Kodak Reversal confusion

[timeUnit]

Hi all,

In my quest for interesting and useable films for cross processed night shots, I've gotten a bit confused by the plethora of old, new and odd Kodak reversal films. I've been shooting with Fujichrome CDU Type II duplicating film (4x5") and gotten very good results, but would like to try some different flavors. Last friday I was out in the cold Swedish night and shot eight sheets of Ektachrome 100VS (given to me by a friend).

Well, the sheets look really bad. The highlights are blown to high heaven, even though I tried to pull the films in development. I won't be shooting 100VS in the night anymore...

When searching the net for info regarding these films I find lots of references to discontinued films, and I would like to know which films are related to others, to be able to avoid films unsuitable for cross processing.

Ektachrome 160T is discontinued, but is it related to 64T/EPY?

I've gotten OK results from E100s, the predecessor to the E100G. Could I try E100G and get similar results?

Is Ektachrome 400X still produced?

Which has the least contrast, Ektachrome 64/EPR or Ektachrome 100/EPN?

Could Kodak EDupe be used for Xpro night shots?

And a Fuji question, how does the Fujichrome 64T/RTPII behave when crossed?

Long post, sorry about that, but maybe some of my future mistakes can precluded by the replies to this post!

Thank you very much,
Henning

 

[David H. Bebbington]

I have little direct experience of exterior night shots, but obviously the main characteristics of duplicating film are normal color saturation and low contrast (in order to maintain the color balance and contrast of the original being copied). If dupe material has given you good results (by not giving excess contrast due to reciprocity failure), then this is the material you should go on using:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/databanks/filmDatabankLabFilms.jhtml
On the other hand, a film designed to give high color saturation (contrast) like Ektachrome 100VS would be highly unsuitable. The same applies to cross-processing, this involves a contrast gain in any case, with a high-contrast film, contrast could easily become unmanageable.

Others may be able to advise you further, I personally have used only E100G and E200 recently, but the ideal thing would be to check the Kodak data sheets to find a normal-contrast material with good resistance to reciprocity failure.

Regards,

David