“Eastman 6 Safety Film” — any idea what it is?

I recently purchased a number of rolls of bulk-loaded film that was said to be Tech Pan. After developing some, I find that’s not the case — it’s (faintly) marked as ”Eastman 6 Safety Film”, lacks frame numbers, and has markings that indicate it was made in 1990. My poking around reveals that a film called “Eastman” (as opposed to “Kodak”) is probably a motion picture film, though a comparison of the transport holes to those of Tri-X shows them to be the same as far as I can tell. I developed some of the time in 510-Pyro 1:300 and got low-contrast images; developing the film in Technidol gave better images but only for those shot at ISO12 or perhaps 25. The film does appear to be very fine grained.

I’d like to know what this stuff actually is, as I have multiple rolls of it and knowing what it is might help me devise a better development regime. Thanks for sharing any thoughts you may have.

Cine print films typically have the same type of perforation hole as still films.

AgX said:

Cine print films typically have the same type of perforation hole as still films.

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When you say "print films" are you referring to films that are intended for projection, i.e., a positive print from a movie film negative?

Yes. Cine intermediate films in contrast should have the same perforation hole as cine camera films.

Hi Trask. Did you ever figure out what film it is?

I just developed a test roll of a bulk roll I got from a friend. It was also faintly marked, from what I could read it said "EASTMAN E6 safety"

Anything would help. I developed using HC110H (1+63), 10mins. I shot the roll at iso 25

The negatives look very high contrast and the film base is clear.

Thank you

I wonder why it has the letter and figure E6? Must have some purpose but might be something that has a meaningful purpose for Kodak ( Eastman and Kodak are in effect interchangeable here aren't they?) but not for users

pentaxuser

I dipped my toe in these waters four years ago when I first got the film, but haven't really done much work with it since then. At the time, I recall looking for info on the film and wound up believing it is a low-speed film used in some part of the cinema process; I couldn't find any documentation on it. I do recall that one clue was the size and shape of the sprocket holes; there are websites that show them all, so one can look there and try to suss out what it might have been used for.

I have tried this film in three different developers: Technidol, 510-Pyro 1:300, and Ethol UFG. I've attached a few photos with each. It seems that on a couple of shots I wasn't steady or the camera was acting up -- I may have been simultaneously trying out a Konica Auto Reflex.

You can judge a bit from the attached images. Clearly this film has extremely fine grain, and it certainly dries very flat. For the 510-Pyro I tried a series of exposures at ISO 12, 25 and 50; with the UFG (5 minutes at 24C) (yes, Auto Reflex w/40mm lens) at ISO 25, 50 and 100; with Technidol (7'30" at 26C) I can't find any further comments in my notes other than I thought UFG gave better results than Technidol, despite in some cases being rather blown out.

I've attached some images that you might find useful. In a certain sense I think UFG (no longer produced) has, at times, a tonality that's a bit more appealing. (BTW, in the Technidol photo of the front door, note the mottling visible on door -- I can only wonder if Technidol has some problems with this film.)

I recently bought a few bulk rolls at a garage sale that both turned out to have Eastman in the edge markings. Both are black and white film. One is Eastman 34 with Kodak Standard perforations. The other is Eastman 19 with Bell and Howell perforations. I contacted Kodak to try to find out what type of film it is, they had no idea. They did mention that Eastman designation is for movie film. They also have the movie film date codes for the manufacturing date. These rolls were both manufactured in the 1960’s.

Could it be the intermediate film they used for travelling matte shots? These sequences required very precise registration, so might have been done on equipment with standard perfs. (I've seen this equipment, but don't remember what the perfs looked like.) That would explain the high density and slow speed.

I have some information to add, courtesy of a Kodak contact, although it won't really solve the mystery.
Quoting:

The image provided by “BAC1967” shows a “EASTMAN 19 and a strange set of symbols”. This edge print was applied at slitting on all 35mm length films (Professional 100’ roll lengths, all motion picture, cine-fluorographic medical films, surveillance films, microfilms, and any other 35mm film during the 1950’s through the mid-1990’s. The “19” does not specify the product number, nor does the “6”, “34” or other numerical numbers following “EASTMAN”. That number is the slit number from the cut master roll. The strange pattern of dots, lines and “+” symbols following denotes the slitter which slit the film. It is nearly impossible to determine the specific film without the product’s complete packaging because Kodak was not edge-printing specific product information onto the edge-print until the implementation of Keykode numbers in 1989, and that was strictly for the Motion Picture panchromatic negative and intermediate products. Eastman Color Print film, with is specific products is the only exception to this because the slitters which slit this film were customized to print “LPP” or “LC” during the 1980’s.

Consumer/Professional products 5060 (Panatomic-X), 5062 (Plus-X), and 5063 (Tri-X) all were manufactured for sale in 100 ft. rolls as well as offered for different customer uses in both Kodak-Standard (KS) and Bell-Howell (BH) perforation formats, and all were finishing over same or similar finishing equipment making specific product tracing very difficult, if not impossible from that era of film stocks.

So in essence, you can't tell from the edge print with film of that vintage.

MattKing said:

I have some information to add, courtesy of a Kodak contact, although it won't really solve the mystery.
Quoting:

The image provided by “BAC1967” shows a “EASTMAN 19 and a strange set of symbols”. This edge print was applied at slitting on all 35mm length films (Professional 100’ roll lengths, all motion picture, cine-fluorographic medical films, surveillance films, microfilms, and any other 35mm film during the 1950’s through the mid-1990’s. The “19” does not specify the product number, nor does the “6”, “34” or other numerical numbers following “EASTMAN”. That number is the slit number from the cut master roll. The strange pattern of dots, lines and “+” symbols following denotes the slitter which slit the film. It is nearly impossible to determine the specific film without the product’s complete packaging because Kodak was not edge-printing specific product information onto the edge-print until the implementation of Keykode numbers in 1989, and that was strictly for the Motion Picture panchromatic negative and intermediate products. Eastman Color Print film, with is specific products is the only exception to this because the slitters which slit this film were customized to print “LPP” or “LC” during the 1980’s.

Consumer/Professional products 5060 (Panatomic-X), 5062 (Plus-X), and 5063 (Tri-X) all were manufactured for sale in 100 ft. rolls as well as offered for different customer uses in both Kodak-Standard (KS) and Bell-Howell (BH) perforation formats, and all were finishing over same or similar finishing equipment making specific product tracing very difficult, if not impossible from that era of film stocks.

So in essence, you can't tell from the edge print with film of that vintage.

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Thanks for that great information Matt! I suspect my Eastman 19 is Plus-X. Not sure what the other roll is but it’s too badly fogged to use. Good thing I only paid $1 for it. I believe Kodachrome always had the film type printed on it, at least it did in movie stock.