developing ULTRA16

Daniel Carruthers · April 16, 2009

does the developing method have an effect on ultra16mm?

I think I read somewhere that you dont want your film developed by a lab that has a sprocket driven machine?

Because it can cause damage between the perforations

I live in B.C canada and if anyone knows of any good labs that can develop Ultra16mm with no problems can you please give me there contact info

I also recently shot a Ultra16mm test,and got it developed at deluxe lab in vancouver,and there was no problems,but they seem very weary of supporting the format,so I would really like to try out a different lab

Will Montgomery · April 19, 2009

Alpha Cine in Seattle will do a great job for you... and they're close. There's been discussion in the past about Alpha handling Ultra-16 just fine.

Simon Wyss · April 19, 2009

Black and white exclusively at one of three commercial swiss labs

http://www.filmkunst.ch

Will Montgomery · April 20, 2009

Black and white exclusively at one of three commercial swiss labs

I'm sure it's a very good lab... but it's on the opposite side of the planet from Vancouver. With Vancouver becoming such a production hub I'd bet there are some great labs right in that city.

David Auner aac · April 20, 2009

Black and white exclusively at one of three commercial swiss labs

http://www.filmkunst.ch

Quite a shameless plug there, Simon! :D

But why are you closed until further notice? Or is that info out of date?

Cheers, Dave

Simon Wyss · April 20, 2009

Quite a shameless plug there, Simon! :D
But why are you closed until further notice? Or is that info out of date?

Cheers, Dave

I ought to feel ashamed, you're right, David. We've lost our ground. The market is almost empty, void of value. No more black-and-white production. We drove the last negatives back to the producer last september. He himself run out of money. But worst: the archival world is not interested in any further development of the chemical film and mechanics. That has put me out of business. Half-finished apparatus, running projects, all wrapped up, one processing machine went into the shredder.

K Borowski · April 20, 2009

I ought to feel ashamed, you're right, David. We've lost our ground. The market is almost empty, void of value. No more black-and-white production. We drove the last negatives back to the producer last september. He himself run out of money. But worst: the archival world is not interested in any further development of the chemical film and mechanics. That has put me out of business. Half-finished apparatus, running projects, all wrapped up, one processing machine went into the shredder.

In my opinion, the lack of a modern high-speed B&W stock is what drives those few films that do finish as B&W these days to shoot on color stock and just desaturate digitally or by printing onto B&W print stock.

Adam Garner · April 20, 2009

does the developing method have an effect on ultra16mm?
I think I read somewhere that you dont want your film developed by a lab that has a sprocket driven machine?

Because it can cause damage between the perforations

I live in B.C canada and if anyone knows of any good labs that can develop Ultra16mm with no problems can you please give me there contact info

I also recently shot a Ultra16mm test,and got it developed at deluxe lab in vancouver,and there was no problems,but they seem very weary of supporting the format,so I would really like to try out a different lab

I think I read that Bonolabs does U16 developing as well. They're in NJ or something I think. Never used them. I'd go with Alphacine for sure. Great results there.

David Auner aac · April 20, 2009

I ought to feel ashamed, you're right, David.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that Simon. I was just kidding you. Sorry for that. I wouldn't have done it had I known your situation was that dire. A pity to hear that. A friend and I are quite big fans of shooting 16mm in B&W and have been thinking of getting our own machine as labs don't really do nice B&W any more around here.

What kind of material were you selling?

Regards, Dave

PS: Sorry again! I hope I haven't hurt your feelings.

Robert Houllahan · April 23, 2009

Ultra-16 and Super-16 are basically similar when it comes to Lab handling procedures. With U-16 you do need to run it on a demand drive film processor as opposed to a sprocket drive processor. If you then bench handle it as Super-16 you will not scratch the inner perf area. Film cleaners and Telecine rollers need to be slightly modified as well so they do not touch the exposed area inside the perfs.

Plug: We at Cinelab have a Demand drive film processor for running 8mm and 16mm ECN as well as a Sprocket drive processor for 16mm/35mm and we can successfully run 16mm film as U-16 in ECN. Also our B&W 16mm Reversal and B&W Negative (16mm and 35mm) processors are demand drive so we can run U-16 in every for but E6.

I am currently modifying one of our 16mm gates and will be able to provide U16 transfers soon including to 1080P.

-Rob-

Simon Wyss · May 18, 2009

Dave, it's all alright. I'm over the hill, anyway, and if you don't understand what I mean by that have an ear into

.

We are planning to come back in 2012 with fresh equipment for absolutely best processing, precision printing, and cheap but robust variable intensity sound tracks like in the good old times.

Adam Garner · May 22, 2009

Tim at Bonolabs just confirmed they're U16 gate in operational for transfer, though they aren't doing lab anymore. I'm going to send a test reel to them.