35mm Ektachrome 100 bulk availability

[Finn lyle]

I'm not sure if this has been said yet but Kodak is now offering 400' & 1000' reels of (cine) 35mm Ektachrome at what works out to be a significant discount compared to the price of 36 exposure rolls. Will be interesting to see if the major players (FPP and Photo Warehouse) will cut it down into 100' rolls... if I shot E6 with any frequency I would certainly consider cutting one down myself.

 

[AgX]

To you intend to say that cutting down cine film rolls to 135/36 forms a significant saving (which is no news at all), or that Kodak has reduced prices of their Ektachrome 35mm cine film rolls?

 

[Cholentpot]

I'm not sure if this has been said yet but Kodak is now offering 400' & 1000' reels of (cine) 35mm Ektachrome at what works out to be a significant discount compared to the price of 36 exposure rolls. Will be interesting to see if the major players (FPP and Photo Warehouse) will cut it down into 100' rolls... if I shot E6 with any frequency I would certainly consider cutting one down myself.

I'll pitch in on a 1000' roll if the price is good enough. Reality is I'll wait for short ends to start popping up.

 

[madNbad]

Recently, I bought ten 100 foot microfilm reels for $24 usd including shipping. You do have to strip off the old copies of the New York Times. I spooled a couple of hundred feet of 5222 from Photo Warehouse on to a couple. The trick is, if you don’t have a darkroom and editing equipment, is leave the film in the bag. This keeps it from curling.

 

[Finn lyle]

To you intend to say that cutting down cine film rolls to 135/36 forms a significant saving (which is no news at all), or that Kodak has reduced prices of their Ektachrome 35mm cine film rolls?

The later, though its not a reduction per se but the sudden change from unavailable to available. To the best of my knowledge Kodak hasn't sold cine rolls of 35mm ektachrome until the sometime in the last month or so. It was only available in 16mm and smaller formats.

 

[mohmad khatab]

 

[AgX]

Finn, thank you for this clarification.

(And indeed it did not show up in the 2021 catalog.)

 

[cmacd123]

The later, though its not a reduction per se but the sudden change from unavailable to available. To the best of my knowledge Kodak hasn't sold cine rolls of 35mm ektachrome until the sometime in the last month or so. It was only available in 16mm and smaller formats.

I suspect that that was a deliberate decision, just to avaoid folks buying the movie stock and repurposing for still use. the use of 35mm Ektachrome to shoot an entire season of a Television series may have been the catalyst to change that plan.

 

[MattKing]

The interest in all the Ektachrome stocks surprised them.
This may have been the first time that they have enough of it to make it available in this format.
As the confectioning for 35mm remains a bottleneck, I'd be surprised if they are worried about people re-purposing this for 35mm still use.
It may also be that they had to work to make sure that lab services would be available for 400 and 1000 foot lengths.

 

[BAC1967]

You’ll have to deal with remjet with cine film.

 

[MattKing]

You’ll have to deal with remjet with cine film.

Not with E6 Ektachrome transparency films - just with the ECN-2 camera negative films.

 

[AgX]

It may also be that they had to work to make sure that lab services would be available for 400 and 1000 foot lengths.

Cine film processing is continuous. And labs are prepared for taking same reels as the largest reels used for taking. And no longer length would come in. In the case of 35mm the length indeed would be larger. But for reason of economics splicing of incoming lengths at the lab makes sense anyway, thus the length would hardly be a problem. But the E-6 processor must get rollers or even tanks etc. modified for 35mm.
If straight and reversal processes are run on same processor, not even this...

 

[Helge]

The interest in all the Ektachrome stocks surprised them.

I wonder why? They should have, and I thought they did market it especially for cine film 8 and 16mm to start with.
When you are not aiming at printing the film, reversal with its low grain and superb resolution and micro contrast makes all kinds of sense.
Especially for scenes where the dynamics are controllable and lighting is not a bottleneck.

 

[MattKing]

I wonder why? They should have, and I thought they did market it especially for cine film 8 and 16mm to start with.
When you are not aiming at printing the film, reversal with its low grain and superb resolution and micro contrast makes all kinds of sense.
Especially for scenes where the dynamics are controllable and lighting is not a bottleneck.

It - Ektachrome in both cine and still formats - sold faster and at higher volumes than their initial projections indicated.

 

[Finn lyle]

Hopefully the new availability of this stock (and others recently) signals that Kodak thinks its a market worth investing in. It certainly seems like a positive bellwether.

 

[cmacd123]

the latest Motion Picture catalog is at https://www.kodak.com/content/produ...-Motion-Picture-Products-Price-Catalog-US.pdf
the latest datasheet is
MARCH 2022 H-1-5294

and is available for your reading pleasure at https://www.kodak.com/content/produ...OLOR-REVERSAL-FILM-5294-7294-datasheet-EN.pdf

and NO ektachrome 5294/7294 is a plain E-6 Process. From the above referenced Data Sheet:
"
Processing
Process this film in E-6 Chemicals, cine machine only.
Note: KODAK EKTACHROME 100D Color Reversal Film 5294 /
7294 contains special sensitizing and filter dyes that improve color
reproduction. Because these dyes are designed to rinse out of the
film during processing, they will change the color of the first
developer, the reversal bath, the final wash, and the final rinse. This
solution discoloration is only cosmetic. It will not affect
sensitometry or the quality of any Process E-6 film or control
material. However, the solutions will cause splicing tape and
processing equipment (rollers, racks, etc.) to have a pinkish color.
The pink dye residue can easily be washed off processing
equipment by following the normal maintenance procedures."

the cine machine only is a requirement that the film be processed by continuous processor, to prevent density variations. note that they specically metion that Other E-6 Materials can be processed in the same chemicals.

Rem Jet is part of ECN2 and the former ECN process, not E6 and Not B&W.

 

[cmacd123]

BTW, the Availability in 35mm is NEW, they have a "sell sheet" for ektachrome 100D at https://www.kodak.com/content/products-brochures/Film/EKTACHROME-100D-sell-sheet-EN.pdf which only refers to 7294 and NOT 5294 (5294 being the 35mm version)

 

[MattKing]

the cine machine only is a requirement that the film be processed by continuous processor, to prevent density variations. note that they specically metion that Other E-6 Materials can be processed in the same chemicals.

This being part of the reason I hypothesized about film availability perhaps being dependent on the cine processing industry being ready for it.
While I expect some of the labs still doing still E6 have continued to use lines suitable for cine film, most of the E6 lines remaining are probably set up for lower volumes.

 

[cmacd123]

This being part of the reason I hypothesized about film availability perhaps being dependent on the cine processing industry being ready for it.
While I expect some of the labs still doing still E6 have continued to use lines suitable for cine film, most of the E6 lines remaining are probably set up for lower volumes.

any CINE lab with an E-6 line would be a continuous processor. if you chop up 5 feet of 5294 and shoot it in your Pentax, I have every reson to belive that it can be processed on an E-6 Dip and dunk line the same as a roll of ektachrome sold for still use.

 

[Helge]

It - Ektachrome in both cine and still formats - sold faster and at higher volumes than their initial projections indicated.

Does it still? It’s overpriced compared to
Provia. And expensive compared to other alternative if you don’t need reversal.

 

[dourbalistar]

I suspect that that was a deliberate decision, just to avaoid folks buying the movie stock and repurposing for still use. the use of 35mm Ektachrome to shoot an entire season of a Television series may have been the catalyst to change that plan.

IndieWire has an article about the use of 35mm Ektrachrome for Season 2 of HBO's Euphoria, especially this excerpt:

Rév reached out to Kodak and asked if they could manufacture 35mm Ektachrome again; once the “Euphoria” team assured the company that they would shoot enough film to make it worth Kodak’s while, Kodak agreed to bring the format back and Rev shot around 50 percent of Season 2 on the stock. (The other half was shot on the more universally used 500T Vision 3).

 

[AgX]

BTW, the Availability in 35mm is NEW, they have a "sell sheet" for ektachrome 100D at https://www.kodak.com/content/products-brochures/Film/EKTACHROME-100D-sell-sheet-EN.pdf which only refers to 7294 and NOT 5294 (5294 being the 35mm version)

The OP already explained so in post#5 and I confirmedd that it only appered with 2022 catalog.

 

[AgX]

Kodak:
"Note: KODAK EKTACHROME 100D Color Reversal Film 5294 /
7294 contains special sensitizing and filter dyes that improve color
reproduction. Because these dyes are designed to rinse out..."


That Kodak meanwhile is manufacturing 3 different Ektachrome 100 master versions:
type 135, type 120 , type cine
is beyond my belief. We shall see...

 

[MattKing]

any CINE lab with an E-6 line would be a continuous processor.

Agree.
What I was trying to indicate is that I'm not sure how many cine labs were left who still had an E-6 line available, before Ektachrome was brought back.
Some that had the capacity may have had to do some work to get the line running again.

 

[Cholentpot]

Agree.
What I was trying to indicate is that I'm not sure how many cine labs were left who still had an E-6 line available, before Ektachrome was brought back.
Some that had the capacity may have had to do some work to get the line running again.

Local lab I visit had their E-6 machine break years ago and never bothered fixing it.