ULF film

[Craig]

With all the talk of the Tmax and Ilford offers of film in ultra large formats, I've been thinking of getting a 7x17" camera. Is there any colour film available in that size, or just B&W?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

It would be a special order item. There have been some group purchases recently for 11x14". I suppose that if you could find someone making a special order of 20x24" you could cut it down.

 

[scootermm]

theres a simple answer. depends on the size of your pocketbook. any sheet film larger than 8x10 you will likely have to talk with the manufacturer who would then presumably price out what it would cost make a whole big boatload of it.

http://www.williamcorey.com/
William Corey shoots gorgeous 8x20 color neg film and has some amazing work. I think somewhere on his site he mentions a bulk order from Kodak for Vericolor PL film in the range of $10,000. so it isnt cheap... but can be done.

mainly it seems most people who shoot in the ULF/banquet do so in B&W.

hope that helps.

 

[Dave Parker]

When I owned my 20x24, I got Fuji to make me a box of 50 sheets of Provia, and the price was well north of $1000.00 and that was a couple of years ago, before all the junk that is going on now, so unless your pockets are deep, it would be very difficult to get color in ULF sizes..

Dave

 

[Michael Kadillak]

I do not see a reason why this would not work - Take a more readily available 8x10 camera on a perfectly level platform, mark your reference point carefully and shoot two 8x10 images side by side (vertically or laterally) on conventional color transparency film and have someone knowledgable stitch them digitally. You can shoot 8x20 OR 7x17. Plus you can take the digital image and make a digital negative for alt processes, contact print B&W or print them in color.

The weak link in this iteration IMHO is the ULF sized color sheet film. I saw an offering recently for 12x20 Portra at $20 a sheet. I am strictly an analog guy and have no clue as to how much it costs to stitch or drum scan this work but the cost of the film appears to support quite a financial load.

Our T Max 400 sheet film deal was accomplished after a year of intense negotiations, a willing sheet film re-seller to back the deal and with the support of a consortium of LF/ULF users. It can be done but bring your lunch because it is going to take you all day to eat it. As a reference point J&C is pre-selling T Max 400 in 12x20 at $11.65/sheet.

Good Luck!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The TMY order, though, was for a master roll cut to multiple sizes.

A special order for one size is not as complicated a thing, if you've got the cash to make Kodak or Fuji's minimum. I know someone who has done it for 20x24" Portra 400, and there have been a couple of recent orders for 11x14" color.

 

[jgoeden]

...on conventional color transparency film and have someone knowledgable stitch them digitally....

With all due respect, I'm asking this question out of pure curiousity and in no way am I criticizing Michael. Beitknown the largest I've shot is 6x7 so I have ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE in ULF.

Question: wouldn't it completely be beside the point to work digitally with ULF as we are talking probably gigapixels upon gigapixels of info that I don't see any computers handling. I mean, if you're shooting ULF isn't it pointless to even think about a computer? To me this is just a waste of money on the film.

**Once again I'm not attacking or ciriticising as I have no ULF experience, I'm just asking out of pure curiousity.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Question: wouldn't it completely be beside the point to work digitally with ULF as we are talking probably gigapixels upon gigapixels of info that I don't see any computers handling. I mean, if you're shooting ULF isn't it pointless to even think about a computer? To me this is just a waste of money on the film.

Well, I think so, but Chris Jordan shoots 8x10" color film and scans it to make huge inkjet prints, and he seems to think it's worth doing, since his work is a lot about textures and detail, but that's not really an issue for APUG.

 

[nworth]

As I understand it, almost all emulsions are available in 20X24 in reasonably small quantities (e.g. 50 sheets). Other sizes may be subject to minimum order and special setup and manufacturing charges. My information is a few years old, and things may have changed.