Here's the Scoop on Svema, Tasma and Kodak Film in Russia!

Kino · Apr 2, 2007

(BTW; Smallformat is a great magazine too!)

Svema (check out the emulsion blade in this article!)

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Tasma

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Kodak in Russia

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Mick Fagan · Apr 2, 2007

Very interesting read. It looks like the French are not the flavour of the century and PE would be deemed to be correct by this statement from the management.

"Another issue is that after a manufacturing plant has stood still for three years, restarting it is not as simple as flipping a light switch."

Mick.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 2, 2007

Wow, this is the best thing I've ever read on FSU photographic products. The article about Tacma is especially interesting, given that they want to position themselves as small, nimble niche players.

Now where can I encourage these fine people and buy some Tacma film?

bob100684 · Apr 3, 2007

so after reading this, does anyone know where to find tasma film in the US?

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Apr 3, 2007

Always interested in new film to try (ERA pan turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise), so I'll throw my voice in requesting a source of Tasma products.
A very interesting read, thanks for posting this stuff.

PHOTOTONE · Apr 4, 2007

These are interesting articles. The premise of the articles seeks to investigate the cine-film manufacturers in Russia and FSU countries. Thus, it doesn't cover Slavich, which is still going strong, I guess. Freestyle has a boatload of Slavich paper, which is good stuff. Wonder if Slavich is the only "still" film, plate and paper plant left?

David A. Goldfarb · Apr 4, 2007

Thanks for the links. _Smallformat_ and _Super-8 Today_ are both magazines that might be interesting to APUG types.

I saw some prints on Slavich paper at the FS Distributing booth at PMA, and they were pretty good. It definitely looks like a paper I could work with.

AgX · Apr 8, 2007

Very much appreciated! I had been trying to inform before about who is still coating in the East and Far-East. And a lot of googeling did not take me much further than the websites of those companies left. One has to knock at their doors.

kjsphoto · Apr 8, 2007

Slavich is an amazing paper. I have been moving over to it more and more. Rich tones and a beautiful paper. I highly recommend it.

AgX · Apr 8, 2007

(off topic) error in Svema article?

Off topic…
The article on the Svema plant states that there was a three-layer natural color film produced in 1936 (at the Shostka/Svema plant?). This is utmost questionable. I read this for the first time.
The German Agfa film plant at Wolfen was a Soviet-owned company between 1945 and 1953 and affiliated to the Shostka plant (about half of the plant was moved to Shostka). A lot of Agfa experts worked there in the mid-40ties (including work on color). From them there was no report later about such a film. The commonly reported date of birth for such a Soviet film is 1947.
Notwithstanding I am eager to learn about any earlier film. Most probably behind this all is a typing error concerning the decade…

AgX · Apr 8, 2007

employees...

In his attempt to get alternatives and even bargains no photographer should neglect the people behind those films and chemicals.
The Svema case shows again that there is a good chance that employees are duped. I guess no one realistically expects a chemical plant, and that’s what a film manufacturer is, to be turned into a chip producer. But if realistically obsolete the funds of a plant should be as possibly fair turned into means to a create perspectives for those people involved.
A lot of work of the trustee handling the people’s funds of the chemical and especially the mechanical photo industry of de GDR are questionable. (Well, there was the desire for immediate change… and they got it.) Now there is the argumentation of some people that Agfa was interested in a bancrupsy of Agfaphoto to betray the employees, (though I could put some arguments against) but the mere possibility makes one shiver.

Reading this again, it looks to me like written by a schoolboy. I’m naive.

aldevo · Apr 8, 2007

David A. Goldfarb said:
Thanks for the links. _Smallformat_ and _Super-8 Today_ are both magazines that might be interesting to APUG types.

I saw some prints on Slavich paper at the FS Distributing booth at PMA, and they were pretty good. It definitely looks like a paper I could work with.

Incidentally, some of Slavich's B&W papers are manufactured on a paper base manufactured in the FSU while others use German manufactured paper bases.

I did some initial testing with one of their graded papers (which used an FSU paper base) purchased from Freestyle back in Dec, 2006 and immediately encountered problems. Freestyle was alerted and though they did not refund my money, they did pay to have the remaining paper shipped back to them so they could, in turn, return it to Slavich for analysis of the defects.

Hopefully this was an isolated incident because, otherwise, word of mouth is that the papers are quite nice.

kjsphoto · Apr 9, 2007

Aldevo,

I think the problem you may have encountered was fogging. I am not sure what developer you were using but with Ansco 130 it works flawlessly. With other developers, I have had a few issues. Adding a little potassium bromide fixed it.

Kev

Kino · Apr 9, 2007

AgX said:
Off topic
The article on the Svema plant states that there was a three-layer natural color film produced in 1936 (at the Shostka/Svema plant?). This is utmost questionable. I read this for the first time.
The German Agfa film plant at Wolfen was a Soviet-owned company between 1945 and 1953 and affiliated to the Shostka plant (about half of the plant was moved to Shostka). A lot of Agfa experts worked there in the mid-40ties (including work on color). From them there was no report later about such a film. The commonly reported date of birth for such a Soviet film is 1947.
Notwithstanding I am eager to learn about any earlier film. Most probably behind this all is a typing error concerning the decade

Well, contact them! They seem very approachable...

aldevo · Apr 10, 2007

PHOTOTONE said:
These are interesting articles. The premise of the articles seeks to investigate the cine-film manufacturers in Russia and FSU countries. Thus, it doesn't cover Slavich, which is still going strong, I guess. Freestyle has a boatload of Slavich paper, which is good stuff. Wonder if Slavich is the only "still" film, plate and paper plant left?

Slavich is probably the largest manufacturer of holography film in the world. And they sell this product line direct to the USA.

AFAIK, Freestyle is the only one carrying their paper in the USA. I'm not aware of another source.

I don't know if they still sell cinematic film.

AgX · Apr 10, 2007

Kino,

I guess you mixed up Tasma with Svema. (Might be you were ironic, though.)

aldevo,

Slavich has got no cine stock on their website.
(Though, by reaction on another post of mine I learned that referring to a company’s website is not necessarily welcomed at APUG...)

aldevo · Apr 10, 2007

Slavich has a couple of websites, actually. The one dedicated to the USA strictly deals with their holography products.

I just did a check on their native site (the one that shows the factory belching smoke into the sky...) and, as you said, they do not list cinematic film.

Perhaps after 1991 they dropped out when Fuji and Kodak products became available.

aldevo · Apr 10, 2007

kjsphoto said:
Aldevo,

I think the problem you may have encountered was fogging. I am not sure what developer you were using but with Ansco 130 it works flawlessly. With other developers, I have had a few issues. Adding a little potassium bromide fixed it.

Kev

The problem I encountered was overall muddiness and weak blacks (not really black at all) coupled with perceptible bumps on the paper base.

A total loss, really!

I was using Dektol 1:3 during the session. I've tried the trick of adding restrainer to developers to salvage a fogged paper (used it with out-of-date Multigrade which, as a developer-incorporated paper, doesn't have marvelous shelf life) before. And it worked for me.

I do intend to give Slavich another shot when my Forte supplies are exhausted. Bad paper happens.

Kino · Apr 10, 2007

AgX said:
Kino,

I guess you mixed up Tasma with Svema. (Might be you were ironic, though.)

aldevo,

Slavich has got no cine stock on their website.
(Though, by reaction on another post of mine I learned that referring to a companys website is not necessarily welcomed at APUG...)

Sorry, I thought it was funny...

PHOTOTONE · Apr 11, 2007

aldevo said:
The problem I encountered was overall muddiness and weak blacks (not really black at all) coupled with perceptible bumps on the paper base.

A total loss, really!

I do intend to give Slavich another shot when my Forte supplies are exhausted. Bad paper happens.

The Slavich paper from the current batch at Freestyle that I got is perfect, and gives wonderful prints from my negatives.

Silverhead · Apr 11, 2007

PHOTOTONE said:
The Slavich paper from the current batch at Freestyle that I got is perfect, and gives wonderful prints from my negatives.

I agree--I've seen prints at Freestyle done with the Slavich papers and they look great. Their matte paper is really flat...I bet it would be choice for handcoloring, although I haven't seen any examples of that yet.

Here's the Scoop on Svema, Tasma and Kodak Film in Russia!

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Here's the Scoop on Svema, Tasma and Kodak Film in Russia!

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