ORWO Negative/Reversal 100' Spools

Bill DiPietra · December 17, 2013

I ordered a few rolls of 16mm (UN54) and ORWO says this film can be processed as either negative or reversal. I was wondering if anyone has had this film processed as negative and, if so, what kind of results they yielded.

Thanks.

Stefan Arend · December 17, 2013

Hi,

Orwo UN54 is very good when it is processed as negative stock. That´s the way I use it.

Bill DiPietra · December 17, 2013

Great! Thanks a lot. Looking forward to testing it.

John Jaquish · December 18, 2013

Hi Bill -- all the daylight exterior scenes were shot on ORWO UN54 (35mm) in this short: https://vimeo.com/69522462 (and processed as a negative, by the way). I've also started to use it for still film with good results.

Bill DiPietra · December 18, 2013

Thanks, John. Very nice images, by the way.

Simon Wyss · December 18, 2013

You can reverse-process almost every black-and-white film, exception are the so-called direct reversal stocks like Eastman 7361 (discontinued). Downright reversal films must be reverse-processed or you won’t see a thing due to the black subbing they have.

Only to repeat what comes up here and then time and again, negative stocks like Orwo UN 54 have a grey base that acts as anti-halo protection. The lightest parts of reversal positive images therefore are hidden behind the grey veil. In other words: white clouds, for example, aren’t white but grey.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Simon Wyss

Larry S Moses · July 9, 2016

I am selling custom loaded super 8 cartridges loaded with ORWO UN54 & Fomapan R100.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORWO-UN54-Super-8mm-Film-Cartridge-/272301972678?hash=item3f66765cc6:g:EvkAAOSwkl5XfSBl

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fomapan-R100-Super-8mm-Film-Cartridge-/272301338375?hash=item3f666caf07:g:u8kAAOSwvg9XfROu

Larry Wilson · August 27, 2016

Can this stock be processed at someplace like, say, Spectra Film and Video in North Hollywood? I'd like to use some of the stocks not offered in the US, but I don't know how compatible they are with the Kodak chemistry...

John Hyde · September 24, 2016

Spectra does a great job on Foma and ORWO. Regular Kodak Tri-X looks amazing and very clean. They have their own chemical formulation which combines a bit of new and old ideas for excellent results on all fronts.

Robert Houllahan · September 24, 2016

The nice thing about Orwo is that it runs in either the Reversal or B&W negative baths just like Kodak where Foma has a softer emulsion and needs a change of settings on the film processor to keep the emulsion on the base.

B&W reversal problems are almost always to do with the bleach and we run a mix of Kodak and Clayton chemistry similarly to what Spectra does, we helped them out with their bleach at one point.

Bill DiPietra · September 24, 2016

Anyone have any recent results of Orwo 16mm that they can share?...

Jeffrey Grant · December 16, 2016

Thank you for this post. I have often wondered about the results of Orwo UN54 processed as a negative. Spectra recently processed 2 loads of Orwo UN54 as positive and I was very pleased with the results. I have seen too many examples of poor processing from other vendors and will stick with these guys. Just a question on what might be the advantage of telecine process on the negative versus the reversal?

Aapo Lettinen · December 19, 2016

I always process ORWO as negative, have not even tried reversal processing with it because all my films go to telecine/scanning and negative is so much easier to work with.

One of the benefits of lower contrast negative is that technical grade transfer is much faster to do and therefore cheaper. the film is also more compatible with low end + mid range systems which have difficulties of capturing the full dynamic range of the reversal.

if you are working with, for example, a Spirit, it may save lots of time in transfer to use negative instead of reversal. you also have more options to manipulate the grain texture and contrast with special processing + varying developers if you are using negative, the reversal process is more restrictive in this regard