Even back in 2008, the discussion took a nitrate turn and I'm not sure anyone fully explained that though "Kodak Safety Film" indicates a safe base material (acetate, I don't know if they printed it on polyester), you can look further for the type of film. There was often a number or letter code printed after it, such as Kodak Safety Film 5053 or 5063 (Tmax 400 and Tri-X resp). The Kodak Safety Film edge printing was in use at least into the 1980s and possibly later, long after nitrate film was obsolete.
Was that "Estar"?
Legend has it that nitrate film jump-started King Vidor's directing career. He was working as a projectionist (in Corpus Christi, I think) and started a fire that burned the theatre. He and some friends left town for LA and never returned. A good story, whether true or not.
Even back in 2008, the discussion took a nitrate turn and I'm not sure anyone fully explained that though "Kodak Safety Film" indicates a safe base material (acetate, I don't know if they printed it on polyester), you can look further for the type of film. There was often a number or letter code printed after it, such as Kodak Safety Film 5053 or 5063 (Tmax 400 and Tri-X resp). The Kodak Safety Film edge printing was in use at least into the 1980s and possibly later, long after nitrate film was obsolete.
Here's a scan of a slide I took about 40 years ago. I believe it was Ektachrome 64. Is there a reference for those film type numbers?
Blue Tang by Alan Klein, on Flickr
More or less, if you google "kodak film codes" or similar, and look around, you will find some tables. Many of them are incomplete so you may have to look in more than one place. For example:
https://www.jeffreysward.com/editorials/kodakedg.htm - some are missing, such as 5063 for 35mm Tri-X.
https://industrieplus.net/dxdatabase/ - a very useful database
Typing "5031" into the DX database name search shows that it is Ektachrome 64.
Yes, Estar was Kodak's name for polyester base. Old Kodak references such as the Darkroom Dataguide list films with Estar base noted separately. Most of the Estar base films listed there were in sheet or long-roll form (like bulk 35mm or 70mm).
Here's a scan of a slide I took about 40 years ago. I believe it was Ektachrome 64. Is there a reference for those film type numbers?
Blue Tang by Alan Klein, on Flickr
I enjoy the fact that 100 foot rolls of Ilford HP5+ (and probably others) are still edge marked as SAFETY FILM. It’s kind of cool looking on a contact sheet. No ugly bar codes!
I dislike them too and I would like all films being without them.
I presume the bar codes were for minilab purposes. Know what film was coming through, tweak the channels.
No?
Found on an old Simplex projector, probably 1920s vintage:
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