Kodak Reintroduces Ektachrome.

[trendland]

Having re-watched the footage, other than stating that it took place 'early in the morning' it doesn't specify a particular day. I'd guess within the last day or so to allow for clearance of the footage etc. Would suggest that the test rolls will be in circulation next month if it went well.

We hope so - Lachlan - we hope so ..

with regards

 

[twelvetone12]

Is there a link to it? I'd love to see B38

 

[Lachlan Young]

I'm referring to the video of Ektachrome coating...

Not sure, if you don't have an Instagram account - unlike most other things on Instagram, the 'story' feature is not publicly accessible without an account. There's another bit been added in the intervening showing quality control testing of the first run.

 

[NJH]

If you have Instagram, about 30 minutes ago Kodak posted some footage of the 'coating event' of Ektachrome on the full size B-38 machine that took place today.

Thank You. That made me smile because unless there is some grand conspiracy to fake such footage this is it, Ektachrome is really happening! Wow.

 

[Lachlan Young]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbiDEP8n5Vz/

You can scroll sideways through the pictures. Much the same as the footage in the video.

 

[Lachlan Young]

I'd also add that it seems that the coating was possibly done a couple of weeks ago, & the interview before that - there's probably various reasons for why it wasn't released till now, but making sure that the first full scale coating went reasonably well was likely to have been a part of it, given the potential social media impact etc.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

The 5" coatings are no indications of full scale production in my experience.

PE

I can't help thinking of the problems that occurred in scaling up the DISC camera color negative film from the narrow research coatings to production width coatings.

 

[mshchem]

I listened to the audio. Sounds real to me. The most interesting part is it sounds like Kodak has finally invested real money in down sizing the coating process. This bodes well for all low volume products. I would bet that they have big plans for that small coater.

 

[braxus]

If they have a small coater, in addition to their large coater for CINE film, then Kodak would be able to produce any film in small batches as long as their is demand for the film. Plus X could also return, maybe even Panatomic X if they so wanted to. So reintroducing Ektachrome could be testing the waters for other films to come back. Im going to sell off the Super 8 rolls of Ektachrome that I have to get some fresh stock.

 

[AgX]

Not necessarily. A small coater may not be able to run large lenghts, but only rather short strips. In such case production coating may be still uneconomic

 

[BrianShaw]

If they have a small coater, in addition to their large coater for CINE film, then Kodak would be able to produce any film in small batches as long as their is demand for the film. Plus X could also return, maybe even Panatomic X if they so wanted to. So reintroducing Ektachrome could be testing the waters for other films to come back. Im going to sell off the Super 8 rolls of Ektachrome that I have to get some fresh stock.

Whose speculation is this? Yours or did Kodak ever indicate that this is in their mind? Or are you saying that this is technically possible?

Just curious; not challenging your belief or hope.

 

[twelvetone12]

On unrelated news, Kodak posted a video of the Ektachrome coating on the big coater.

 

[AgX]

Link?

 

[twelvetone12]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbiDEP8n5Vz/

There is a video but it appears to be for registered users olny

 

[Photo Engineer]

It is probably going to be coated on the 5" machine and the 21" machine first to assure that it will work. Then it goes to production. The 5" machine can coat 2 side by side 35 mm strips on one 5" wide piece of support and length is usually a max of 1000 ft. Speed is probably in the 100 ft / min range max on that machine, so figure 10 minutes of coating.

PE

 

[David Luttmann]

It is probably going to be coated on the 5" machine and the 21" machine first to assure that it will work. Then it goes to production. The 5" machine can coat 2 side by side 35 mm strips on one 5" wide piece of support and length is usually a max of 1000 ft. Speed is probably in the 100 ft / min range max on that machine, so figure 10 minutes of coating.

PE

Ron, I had read that the final coating is done on the 48" x 6000' setup. Do you know what the 35mm roll yield is from that. I was guessing at 33,000 rolls or so.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I did the calculations once and posted it here. I'm too lazy to do it again. Sorry.

Whatever machine they coat it on, the coating time is about 6 - 15 minutes using one of those machines. Remember that it takes 6000 ft to thread the machine at each end of the run, so it takes over 3 miles of paper to get 1 mile of good stuff. Figure 10% loss, and 2" of selvage edge.

PE

 

[AgX]

But that leader is not wasted.

 

[David Luttmann]

Thanks Ron. Always interesting stuff.

 

[cmacd123]

But that leader is not wasted.

although they probably only would want to use it for a couple of tries in case there is some hard to spot damage that would result in a machine becoming unthreaded. rethreading a machine like that would take several technicians a shift or two.

 

[Photo Engineer]

You got it Charles. Rethreading is always a pain, and all of the leader is lost.

PE

 

[removed account4]

Thanks Ron. Always interesting stuff.

+1 !

 

[cmacd123]

If they have a small coater, in addition to their large coater for CINE film, then Kodak would be able to produce any film in small batches as long as their is demand for the film..

Actually that I belive is one of the problems with Film Ferrania at the moment. They were planning to use a small coater but the set up and such is holding them back from making the quantities they would like of their current "Test Product" (P30)

If the "Big" coater takes 10 minutes to make 6000 ft of wide film (may even be faster) and a test coater takes that much time to make say 1000 ft of 5 inch wide film. and both take several trained staff to run, the 5 inch roll will cost much more per finished retail unit (say 100ft X16mm) than the wide roll coater...

If you read some of the film ferrania posts (yep there are a lot) one of their mid range plans is to both speed up and widen the small coter they have inherited. My interpretaion was a plan to convert what had been Office/Lab space on an adjacent floor into a drying tunnel using parts from the demolished "Big" coater line so they could speed up the small coater. from recent posts, they are also having a bottle neck in converting coated film.

 

[mshchem]

144 x 4 x 6000 = 3,456,000 sq. Inches

3,456,000 / 80 = 43,200 135-36 exp.

Figure 35% scrap. 43,200 x 0.65 = 28,200 36 exposure rolls. Not really that much.

I would bet Kodak sold 25,000 rolls of film a minute back in late 90's

 

[NJH]

So are these first runs just going to be used for technical lab testing or will some be tried for field testing?

The wait must be killing some guys who were fans of Ektachrome and I bet a few people will get emotional when they see the first pictures posted up from the new stock.