Kodak stops production of Ektachrome 100D

[aj]

Despite statements from Wittner that DS8 would be possible for any material that is available in S8 cartridge they have reduced their DS8 assortment. The choice is now BW or BW. DS8 is an intermediate stage in production of Super-8 but apparently it is no so easy to get a stack of Color Neg. Color reversal seems now to go totally non-existent.

Or is Cinevia going to save the day?

Well, seems Wittner is working on replacement products. First they have a 100D stock which will be be cut into their own cartridges. Also other Fuji materials are being considered.
Then they are working on a new colour reversal film from a foreign manufacturer... Which will then be available in S8.

Practice your german a bit:
http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de/neu/news2012.php

[MIKI-814]

I wonder how long tri-x has got left? I had always heard that the sales numbers of Ektachrome were higher than Tri-X.

Tri-X is much cheaper to produce than E100D so the fact that it was less sold is not important because it is more profitable. In fact there are "many" European firms manufacturing B&W reversal, even for Super8. (ie ADOX)

[MIKI-814]

On the other hand... couldn't be possible that Kodak has actually sold it's Ektachrome brand and facilities to a third party to continue with the product? All that we now is that Kodak Ektachrome 100D is out of the Kodak portfolio. Do not surprise if we come across the same stuff under diferent name...

[mr_x]

Very frustrating, I was looking forward to getting into hand processing with this film myself.

What about Velvia 50D? is that still being manufactured? I see it's still sold on spectra and cinevia websites in super 8.
It's more expensive than 100D though...

Velvia is made by Fuji, the last firm on earth (practically) to make slide film / colour reversal, so we are now hanging on by out finger nails. 50D is a glorious film but how much longer will it be made? Fuji wound up Single 8 years ago, I have several Single 8 cameras gathering dust now, I can't bear to part with them. Cinevia brought out a Single 8 substitute but it jammed the Single 8 cassettes.

I then swapped to Standard 8 plus 16mm which offered the same flexibility as Single 8 - back-winding, multiple exposure and so forth. Now with one sweeping blow, Kodak colour reversal is being choked off for Super 8, Standard 8, 16mm, and any other gauge you can think of.

I was trained up on Super 8 64T, two day course - we shot our film, were walked through self-development, then had our films projected on day 2. Absolutely excellent, I was hooked forever. That course will never run again. Thanks Kodak in your continued commitment to Super 8 cine photography

[mr_x]

Here you go.
http://crossprocessing.info/images/imag ... v_film.jpg
Also, Rollei/AGFA's "Crossbird" is just color neg film labeled as E6.
Forde Motion Picture Lab use to offer cross-processing, so I wonder if Alpha Cine does as well.
On another note why couldn't you just under-rate your film four stops? So 400 ISO film would be treated as 25 and you wouldn't need to push it.

Wado,

I have had a look at that still. It is possible to balance that orange bias out in software - so would it be possible to counteract it with a lens filter?

Mine is a 5 minute fix, possibly better results can be obtained?

Ric

[wado1942]

It's not intentional, believe me. I actually spoke to an engineer at Kodak and the subject was raised rather spontaneously. They discontinued K40 because it used an expensive, somewhat environmentally unfriendly process and the popularity wasn't good enough to warrant engineering a new formula. They replaced it with 64T because it was an old-technology (pre T-grain) film and it was the nearest equivalent to K40. Nobody liked 64T, so they replaced it with the nearest equivalent, which was 100D. I've asked about a film specific to Super-8, something that is optimized for the limitations of the medium. I'd personally like to see 160T or the like, using a T-grain emulsion on a thinner base. Unfortunately, Super-8 usage is too small to warrant manufacturing a film that isn't already being used elsewhere.

Velvia 50 IS currently being manufactured as far as I know and will continue at least through the beginning of next year. It's more expensive because they buy 35mm slide film and slit it for Super-8.

Wado,

I have had a look at that still. It is possible to balance that orange bias out in software - so would it be possible to counteract it with a lens filter?

Mine is a 5 minute fix, possibly better results can be obtained?

Ric

It's not as simple as filtering the film with a complimentary color. It's the film itself that takes on the yellow cast and your exposure latitude in different colors is significantly shifted. I suppose it would be possible to partially cancel the difference with a filter to allow better results from color correction in post. Personally, I'd just find a different source for real reversal film if you must use reversal at all.

[aj]

Velvia 50 IS currently being manufactured as far as I know and will continue at least through the beginning of next year. It's more expensive because they buy 35mm slide film and slit it for Super-8.

When there were some explained photos on the GK Klose website it was clear that he was perforating 35mm unperforated. I.e. getting 4 strips of S8 from 35mm. The unperforated 35mm was a special item from fuji.

Unperforated film was/is used in trafic-violation registration (speed/red-light). There is still Kodak Portra neg 160NC in unperforated 70mm to use in schoolphoto cameras. Although declining use...

[Will2]

16mm projectors are almost as common as 8mm here in the U.S. since every school classroom had one. Maybe a 16mm print from Super 8 Negative will be more of an option. I know it's not the same thing as 100D but at least we can project the work.

I really like making work prints from my 16mm negative; they look great projected.

[mr_x]

16mm projectors are almost as common as 8mm here in the U.S. since every school classroom had one. Maybe a 16mm print from Super 8 Negative will be more of an option. I know it's not the same thing as 100D but at least we can project the work...really like making work prints from my 16mm negative; they look great projected.

Trouble again is, prints from negatives raises the price, that's going to work against art and film students on a limited budget - you know, tomorrow's budding film directors may miss out on the Super 8 experience now. All that will be left is monochrome for reversal, and how much longer for Tri-X?

This is what Kodak need to understand - they need to understand how important reversal stocks are to students and amateur film-makers.

Ric

[metaT8]

Negative film stocks simply don't have the same aesthetic characteristics that super 8 reversal produces. I'd sooner treat digital footage to look the way I want before using color negative super 8. Negative film always looks like fake super 8 to me.

Negative film might be fine for larger formats where your attempting to maximize image quality and minimize artifacts. But it's the artifacts of small format reversal film that makes super 8 so charming.
It's not just the fact that it's "real film".

I'm sure folks like Pro8mm are going to put a lot of rhetoric behind this. It could prove to be a major windfall for them - at least for a few years.
But unfortunately those unfortunate people seeking the true super 8 experience are just going to be left feeling disappointed.
And ripped off.

[wado1942]

Kodak shot themselves in the heart by intentionally hiding film from the public the last decade, out of fear of seeming old fashioned. Even though film was and still is their biggest source of income, they didn't want to advertise the superiority of film in our age of cell-phone photography. I don't think they're looking 10-20 years down the road at this point, they're looking at surviving the next 1-2 years. Kodak is in survival mode right now, so they have to cut costs anywhere they can and that means producing only the stocks that make the most money.

[Rudat]

Seems http://www.super8.nl/frame/frame_prijs_verkoop.htm
has run out already.

I've just bought myself a 20-pack of 100Ds here in Prague at http://www.film1635.cz/en/e-shop.php They still have many in stock and plan to stock up much more I was told. I'm not sure if they just didn't hear the bad news or they know about some magic warehouse we are not aware of...

[marc]

Maybe if negative is all that there is available in the 8mm formats, there will be labs that cater just to cross processing it. If this is the case, then higher costs should not be an issue since it will be the routine.

[richard p. t.]

Here you go.
http://crossprocessing.info/images/imag ... v_film.jpg
Also, Rollei/AGFA's "Crossbird" is just color neg film labeled as E6.
Forde Motion Picture Lab use to offer cross-processing, so I wonder if Alpha Cine does as well.
On another note why couldn't you just under-rate your film four stops? So 400 ISO film would be treated as 25 and you wouldn't need to push it.

Wado,

I have had a look at that still. It is possible to balance that orange bias out in software - so would it be possible to counteract it with a lens filter?

Mine is a 5 minute fix, possibly better results can be obtained?

Ric

Sadly, no. Absolutely not. The orange colour is a result of the colour dye couplers in two ways. Firstly, it is a bias of the dye image. Where silver developes the colour couplers are oxidised by the development byproducts and in oxidising form dyes. With colour neg, these dyes are biased to this orange colour. But also, the colour couplers themselves are already this orange colour. Where no silver image developes, no dye image is formed, but the same colour as the orange bias in the dyes is still there as the colour couplers themselves are this orange colour. They are coloured colour couplers. An optical filter would affect the colour of the dyes that form, but not the colour of the coloured colour couplers that don't get to form dyes but remain.

[71er]

Any option is better than no option at all. Remember also that Edward Turner was coaxing colour from black and white film stock, how he did this (filters) is still something of a mystery to me, but did it - he did.

The frames are exposed alternatively with a red and a green filter. This filter change with each frame is also done when you project the film and voila - you see a coloured image. If the frame rate is little you will get falsely coloured edges on objects moving fast though.
Probably an alternative for DIY guys when the last colour reversal film is off the market.