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Processing 100ft 35mm rolls made for stills


Will Edwards

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Hi all:

I'm shooting with a recently acquired hand-cranker. Due to its awkward magazine capacity (390ft), I decided to use a 100ft roll, intended for bulk loading purposes for shooting stills, that I had lying around. 

The film, however, requires Illford chemistry to process. I haven't been able to find anything on whether any lab will process this, or if I'll have to process at home with one of those LOMO 100ft tanks.

Would anyone know anything about this?

Will

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first off, which film are we talking about? 

I have never heard of any modern film which requires a specific brand of Chemistry, although some old colour processes from 30 or more years ago were like that.

Also are you planning to print or scan the negatives? 

 

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If you just want to be sure it is operating properly, shoot a few shots and snip 5 foot sections out of it and process with a typical still film developing tank and examine the negative over a light bench.

Since you don't state the type of camera you are using, I can't know if it has a gate punch.  A lot of early hand cranked cameras had a lever that would punch the film in the center of the frame to identify takes that could then be broken down in the dark to individual shots and then hand processed on racks by visual inspection.

If you do have one of these cameras, you can scrounge up some lab stock short ends of Kodak 5366/2366 interpositive film stock and shoot that as a negative at an equivalent of ASA 16 or so and punch each take individually.  The beauty of this is it is blue sensitive (not even totally ortho) and can be handled under the safelight typically used for still film printing (OC).

You could build a pin reel and process each take in a deep tray by visual inspection, but this is probably getting beyond the scope of effort most people are willing to expend...

 

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Thanks for the help.

The film is Kentmere (owned by Illford) 100, the camera is a Debrie Parvo Model L (which does not have a gate punch). I'm planning on having it scanned. So the lab shouldn't have any trouble with it?

Edited by Will Edwards
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4 hours ago, Will Edwards said:

Thanks for the help.

The film is Kentmere (owned by Illford) 100, the camera is a Debrie Parvo Model L (which does not have a gate punch). I'm planning on having it scanned. So the lab shouldn't have any trouble with it?

No trouble for a lab that runs B&W Neg and the scan is just a regular 35mm 4-perf format so any motion picture scanner will scan that.

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On 9/23/2019 at 1:49 AM, Will Edwards said:

or if I'll have to process at home with one of those LOMO 100ft tanks.

those 100ft capacity Lomo spiral tanks are extremely rare and you will probably not find one anywhere no matter how much you are willing to pay for it  :( 

the ones possible to get easily are the upb-1a models which can process either two 15m (50ft) rolls of 8mm or 16mm film at the same time on two stacked spirals OR one 15m (50ft) roll of 35mm film if you remove the middle spiral plate and load the remaining assembly carefully (no center support then for the top plate to keep it the proper distance away unless you manufacture said support part by yourself) . 

If wanting to develop the full 100ft by yourself you may need to use bucket processing OR one of those "Morse" reel to reel tanks or their Soviet copies which are pretty similar in operation. (There is one of those Soviet ones on eBay right now, I purchased the other one if someone wonders where it disappeared so quickly ?  )

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4 hours ago, aapo lettinen said:

those 100ft capacity Lomo spiral tanks are extremely rare and you will probably not find one anywhere no matter how much you are willing to pay for it  ?

the ones possible to get easily are the upb-1a models which can process either two 15m (50ft) rolls of 8mm or 16mm film at the same time on two stacked spirals OR one 15m (50ft) roll of 35mm film if you remove the middle spiral plate and load the remaining assembly carefully (no center support then for the top plate to keep it the proper distance away unless you manufacture said support part by yourself) . 

If wanting to develop the full 100ft by yourself you may need to use bucket processing OR one of those "Morse" reel to reel tanks or their Soviet copies which are pretty similar in operation. (There is one of those Soviet ones on eBay right now, I purchased the other one if someone wonders where it disappeared so quickly ?  )

Make your own processing pin racks:  http://archive.org/stream/condensedcoursei00newyuoft#page/136/mode/2up

Not everything has to be bought off the shelf with a brand name stamped upon it...

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15 hours ago, Frank Wylie said:

Make your own processing pin racks:  http://archive.org/stream/condensedcoursei00newyuoft#page/136/mode/2up

Not everything has to be bought off the shelf with a brand name stamped upon it...

Very handy- I've not seen a flat one before, only drum-shaped ones that could be rotated so you'd presumably need less chemistry. I think I'd buy big dev trays though, 20x24 are still around, might not be big enough for this job though.

If I could afford even 16mm b/w I'd try it. Contact prints on the Steenbeck of course.

That book is quite a find btw.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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1 hour ago, Mark Dunn said:

Very handy- I've not seen a flat one before, only drum-shaped ones that could be rotated so you'd presumably need less chemistry. I think I'd buy big dev trays though, 20x24 are still around, might not be I big enough for this job though.

If I could afford even 16mm b/w I'd try it. Contact prints on the Steenbeck of course.

That book is quite a find btw.

I once owned a Steinman printer for 35mm, but it was incomplete and was missing the developing spiral and tanks.  Foolishly scrapped it in the late 1990's, thinking I would find another one in better shape.  Haven't found a trace of another yet...

The drum shaped units tend to oxidize the developer quite rapidly, but can be easier to handle by one person.  I intend to build a copy of the one in the book to test some theories I have about tinting and toning positive film;  when I get the time (read as "pipe dream").

You can find a veritable cornucopia of motion picture related literature at the Media History Digital Library, which are word-searchable via the Lantern tool bar.  It's not a fool-proof system, but at least you can get within a page or two of the subject and is much better than having to wade through endless PDFs to find what you seek.

Contact printing on a Steenbeck?  Wow, that would take a lot of masking and testing!

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2 hours ago, Frank Wylie said:

 

 

Contact printing on a Steenbeck?  Wow, that would take a lot of masking and testing!

I've only read about it and yes, it would. I think you'd be looking at some sort of split magazine for the print stock and a dimmer on the bulb.

The local co-op had a Debrie printer for the price of membership, but they lost their premises and it went into storage, I think, along with their Steenbecks. So their enquiries now come to me, via the member who sold me some spares, and I give a bit of a discount. Or rather I will, when it happens.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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