Kodak 320t processing and double perf

Kirk Anderson · September 17, 2006

So, I took a gamble and bought some 16mm stock of craigslist. I bought 14 100' rolls of kodak 320t from a guy who claimed they had been in his freezer for the last couple/under 5 years. I dropped $50 for them and picked them up, when I got there, the rolls were not cold, as if they we stored and he said he had them on counter all morning waiting for me.....So, I took them anyways..

I decide to do a camera test with my new Arri S and set everything up, when I went to load the cam I found out the 320t was DOUBLE PERF!!! oh well im not shooting super 16, it just kinda took me aback....I loaded the cam anyways and shot the roll, no jams, no squeaks, everything went smooth.

Now, I'm going to have the roll processed and am wondering if I can get this stock processed at any regular lab, I was going to swallow my pride and go to monaco in san francisco.

am I going to have any problems with it being old stock? or with the double perf?

Any recomendations on a cheap lab I can get a work print made or maybe an unsupervised telecine?

I live in san francisco, and just wanted something cheap and quick for this camera/stock test...

thanks

kirk

Bryan Darling · September 18, 2006

I've used Monaco extensively for several years. My advice to you is to seek out FotoKem in LA. I have a rate of $.12/foot for negative processing and $.24/ft for workprint. The issue with Monaco is that they run so few amount of film through their machines these days. I'm talking about few hundred to a few thousand feet on any given day. I would be worried about consistency and chemistry issues.

When it comes to lab work, there is no regards for single or double-perf. I too have shot older 7277 and had fine results with a workprint. I found that the stock is definitely good for some situations and not so in others. It is very low-con which can be either a cool thing or not depending on what your trying to achieve look wise. Overexposure and pushing can alter it some as well. In context to when this film was released it was designed to be very low-con, more so than 7279. The current stocks of today have made this a mute point.

Dan Horstman · September 18, 2006

You should take all the unshot film to the lab and have end tests done. This will let you know how much the film has broken down due to age. You will probably want to over expose the film by 1 stop (or more) when you go to shoot it...this will cut down on the grain and burn through the age fog.

Jon Kukla · September 18, 2006

Also just for the record, you can identify the perf type by looking on the can label for a number ending with 2994. If it is one perf, it will be listed as 1R-2994; if two perf, it will be 2R-2994.

Edited September 18, 2006 by Jon Kukla

John Pytlak RIP · September 22, 2006

Any lab offering ECN-2 processing will be able to process the film. For film that old, you may want to have the lab run a clip test of each roll, to look for any age fog or x-ray fogging.