2002 Aerochrome, NOT cold stored. Worth it? (Yes, if you pull 3 stops)

[MCB18]

I have a lead in a giant roll of Aerochrome, dated 01/02, and I am thinking about buying it to cut into LF sheets. Obviously it’s going to be a massive investment for me, but is it worth it?

 

[koraks]

Given that some films, including this one, are now more or less legendary and will probably sell on the name alone regardless of how it performs...you do the math. Yeah, I think it'll be worth it economically speaking, or at least assuming that you don't need to live off of this and your labor is essentially free.

 

[Paul Howell]

23 years old, if not fogged and at the right price, for personal use or resell?

 

[MCB18]

Given that some films, including this one, are now more or less legendary and will probably sell on the name alone regardless of how it performs...you do the math. Yeah, I think it'll be worth it economically speaking, or at least assuming that you don't need to live off of this and your labor is essentially free.

This is probably true… honestly I don’t have any interest in selling for the extortionate prices on eBay, in fact part of the reason I’m buying it is because I *don’t* want it to be sold at that price.

23 years old, if not fogged and at the right price, for personal use or resell?

For resale, I don’t have any means of shooting LF but I can at least help folks that shoot LF get it.

 

[mshchem]

E4???

 

[MCB18]

E4???

E6. 1443 film, 9.5” x 100 ft roll

 

[mshchem]

If it was stored cool, and somewhat shielded from rads from the universe ( ) it's probably still good. Does this require E4 processing? Require isn't the right word, was this originally designed for E4 chemistry?

Pretty neat stuff.

 

[mshchem]

E6. 1443 film, 9.5” x 100 ft can

Thanks

 

[MultiFormat Shooter]

I have a lead in a giant roll of Aerochrome, dated 01/02, and I am thinking about buying it to cut into LF sheets. Obviously it’s going to be a massive investment for me, but is it worth it?

For what it's worth, I shot some 35mm EIR (E-6 process) that expired, in the late 1990's, in the last couple of years, and it was fine. The stuff I shot was stored frozen. I have also shot the FPP InfraChrome (respooled Aerochrome) that was expired, and it too came-out fine.

 

[MCB18]

I will probably be buying that roll, because enough people have said they would buy it that I’ll break even at least, and more folks are considering it. Keep a lookout for a classifieds ad about it.

 

[Erik L]

I applaud your hustle in making all these usually unobtainable formats and different stocks available!

 

[MCB18]

I posted this in the classifieds, for anyone interested. I was told that it probably spent some time at room temperature, however looking at some examples, and a few things Dean Bennici has said, it’s probably still usable if deved in C-41.

 

[ZhanTeh]

I posted this in the classifieds, for anyone interested. I was told that it probably spent some time at room temperature, however looking at some examples, and a few things Dean Bennici has said, it’s probably still usable if deved in C-41.

I'm happy to take 10sheets of 4x5 if you are shipping to Australia

 

[MCB18]

Update: the Aerochrome Aerochromes if you pull it enough!

Crappy scan and inversion, shot at ISO 50 and deved in 20° C-41 for 12 minutes:

 

[blee1996]

Looks promising. Two questions

1) did you experiment with other ISO settings?
2) did you use any filter?

 

[geirtbr]

would be nice to see proper scan!

 

[MCB18]

Looks promising. Two questions

1) did you experiment with other ISO settings?
2) did you use any filter?

1) Yes, I tried 25 and 12, both look too dense so I imagine 50 is at or really close to the “sweet spot”

2) Yes, #15 yellow, metered at 50 TTL.

would be nice to see proper scan!

I have a DSLR scan of the negative, but I am very bad at processing scans. Attached is my attempt to Invert it, it’s definitely not the best. I’m having some friends take a crack at it as well.

 

[geirtbr]

1) Yes, I tried 25 and 12, both look too dense so I imagine 50 is at or really close to the “sweet spot”

2) Yes, #15 yellow, metered at 50 TTL.


I have a DSLR scan of the negative, but I am very bad at processing scans. Attached is my attempt to Invert it, it’s definitely not the best. I’m having some friends take a crack at it as well.

You may want to add some cyan / blue filter to your light source, to reduce the impact of the color on the film base and make reversing easier.

 

[MCB18]

You may want to add some cyan / blue filter to your light source, to reduce the impact of the color on the film base and make reversing easier.

using my phone for this so I’m really not sure how…

 

[blee1996]

@MCB18 or anyone else who have tried this film, anyone tried ISO 320 and C41 dev? I saw in flick someone did that and the photos are pretty awesome.

Banyoles encerclat de roig / Red-lined lake by SBA73, on Flickr

 

[AnselMortensen]

Can anybody who purchased this film please share their best exposure & processing information?
Thanks!

 

[blee1996]

I can give some update on the Aerochrome film from @MCB18 . This film works well and rocks! I wish I have bought more than the 10 sheets of 4x5. Here are the scans of the first 6 sheets in Alviso CA on a very sunny but windy afternoon:

Kodak Aerochrome

The legendary Kodak Aerochrome infrared false color film! This is large format sheets cut from a big roll that was expired in 01/2002. Some notes: 1) Shot with B+W 022 medium yellow filter (equivalent to Wratten 8) and ISO 50 2) Developed with Kodak C41 kit, normal processing in terms of...

www.flickr.com

Some notes:
1) Shot with B+W 022 medium yellow filter (equivalent to Wratten 8) and ISO 50
2) Developed with Kodak C41 kit, normal processing in terms of temperature and time
3) Developed with Stearman SP645 tank
4) The film is quite thin and have a slight curl (probably because of stored in a long roll for long time), and have to be more careful while loading into holders and tanks. Also it might not sit in the holder that flat, but so far the images are sharp. Also due to the thinness, I did not use Mod54 reel.
5) MCB rounded one corner for us to know where is the emulsion side. But it is just as easy to follow the curl.
6) The strong vignetting in the four corners is entirely due to my 3D printed 4x5 camera and lens combo.

What would I do differently next time?
- Maybe try a stronger yellow filter (Wratten 15) for more vibrant color?
- E6 processing instead of C41? I'm a bit tempted but C41 so far has worked well, and I don't really want to jinx it for the last 4 sheets.

 

[BurntOutElectronics]

Something very important to realise with improperly stored IR colour stocks especially is sensitizing dye degradation.
Now, having shot room stored EIR I have found ways to correct this in camera so a usable colour balance was achievable, even making slides.

Quick reminder that EIR / Aerochrome shifts the spectrum of light by one primary colour, that is, IR becomes Cyan subtractive, Red becomes magenta and Green becomes Yellow.
Now, with no additional filtration beyond a K12 filter, I got very cyan/blue slides having pulled in first dev and over exposed 4 stops (your use case will be different!)
but exposure was good.
Now, this is where your mind has to be a little flexible in it's thinking, because the slides were cyan/blue one may be confused by the result, but remember that the first developer isolates out the exposed silver from being used to form dyes with later.
Cyan cast is due to lack of IR exposure in E6!
This is because the green sensitising dye was least affected from age, next red and especially IR.
Heat kills IR films like nothing else.
So how does one colour balance in camera? there isn't enough detail in the film as is to correct and pull detail in scanning.
Well, we use colour correcting gels. Magenta and Cyan gels specifically.
We can't increase IR sensitivity but we can attenuate how much green and less so red light reaches the film during exposure.
Magenta cuts down green light, cyan cuts down red. TTL metering EI speed stays the same.
less light reaches the film over all so the shutter stays open longer thus building more information in the IR sensitive channel.
The result? with enough filtration you can achieve very acceptable results.

The exact same logic applies to C41 processing, but instead of seeing a cyan cast in your slides, your negs will appear very yellow/magenta biased. Not enough Cyan being formed due to dye degradation!

 

[MCB18]

I can give some update on the Aerochrome film from @MCB18 . This film works well and rocks! I wish I have bought more than the 10 sheets of 4x5. Here are the scans of the first 6 sheets in Alviso CA on a very sunny but windy afternoon:

Kodak Aerochrome

The legendary Kodak Aerochrome infrared false color film! This is large format sheets cut from a big roll that was expired in 01/2002. Some notes: 1) Shot with B+W 022 medium yellow filter (equivalent to Wratten 8) and ISO 50 2) Developed with Kodak C41 kit, normal processing in terms of...

www.flickr.com

Some notes:
1) Shot with B+W 022 medium yellow filter (equivalent to Wratten 8) and ISO 50
2) Developed with Kodak C41 kit, normal processing in terms of temperature and time
3) Developed with Stearman SP645 tank
4) The film is quite thin and have a slight curl (probably because of stored in a long roll for long time), and have to be more careful while loading into holders and tanks. Also it might not sit in the holder that flat, but so far the images are sharp. Also due to the thinness, I did not use Mod54 reel.
5) MCB rounded one corner for us to know where is the emulsion side. But it is just as easy to follow the curl.
6) The strong vignetting in the four corners is entirely due to my 3D printed 4x5 camera and lens combo.

What would I do differently next time?
- Maybe try a stronger yellow filter (Wratten 15) for more vibrant color?
- E6 processing instead of C41? I'm a bit tempted but C41 so far has worked well, and I don't really want to jinx it for the last 4 sheets.

Awesome results!

It is definitely a very cool film, something I never thought I’d be able to use before. Those are some very cool shots for sure!

As far as doing things differently, yes, get a darker filter. I use a Y15 and it works very well. It cuts out a lot more blue, which is important as this film is very sensitive to blue light and it does affect the exposure quite a bit.

I would not recommend E-6 as it does have a heavy blue cast even when through a yellow filter. Someone else tried it and they weren’t able to recover much. Maybe adding even more corrective filtering like @BurntOutElectronics would help, but I personally wouldn’t bother since C-41 works pretty well.

 

[blee1996]

Shot the last few sheets with deep yellow filter (K15) and ISO 50 on a sunny and hot day. After the C41 cross processing, scanning, and inverting in Negative Labs Pro, I'm not sure if I can see much of a difference from using medium yellow filter (K12).



Another



And last one with light leak or processing issue: