Richard Ian

That is one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and I saw it when I was 7, and I still find it one of the funniest films I have ever seen! :D

"irregular performance adds a bit of chance to the results — which, for a certain kind of person, one who's deliberately rejecting the clean digital image, is almost the point of shooting film." I could add to that but not improve upon it. I spent years trying to figure out how to make vhs interesting, I couldn't - digital is even worse, only photographic emulsion is subtle enough to be a creative photo medium in its own right. But toy cameras are toy cameras - my cine cameras (some of them) have lenses to die for and I need film for them, bottom line. Kodak should solve its motion picture film crisis by creating its own Mission Impossible Project as a separate entity but staffed with old (and some new) Kodak hands plus enthusiast-entrepreneurs. That way if the mini project still goes belly up - which I doubt, every other person you meet around the world is screaming for Kodak film, Paul Simon even wrote a song about it - it will have less impact on the 'New Kodak' and its Chapter 11 business plan. Thanks for those excellent links :) Ric

Why is it so difficult to speak to Kodak, why is this company shrouded in mystery please? Thanks, Ric

Thanks Jean-Louis, I guess I am getting quite good at spotting this awful stuff - but I wish I hadn't :-( That would have been the lens of my dreams. It has other issues too - the reflex viewer is 30% opaque, impossible to see what is causing this, more fungus? Grime? I don't know. I'm begining to think this lens is a lemon since it was sold as being in good condition. To clean up this baby would probably cost some and , as you say, the optics would be affected by the cleaning. Ric

Hi, I have a lens with some suspicious marks on the probably inner & rear optic/s http://i1295.photobu...zpse42ce5d3.jpg Any comments please? Thanks, Ric

It is a crazy world: boy, if I had a product like 100D that folks were knocking themselves out for, would I discontinue it? No sirreeee!!! It is a mad, mad, mad world all right! http://youtu.be/lZ9N7oCKC1E

DV I use. Computers I use & like, when they don't crash (all the time). Holography I find interesting. There was a burst of activity several decades ago then nothing - nothing that I am aware of that is. But photographic emulsion is still the thing for me, it is subtle, it is unpredictable, it is ART :)

Thanks Richard, If what you say is true though, and I am sure it is - then Kodak have no intrinsic reason not to offer a limited amount of colour reversal film to loyal, dedicated Kodak film users once a year - one batch per year - they know it would sell like hot cakes so what's the problem? There were still pro film projects being shot on 16mm Ektachrome on the very eve of its discontinuance. Their decision is ridiculous, I think this is a concscious move to kill off film in favour of digital video. “Definitely, celluloid still offers subtleties that digital can't" ~ which is & always has been my argument in favour of photographic emulsion, both still and moving varieties. I think that the movie industry going entirely digital is the dumbing down of film - another milestone in the dumbing down of culture - no more no less. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cut-celluloids-last-hurrah-8320390.html Video is not film and neither is digital video. Film is an actual material entity. There's a grey area where film is telecined into video, but straight video is not film - by definition. Ric

Gosh, have we no fly on the wall at Kodak - yes - what is going on at Eastman Rochester? I have nightmare visions of Ektachrome technology being skipped in bulk to make way for state-of-the-art VDU monitors which will be sota for about 9 months until the next new thing is unveiled, and so forth. Cannot believe there are no small concerns out there interested in bidding on Kodak's Ektachrome program - could a consortium not be convened, look at all the labs in the USA, would it not be in their interest to keep reversal top side up: they'd be in Ektachrome Heaven, overseeing production and developing film at the same time - what a golden opportunity! The worst scenario is that Kodak execs have gone dog-in-the-manger, they couldn't balance Ektachrome on their books so they are going to sink the entire operation in the west, or perhaps they are just completely indifferent? Corporate indifference may have killed Ektachrome as surely as anything else? Ric

Well, as long as Foma don't go belly up, there's life in b/w reversal yet. Who else makes 8 or 16mm b/w reversal please? Thanks, Ric

Please also post here http://forum.filmshooting.com/ which will reach a lot of like-minded good people. You seem to have a good handle on the situation. Still can't quite believe what Kodak have done with 100D - it seems like nothing short of sacriledge to me. Surely Kodak aren't going to skip all the Ektachrome technology, they just have to pass it on? Similar to Fuji Velvia being packaged by Cinevia maybe? Ric

This is very sad & also ironic - the music business rediscovered Super8 & a lot of bands opted for Super8 telecine videos to promote their music - looks like that may also go to the wall then? I find it hard to believe that Kodak have axed reversal colour film & yet will guarantee negative film into the future. I certainly can't afford telecine anyway & am basically indifferent to anything that separates filmmaker from raw film. Fingers crossed for Tri-X though. Ric

Thanks David, Oh well - it was only 15 feet - should be fun however it comes out :) Ric

I think we need some clued-in dudes to take over where Ektachrome left off - someone - anyone! please!!

Thanks guys. I got very confused - am in the middle of trialling Regular 8 & 16mm. Big mistake. I set the K-3 to 25fps which is correct for my 16mm B&H TQIII, runs at 25fps (capture cam runs at 1/50th). Then I had a brain storm and re-set the K-3 to 16&3/4fps - which is the speed I use for Regular 8: so gosh knows what the result will be :-o anyway, the aperture was between F22-F16 all the time so I couldn't have pushed it beyond that anyway. When you say pulling a stop you mean let it cook less in the developer? Thanks, Ric

Thanks David, so i cooked my film :wacko: that's how we learn. At least the meter is behaving itself, it's a goodun. What would I do to compensate for the over-exposure on development please? Best regards, Ric

Update. Today I filmed landscape with the K-3, nice and bright conditions. Accordingly I had to close the aperture right down. Using the rubber eye cup helped a lot - I imagine using an eye-patch for the other eye would also help. I noticed also the edge of the (?) mirror image was about 1/3 clearer / brighter than the rest of the image so if I start getting consistently good results from the K-3 it's going up to Sendean (London) for a clean up ;)

Hi, Just finished off a reel of Tri-X in my K-3. The light meter is gone but I use a Gossen 6 hand-held light meter. Quite a bright day, winter sunshine peeping round the clouds. I was amazed to to see the Gossen going up into the F22 for a 24fps speed @ asa100. Admittedly this was landscape photography with a broad uninterrupted skyline - lots of sky - lots of light. Should I pack a red filter with me for next time, or a ND? Thanks, Ric

Panavision UK know nothing about the discontinuance of Ektachrome, nor Silverprint (London). They are great firms, it's not their fault, Kodak have simply neglected to tell their professional outlets that 100D is no more. What a joke. Just who is running Kodak these days, Homer Simpson? Well at least there is still Tri-X reversal monochrome, that will give me some breathing space while I recover from the shock of the loss of Ektachrome. Several times now I have noticed comments from dv shooters complaining that they are bored with the uneventful nature of dv footage - bland would be another word - take a look at all those sad dv plug-in effect simulation filters for cine film, I haven't seen one yet to demonstrate that the people manufacturing this stuff have looked at a real cine film for longer than five seconds, if that. Yes, starting out on fully manual equipment is the way to go, that way you come away from the experience actually learning something. Ric

Thanks Dom, I will leave it then - taken me months but she's running as sweet as a nut now - very unforgiving on the load, but I worked out a way. In the new year I will be evaluating test footage but the frames look a-ok ;) Ric

Hi Simon, I'm in south London, Clapham. There is also Sendean but they are expensive. The K-3's all locked up now with 15 feet of Tri-X inside, I am saving this for that doldrum moment over the coming holiday. The rest if the Tri-X went on lens tests for the Krasnogorsk and my H16, I have had a lot of bad luck with lenses, I am hoping these latest tests will be - at length - an all clear for my two 16mm cameras. The K-3 I find a challenge to load, but once loaded correctly it runs like a dream :) Bests, Ric

What hope is there please that small firms might start producing reversal film? There is obviously a market for this film type. What are the technical hurdles against such a venture I wonder? Ric

Thanks, I just used isopropyl alcohol + distilled water to clean my Bolex P1 lens which was full of crap, invisible until you shone a torch across it. Thank cripes it wasn't lens fungus inside the optic though! The trouble is with the K3 I don't know what I'm doing, I can see the shiny circular mirror in the body of the camera, but is this what I need to clean? What about the ground glass? What I see through the viewer does look like a tarnished mirror however. I'd use damp cotton buds to gently clean the mirror if I decided to go for that. If it's too tricky I'll leave it - no point in wrecking a fine camera just to keep it squeaky clean through the viewfinder. Bests, Ric

I'm in freefall - just discovered Standard 8 & !wow! no more Ektachrome. Still pinching myself to wake up. I'm an experimental filmmaker so teleciné doesn't do it for me, I need the smell & feel of celluloid acetate. At least black & white is holding up, we also (sometimes) get Foma reversal coming into the UK from the Czech Republic, so my filmmaking can continue. Cripes, it's like we're going backwards in time, to the era of the black & white silent silver screen! Yes, Kodak, please GIVE your Ektachrome business away to someone who will run it, PLEASE. Don't let 70 years of ciné development slip into oblivion: at least give someone out there the chance to run profitably what was obviously a loss maker to you. Running Ektachrome on a small scale only makes sense. Who am I talking to though - does Kodak actually listen to anybody? :-o Let's hope there is still a place for reversal film in the world after the photo-emulsion has settled. Ric

Hi, Here we are in the twilight of motion picture reversal stocks. Be that as it may be, I have spent the best part of a year learning how to load my K-3, I finally got it, and today no film jams - smooth running on Tri-X all the way ;) I have a new lens as well, the last one was full of lens fungus :-o The mirror through the viewfinder is dreadfully tarnished. It doesn't really bother me that much, but can I clean it? Shame to have a grubby mirror if it can be cleaned up a little. Am in the UK btw so anything I do will have to be DIY, I don't think there are any K-3 boffins over here. Many bests, Ric