Around how many silver halide crystals are typically in a single B&W 35mm frame ??

Lucamancini

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2023
Messages
4
Location
Italy
Format
Hybrid
Google search results brings up very different figures. One source said 100 million and another source said 84 billion. Kodak themselves say “billions of silver hailide crystals” which isn’t exactly very helpful.
 

koraks

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
23,599
Location
Europe
Format
Multi Format
Depends on how you define a 'crystal'. It also depends on the film and its physical structure, evidently . I think it's going to be hard to put a firm number onto this one.

If you assume that a single tabular grain is around 500nm in diameter and you put a single layer of them side by side with no spacing, you'd end up with around 48000 x 72000 = 3.5 billion grains. But they don't lie neatly side by side; there'll be some space between them, and on the other hand, they're not in a single layer either, but suspended in a relatively thick gelatin matrix. In any case, 100 million sounds way too far on the low side and the 84 billion sounds quite plausible, especially for a color film with its many layers. I'd guesstimate that a B&W film like TMAX100 would be somewhere in between at maybe a couple dozen billion halide crystals. That's a pretty wild guess, though.
 

RalphLambrecht

Subscriber
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
14,666
Location
K,Germany
Format
Medium Format
Lucamancini said:
Google search results brings up very different figures. One source said 100 million and another source said 84 billion. Kodak themselves say “billions of silver hailide crystals” which isn’t exactly very helpful.
Click to expand...

I think your question proves that you've left the realm of photography and need a reality check to get back to picture-making (been there myself).
 

Daniela

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
1,082
Location
France
Format
Multi Format
RalphLambrecht said:
I think your question proves that you've left the realm of photography and need a reality check to get back to picture-making (been there myself).
Click to expand...
I wouldn't make assumptions. I don't know what prompted the OP to ask this question, but for me, thinking about this only inspires me more. You never know where the winding roads of curiosity may lead you
 

koraks

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
23,599
Location
Europe
Format
Multi Format
Daniela said:
I wouldn't make assumptions. I don't know what prompted the OP to ask this question, but for me, thinking about this only inspires me more. You never know where the winding roads of curiosity may lead you
Click to expand...

Well said, Daniela! I agree. And we really don't know the background to OP's question; for all I know, he might be looking for parallels between the grain in film and a human population so they can apply this thought to an art project.
 

xkaes

Subscriber
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
4,798
Location
Colorado
Format
Multi Format
Then again, it could be just an AI question designed to waste our time. I sure our future will be full of that -- if we let it.

How many angels...........
 

RalphLambrecht

Subscriber
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
14,666
Location
K,Germany
Format
Medium Format
Daniela said:
I wouldn't make assumptions. I don't know what prompted the OP to ask this question, but for me, thinking about this only inspires me more. You never know where the winding roads of curiosity may lead you
Click to expand...

Oh, Ido know; down another rabbit hole sway from creativity into the fascinating realm of photographic engineering and science!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…