Our all new 35mm perforating machine

[ME Super]

Congratulations Mirko!

ME Super

 

[mbsmith]

Fascinating bits of info, thanks for sharing. And congratulations on the "new" machine - I'll definitely purchase some more Adox

 

[Laurent]

Great info, and great to see people committed to making films !!

 

[antmar]

This is so promising for the future!!!

 

[Luigi]

Hi Mirko, and congratulations for your new machine. I read, somewhere over the Internet, that Adox is planning to introduce, in the future, some Super8 and 16mm B&W movie film stock. Is it true or just fantasies ? Thank you, have a nice day !

 

[Jerevan]

I would just love to work with things like this, Mirko. You have a great job.

Well done, and congratulations!

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Thanks for all the cheers. I guess I must post more of this stuff which I will gladly do. What do you want to see next?

Thanks Randy for the interesting report about the film splicers.
The machine can run at a maximum speed of 10 meters/minute.
30,5 meters/minute...I guess you need more pins.

Here was another question:

Great news!
Any 'Guess-timates' (estimates), when we will start to see film from this machine,
and which emulsions will initially be available? 24 exposure rolls, 36, bulk 100 ft rolls?

The machine has meanwhile been put in place.
If you want to see it run click [video]http://www.adox.de/BUKO_Filmperforiermaschine.mov[/video] (Apple quicktime movie- hope you can see it all. I checked it and it worked fine on my MacBook).

We don´t currently plan to make 24 exposure rolls and our 100ft roll spooling machine has lost it´s brain (the Siemens S5 controller inside was without battery for too long) and we need to reprogramm it.
Stupid but happened :-(

So to answer your questions: 36 exposures CMS 20 rolls will probably be the next.

Kind regards,

Mirko

 

[kunihiko]

great!

 

[micwag2]

Is there a US distributor for Adox yet? If so, who are they?

 

[Worker 11811]

Thanks Randy for the interesting report about the film splicers.
The machine can run at a maximum speed of 10 meters/minute.
30,5 meters/minute...I guess you need more pins.

10 m/min. is still a fair speed. The reason I quoted 100 ft./min. is because that's the approximate speed 35 mm. movie projector's operate at. (Actually 90 ft./min. I just rounded up.)

Regardless whether the machine operates at 10 m./min. or 10,000 m./min. it's still an amazing machine!

 

[Ektagraphic]

Congratulations!!...I wish B&H Photo in the US carried your products

 

[TriXfan]

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!

 

[cmacd123]

Congratulations on getting all the unusual machinery together to make film. Is the machine set up to do KS1870 or BH1866? And does it have any endorsing capability or will you be edge printing in a separate step?

(Looks like you could run 100ft rolls right on that machine as long as you used 2 inch cores)

 

[georg16nik]

Is there a US distributor for Adox yet? If so, who are they?

in US is Freestyle, according to http://www.adox.de/english/WTB/WTB.html

 

[clayne]

Love ADOX!

 

[micwag2]

in US is Freestyle, according to http://www.adox.de/english/WTB/WTB.html

Ok thanks. I'll have to try some out.

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Is the machine set up to do KS1870 or BH1866? And does it have any endorsing capability or will you be edge printing in a separate step?

(Looks like you could run 100ft rolls right on that machine as long as you used 2 inch cores)

The machine is set up to perforate Kinopositiv or also called "regular camera film", Type P.
In order to do type N we need to change the perforating tools and recalibrate the punching head.

The edge marking of the film numbers and brand is done by the black drum on the lower right (there are two drums, one for 24 exp. and one for 36, the one for 36 is fitted with film). The clicking sound the machine makes comes from the edge puncher of this roll. The punch is then read out by the spooling machine so it positions frame number one correctly at the beginning of each film.

The spooler is sitting next to machine only temporarily for testing purposes on this wagon shown.
Later it will be next to his two brothers in a room with dimmed daylight so we don´t have to do all the work in the "dark" (we have IR goggles and IR lamps).

There is also a silver drum in the middle of the machine. This is for the film number (quality tracking) and it used to mark the word "safety film".
We are actually conisdering to mark "safety film" again because it carries the spirit of the 60ies.

Spooling 100ft rolls on this machine will kill you in labour costs. You need a more flexible machine for that.

Kind regards,

Mirko

 

[Worker 11811]

There is also a silver drum in the middle of the machine. This is for the film number (quality tracking) and it used to mark the word "safety film".
We are actually conisdering to mark "safety film" again because it carries the spirit of the 60ies.

I suggest marking "Safety Film" anyway. I often get calls from people who know I am a cinema technician asking me whether some film they have is flammable.

Most people just don't undertsand about nitrate film. I have spoken to people who literally think it will explode. In order to calm them down, I tell them how to look for the markings "Safety" or "Nitrate." I explain the difference between black letters on clear or clear letters on black. Finally, if there is any ambiguity, I tell them to try the "float test" or the "flame test."

I just had to go through this whole rigamarole two weeks ago. I guy found some old films at a garage sale and somebody warned him that "Old movies are made of nitrate film" and "Nitrate film catches fire!" It took me two days to get the guy calmed down. I had to finally meet up with him, inspect the film for him and perform a flame test in order to satisfy him that his film wasn't going to burn his house down.

You and I both know that marking it "Safety Film" is superfluous because there are no manufacturers producing nitrate anymore. However, most people react to things they don't understand with fear and panic.

My suggestion is this: If it doesn't cost anything extra and it takes no more extra time than to thread the film around one more roller, there's no reason not to do it. If you ever have a customer who doesn't want his film marked this way, it's a small matter to skip the step.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Well since you asked... I am still waiting to hear you can provide your Classic paper on a 30 inch by 100ft length platform.

Thanks for all the cheers. I guess I must post more of this stuff which I will gladly do. What do you want to see next?

Thanks Randy for the interesting report about the film splicers.
The machine can run at a maximum speed of 10 meters/minute.
30,5 meters/minute...I guess you need more pins.

Here was another question:



The machine has meanwhile been put in place.
If you want to see it run click [video]http://www.adox.de/BUKO_Filmperforiermaschine.mov[/video] (Apple quicktime movie- hope you can see it all. I checked it and it worked fine on my MacBook).

We don´t currently plan to make 24 exposure rolls and our 100ft roll spooling machine has lost it´s brain (the Siemens S5 controller inside was without battery for too long) and we need to reprogramm it.
Stupid but happened :-(

So to answer your questions: 36 exposures CMS 20 rolls will probably be the next.

Kind regards,

Mirko

 

[kraker]

Just stumbled upon this thread. Thanks for sharing, Mirko. It's great to see some pictures and to read some background information on this great project. Keep them coming, please.

Will you consider organising a factory tour someday? ;-)

 

[railwayman3]

Very interesting information, and congrats to Adox for their efforts. I'm an "Ilford man" for B&W normally, but I shall certainly be placing an order for some Adox films to try out.

 

[Diapositivo]

We are actually conisdering to mark "safety film" again because it carries the spirit of the 60ies.

I would definitely maintain the mark. Film is used for archival and duplication work in libraries, musea, laboratories, courts and other kind of professional use. It is quite possible that the official specification for the work, being written maybe decades ago, require the mark "safety film" on film and, who knows, some archival usage might be lost for a bureaurocratic formality if the mark is absent.

For the same reason I would clearly specify in all technical documents accompanying any film material that it is actually safety film. Stating the obvious can make a sales difference sometimes.

Fabrizio

 

[clayne]

If we want to be truly "retro" the film should probably have an arbitrary 4-digit emulsion code...

SAFETY FILM 7084

Or something along those lines ;-)

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

I read, somewhere over the Internet, that Adox is planning to introduce, in the future, some Super8 and 16mm B&W movie film stock. Is it true or just fantasies ?

In film making sooner or later it´s always a matter of coating size. If you can get volume on a coating machine you are a happy man, if you struggle with volume you can choose between poor quality or a skyrocketed price. Thus a very simple aproach to the matter is to coat "a" film and then make many different products out of it. In this context Super8 and 16mm are contributing formats.
We have also bought and refurbished machines to make Super8, Normal8 and 16mm film but the question is if we can bring a final product at competitive prices to the market. So apart from the pure capability of making it we are at present debating about production costs.

To you the price of a roll of moovie film might seem high but from a manufacturers standpoint such film is sold quite cheap

Kind regards,

Mirko

 

[Brac]

We have also bought and refurbished machines to make Super8, Normal8 and 16mm film...

Hopefully the 16mm film ability will aid the production of the long promised film in 110 size cartridges? That is likely to be of interest to more people than cine (movie) film.