO we didn’t have any problems. Admittedly this was 35mm (Panaflex XL2). The stock I tested was test stock. It didn’t have any of the usual labels on it. I did wonder at the time why I was testing a stock that wasn’t new (alongside new stock). Maybe they’d sorted the perf problem and wanted to test it. I don’t know. The rushes looked gorgeous though.