Semi-DIY printing from Vision2

[Erdwolf_TVL]

I would shoot a lot more Colour Neg for 16mm if I can justify the cost of printing it for projection. Now, I have access to a dry optical printer through the No-where LAB in London. They have only used machine for black and white work to date, though.

 

My question is this. Is a special and / or adjusted optical printer required to make a positive print from negative? If the magenta bias eliminated by the print film or the printing light?

 

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I see the following print / internegative films available on Kodak's website.

 

2382 / 3389 / 3395

 

7242 / 3242 / 7272

 

Are these available in 16mm and which of these are most suitable for printing on a budget?

[Clive Tobin]

...I would shoot a lot more Colour Neg for 16mm if I can justify the cost of printing it for projection. ...?

 

The only print stock that makes any sense is 3383 color positive. This is a standard item from Kodak and is sold in 2000 and 3000 foot rolls, 6 rolls per box. You might ask your local lab if they will sell/give you some short ends of 3383 to play with. There is no point in mentioning any of the others on your list, or they will peg you as an ignorant time waster (no offense meant). It is mostly used in single perf these days and comes in A Wind which is correct for making a normal contact print.

 

The only printing method that makes any sense is continuous contact printing, as done on the lab's normal printers. Optical printing is slow, and accentuates the grain and tiny scratches in the negative. In contact printing, the negative and print stocks are held in close contact, emulsion to emulsion, around a hollow 40 tooth printing sprocket that has light coming from the inside. The intensity and color balance are adjustable to allow for differences in negatives and between batches of print stock. The light is approximately of tungsten balance, and the sensitivity of the print film is such that no very heavy filtering is needed to offset the orange color mask of the negative. On real printers the film is pulled through at 180 to 960 feet per minute. In labs the film is ultrasonically liquid cleaned before printing, otherwise you will tend to have a "snowstorm" of white specks in the print. The printer and film handling needs to be in a "clean room" environment to keep the white specks away.

 

The lab should accept your exposed stock for processing. You should ask them which way it needs to be wound on the core, whether the core should be 3" or 4", and whether it can be taped to the core or not, so as to not upset their normal darkroom routine. You may get a lower processing price if the film is oriented the same way as if it came straight off one of their normal printers. You may well find that after you buy the stock and processing, that you will not be saving any money at all compared to just having them make a workprint which would include their leadering up the negative, cleaning it, buying the print stock and maintaining quality control on each different emulsion batch, and developing the print.

 

Cheers, (lab denizen for 20+ years)

Edited February 19, 2006 by clivetobin

[Erdwolf_TVL]

Thanks for that!

[John Pytlak RIP]

I would shoot a lot more Colour Neg for 16mm if I can justify the cost of printing it for projection. Now, I have access to a dry optical printer through the No-where LAB in London. They have only used machine for black and white work to date, though.

 

My question is this. Is a special and / or adjusted optical printer required to make a positive print from negative? If the magenta bias eliminated by the print film or the printing light?

 

---

 

I see the following print / internegative films available on Kodak's website.

 

2382 / 3389 / 3395

 

7242 / 3242 / 7272

 

Are these available in 16mm and which of these are most suitable for printing on a budget?

 

A direct print would be made on a film like KODAK VISION Color Print Film 3383:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...1.4.8.4.7&lc=en

 

If the printer has only been used for B&W printing, it may not be an additive printer, that allows separate control of the red, green and blue light to allow scene-to-scene color correction. A "subtractive" light source can be filtered with colored filters to produce an acceptable overall color balance on the print, but scene-to-scene correction is more difficult, since it requires changing the filtration for each scene.

 

When you print, the orange-colored "mask" on the negative is compensated for in the printer setup. The "colored coupler masking" allows the film to have better color reproduction by creating an internal color correcting mask to compensate for unwanted dye absorptions.