My newly made MO-1925 era Film

Mark Osterman

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Never quite sure where to post this sort of thing. Please let me know if there is a better place.

I’ve been working on a Leica Centennial Project of making the same type of film that would have been available when the Leica camera was introduced. Three weeks ago I made a run that is about where I want it. This is a violet / blue (not ortho) emulsion sensitize with sulfur to around ISO 12-15 and I coated the back with a pink hue anti-halation layer on the back.

I took two rolls of my film to Sicily and Rome a couple of weeks ago to give it a test and came back with some nice imagery. Sort of felt like Oscar Barnack. Very satisfied with the results.
 

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Mark Osterman

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Some more pictures, taken in Rome last week. This shows the actual color of the negative with the anti-halation coating. It accounts for some visible noise in the D-min areas. It is easily removed with a dilute alcohol wash but I decided to leave it on these two rolls of film for reference.
 

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bernard_L

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Extremely impressive accomplishment !

But I have to say that the images as shown seem (to my eyes) to have gone through some digital enhancement, maybe grain smoothing and edge sharpeneing? Especially for these images I feel it would be best to see them in their natural state so to speak.
Can you please give some details on the workflow from your film to the posted images?

And of course I'm sure many readers would like to know more on the fabrication.
 

koraks

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Mark Osterman said:
Sort of felt like Oscar Barnack.
Click to expand...
But hopefully less asthmatic! All joking aside, this is really, really great.

bernard_L said:
And of course I'm sure many readers would like to know more on the fabrication.
Click to expand...
There's another thread on this where @Mark Osterman announced his success earlier; you might want to check it out as it contains some (maybe not all) of the answers you're looking for:

Making 1925 Gelatin Emulsion and Coating Film for 1925-2025 Leica Centnnial

Not sure if this forum is interested but I am currently creating new 35 mm film with a 1925 era ISO 12 blue sensitive film for shooting in a 1928 Leica I camera. This also has an anti-halation coating on the back. It is based on a roll of film shot by Oscar Barnack in 1914 that I currently have...
www.photrio.com
 
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Mark Osterman

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Hello. I don’t have a scanner for documenting the film I made. I shoot pictures of the negatives on a light table and then invert them to positive. One of these days I’ll look into getting better equipment for documentation but for now that’s the best I can do. Also I have left the anti-halation coating on these test rolls so that I have that coating for reference. It can leave some “noise” in the image most notable in the D-min areas. Here is one of the negatives without manipulation … hope that helps.
 

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Mark Osterman

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Here is the actual film without the anti-halation coating. It is a very typical silver bromo-iodide and the yellow color is characteristic of that type of emulsion. You can find this on unexposed gelatin dry plates and other very early flexible films.
 

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Raghu Kuvempunagar

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Mark,

Fabulous work!

What is the maximum length of film that your machine can coat in a single run? And how long does the film need to dry after coating?

-- Raghu
 
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