Sloooow UV vegan photography

[Jacro]

We now have 35mm UV-sensitive film available and in stock. It's very low ISO (10 mins with the sun out), but high resolution. Developing there are 2 options - remove it immediately from the camera and develop with heat (contrast fades within minutes) for a negative. Or give it a couple of weeks, flash with a high brightness UV light and develop with heat for a positive. We can provide the positive processing if needed through our custom machine that includes a UV lamp and a heat drum. It's a very impractical way of taking photos, but a lot of fun, and no animal products as not emulsion based so great for vegans. For anyone interested please drop us an email through sales@jacrofilm.com .

 

[jordanka16]

This would be really cool in 4x5, any plans for that?

 

[digital_archivist]

Is this like the old Kalvar vesicular film?

 

[Jacro]

This would be really cool in 4x5, any plans for that?

Thanks so much for asking and unfortunately not at the moment - before we thought of this we already slit it all to 35mm and it's quite a big batch. We are also exploring slitting to medium format width, and plan to introduce a new slitter for this (rather than moving blades on existing slitters) but not quite there yet. You could use the 35mm with a medium/35mm adapter of course, but that would still be only a 35mm negative. Thanks again for your suggestion!

 

[Jacro]

Is this like the old Kalvar vesicular film?

Yes absolutely, good spot!

 

[digital_archivist]

Thanks! Email on the way.

 

[digital_archivist]

FYI:

 

[Daniela]

This is so cool!
Like someone else said, it'd be great in 4x5 and bigger.

 

[Jacro]

FYI:

View attachment 363359

Thank you and apologies, just moved to a new email provider, is fixed now!

 

[Jacro]

This is so cool!
Like someone else said, it'd be great in 4x5 and bigger.

Thanks Daniela!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Even though I am not vegan, and probably never will be, I think this is brilliant! If it ever is available in MF, or better yet, LF, I'll try it.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Since it is UV sensitive, does that mean it's only sensitive to UV/blues? Thanks.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Actually, nevermind. I googled Kalvar. Thanks!

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Why the political "vegan" tag. Slow UV would be sufficient.
And awesome!

 

[koraks]

Why the political "vegan" tag.

It's not necessarily political and evidently, we don't qualify it as such as moderators as we'd have removed it otherwise.
The mention of 'vegan' is relevant because an increasing number of photographers are asking questions about the gelatin in regular photographic products. While I personally don't mind the use of gelatin in film and paper products, others feel differently, and I'm sure that for some, this will be a prime criterion in choosing a product.

So the 'vegan' qualifier is relevant at this moment.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Sure, I've noticed this trend.
Just to elaborate my point of view - nobody is killing anyone for gelatin - it's a byproduct that strives to maximise gains from a kill. Which is great and worthy in my book, and something vegans could (even should) get behind - thus it's irrelevant in photography, imho.

 

[koraks]

I understand and for the most part agree (esp. the byproduct argument), but I'm also inclined to argue that it's offtopic here to pursue this much further.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Curious to know if this stuff can be used outdoors in sunlight. If so, I imagine exposures to be lengthy...

 

[digital_archivist]

Think of it as closer to SolarPlate than FP4+.

Back in the day, we used to high-speed contact print silver microfilm to Kalvar, using a mercury vapor lamp.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Actually, I got an email Jacro. Thank you, Jacro. Exposures aren't crazy long, so I'm going to try some out!

 

[Jacro]

Curious to know if this stuff can be used outdoors in sunlight. If so, I imagine exposures to be lengthy...

Hi Andrew - yes pretty much all of our shots have been taken outside, with some earlier mixed results here: https://jacrofilm.com/photographic-film-2/ . The image of Brighton pier has 'SAGE' upside down on it. This is because it was developed on location using hot water form a thermos into a spice jar immediately after exposing the film (without removing the label, and the ink of the letters under the label resulted in a different temperature). It was an accident but also shows how the temperature could be varied to achieve different effects.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I posted a video using this film here

 

[Focomatter]

I did not see a spectral response in the above link. Has this been worked out? Ten minutes seems a bit long even for 10 ISO. The temperature units on the page were not specified and should be fixed; °C, °F, or °K (only first two could be regarded as hot)? Looks interesting but still winter here so too early to try. Maybe first dandelions in a month? They have a UV pattern. FYI I have a UV flashlight that I have tried (it works) on a digital UV to IR full spectrum camera that due to IR sensitivity is challenging to do long exposure with due to camera "features". FYI, I used the UV Nikkor for the shots.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I did not see a spectral response in the above link. Has this been worked out? Ten minutes seems a bit long even for 10 ISO. The temperature units on the page were not specified and should be fixed; °C, °F, or °K (only first two could be regarded as hot)? Looks interesting but still winter here so too early to try. Maybe first dandelions in a month? They have a UV pattern. FYI I have a UV flashlight that I have tried (it works) on a digital UV to IR full spectrum camera that due to IR sensitivity is challenging to do long exposure with due to camera "features". FYI, I used the UV Nikkor for the shots.

It's ISO is 0.001. Since it's a UV film, I imagine it's sensitivity does not extend beyond blue. Looking at the photos on their website, some of them resemble blue sensitive films. I'll be looking into its spectral response in part 2...

 

[koraks]

10 ISO

Any attempt to put an ISO film speed tag on a UV sensitive material is doomed to fail. Ask anyone shooting wet plate. The speed is what happens to be the correct exposure given the face of the moon, what you had for breakfast and how fast the crow flies in summer.