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motion film in a still camera?


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hey guys, just wondering if it's possible to shoot motion film in a still camera... or if there's any companies that format kodak or fuji for still use... orrrr if there's a resource where I could find still film equivalents of motion film, just trying to do lighting tests without spending a lot of money

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hey guys, just wondering if it's possible to shoot motion film in a still camera... or if there's any companies that format kodak or fuji for still use... orrrr if there's a resource where I could find still film equivalents of motion film, just trying to do lighting tests without spending a lot of money

 

Yes it will work, but find a lab who will be prepared to develop the film for you before wasting your time loading it into cartridges and exposing it.

 

Motion picture film is developed in ECN2 chemistry, not the C41 chemistry used for regular stills film. If you search through previous postings on the forum you'll find the subject being discussed a number of times.

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Yes it will work, but find a lab who will be prepared to develop the film for you before wasting your time loading it into cartridges and exposing it.

 

Motion picture film is developed in ECN2 chemistry, not the C41 chemistry used for regular stills film. If you search through previous postings on the forum you'll find the subject being discussed a number of times.

 

ah I see, thanks! is it possible to load motion film into a still camera though? or does it need to be formatted

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ah I see, thanks! is it possible to load motion film into a still camera though? or does it need to be formatted

 

You can use any typical bulk loader with 100' daylight spools. Used to do it all the time before RGB Lab shut down, and I had nowhere to process it any more.

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You can't send it to a stills lab. Neg film has an anti-reflective backing (remjet) which has to be removed before processing. In a C41 line it would ruin the chemicals and probably the machinery as well; I believe it closely resembles tar.

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hey guys, just wondering if it's possible to shoot motion film in a still camera... or if there's any companies that format kodak or fuji for still use... orrrr if there's a resource where I could find still film equivalents of motion film, just trying to do lighting tests without spending a lot of money

 

No problem, loading the film, but finding a place to process it, not so easy. I've got a bunch of 5218 in my bulk loader now, but the lab that processed it, no longer does. I just went to a raw stock reseller and they gave me some free film that was too short to sell.

 

I shot a film in eastern europe last year and the still photographer shot movie film for the interior scenes. Dumbfounded, I asked where he would find to process it in Tbilisi? Answer: His kitchen! He said something about ordering the chemicals on-line from Paris and that he removed the backing with a squeegee:)

 

Of course for your lighting test you would probably want it printed to motion picture print stock, but I think you'll be limited to scanning the negatives nowadays. I guess it will be a good preview for what you can do in a DI.

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There IS a lab in NYC, a regular movie lab, that will run the shorter lengths. They're a bit pricey though, $10 I think per roll.

 

Sorry, I forget off the top of my head which one it is.

 

Then there's Dale in Florida.

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ah I see, thanks! is it possible to load motion film into a still camera though? or does it need to be formatted

My, oh, my. 35-mm motion picture film is formatted, it is the oldest movie film format still in use. The picture image size and aspect ratio will be defined by your camera's aperture which typically is 24 by 36 millimeters (8-perf. film advance).

 

Any movie film lab should be prepared to run your 5 feet through the machine since they all add pre-exposed check strips to the rolls in regular intervals. It's more a matter of explaining the contact person that you choose the double sized frame for technical reasons. Sometimes a small present can work more than 10$. Depends also on the gender.

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I called Fotokem a while ago and they said they'll do it, it's something like 14cents a foot but a $50 minimum. I shot a roll, and then it sat around, so I ended up just taking it to Walgreens (after they told me it should be fine with their filters for their chemicals) and got it processed 1-hour.

 

It came out with some of the remjet still on, which I cleaned off with a microfiber towel and then had scanned. Colors came out very nice, desaturated cool colors with more saturated warm tones. Contrast and exposure stayed more or less the same.

 

Tim

Edited by Tim Sutherland
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According to the Boys from Oz, Atlab in Sydey has a standard service for motion film shot for tests in still cameras. Priority Mail for a standard 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8" box is $12.95 to Sydney and takes approximately one week. Anyone from Oz here that can estimate postage back to the US for one week service?

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Atlab in Sydey has a standard service for motion film shot for tests in still cameras.

OK. Several points.

Atlab Sydney is now Deluxe Sydney - same contact details but website is now www.bydeluxe.com

 

Mail or Express Post out of Aust will cost anything between around AUD20 and AUD55 depending on how quickly you want it. AUD20 is for registered post, AUD55 for Express Post. Ordinary Airmail is AUD15. You can check it out on the Australia Post website.

 

Beware of shipping UNprocessed film by ordinary mail services. Think X-rays. Think again.

 

Not sure what the lab now charges (as I'm no longer there), but from memory you might expect around $12-15 (AUD - that's more like US$20) for process only: but the gotcha is a minimum bill amount which might be around $50. So it's not worth sending one cassette, you'd want to shoot several.

 

Another important practical detail - when neg is processed in a continuous processor, each roll is joined to the next in an overlapping join with a couple of inches of film overlapping. So, also allowing for handling at each end, it's a good idea to wind on about 5 exposures before you start the roll, and only shoot until you are 5 frames from the end of the roll. For a standard 5 foot exposure length (normally 36 still frames) that gives you around 25 or 26 frames.

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Thanks Dominic,

 

Looks like it's a wash if, as rumored, Fotokem here is willing to process short rolls. Their minimum is $50 USD.

 

You're right, X-Ray would be a concern for unprocessed film shipped standard mail.

 

I'm real tempted to see what my Walgreen's here in Edmond says about Remjet, the lady who runs their minilab is pretty sharp.

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I wonder what the other Walgreens customers said when they had remjet all over their prints. How did they get the backing off in the first place?

 

Try B/W motion picture film-- no problem with processing. You can even reverse it, too, for fun.

Edited by Jim Carlile
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I wonder what the other Walgreens customers said when they had remjet all over their prints. How did they get the backing off in the first place?

 

Try B/W motion picture film-- no problem with processing. You can even reverse it, too, for fun.

 

 

Walgreens didn't get the remjet off, it was still on the neg in powder form after processing. They told me that it was ruined and gave me the negative. I took it home and cleaned it myself, just for fun, and took it back. There were a few scratches from my rudimentary cleaning, but most of the photos came out pretty well.

 

I'd be interested to see what a more qualified Walgreens photo tech would say about the remjet.

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Walgreens didn't get the remjet off, it was still on the neg in powder form after processing.

Then they were very lucky, and so were their other customers. The difficult thing with Remjet is not getting it off the film, it is getting it out of the machine. ECN2 processors have quite elaborate directional sprays to wash it off and flush it completely away before the film gets immersed in developer, where any unremoved remjet would drift off and around in the solution until it was removed by filters, or stuck to a passing emulsion surface (more film, that is).

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Walgreens didn't get the remjet off, it was still on the neg in powder form after processing. They told me that it was ruined and gave me the negative.

I'd be interested to see what a more qualified Walgreens photo tech would say about the remjet.

be careful, the qualified one may refer it to the lawyers :)

 

I used to play with developing MP film on a Jobo CPE processor many yaers ago, using a variation of C-41 Chemicals. That rem jet would get EVERYWHERE, and it was still on the reels even after I scrubbed them with a soft sponge. I am sure that the customer film that went through after yours had a few more "dust spots" than normal.

 

My experiments were done one shot, and the developer poured out black. I am sure the Bleach would have also been black if I could have seen the remjet against the dark bleach.

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If I'm not mistaken, print film doesn't have remjet, and is a similar C-41-type processing too, correct? If so this might be an alternative if the developing times are close. It's very inexpensive film to buy, and Kodak will sell it to anyone who shows up at their distribution center.

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If I'm not mistaken, print film doesn't have remjet, and is a similar C-41-type processing too, correct? If so this might be an alternative if the developing times are close. It's very inexpensive film to buy, and Kodak will sell it to anyone who shows up at their distribution center.

The current print film does not use rem-jet, although it did in the past.

 

My experiments never did get that far, A guy sold me three 36 exp 35mm cassettes of Fuji Print film at the time, and I just found it last week in my freezer I am not sure how different the developer would be.

 

Of course since it is rated at ASA 2, and for exposure from a dimmed tungsten light I don't know how useful it would be for other then the inteneded purpose.

.

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