Where to get 35mm bulk Ortho Film

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

I have looked at places like freestyle and jandcphoto, but I cant seem to find somewhere online that has bulk rolls of orthochromatic 35mm film. Any tips?

edz · Jul 3, 2006

kb244 said:
I have looked at places like freestyle and jandcphoto, but I cant seem to find somewhere online that has bulk rolls of orthochromatic 35mm film. Any tips?

There are not many good Ortho films left on the market. Maco's film (which is quite good) ORT25 is available in 10meter rolls from Stapelfeld (home of Maco/Mahn) for around 20 EUROs plus postage and handling. In the U.S. try contacting Cachet in Fountain Valley, CA. (just accross the Orange curtain from Long Beach).

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

Ahh ok, I'd figure I ask, since the only ortho film I'm playing with is this Kodak UltraTec as you can see some of my results here thus far (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

was kinda hoping to know if any more standard ortho film existed that i could get into, Tho if I wanted sheet film ortho B&W jandcphoto seems to have this classic 4x5 10 sheet pack for 2.99$ which I might try sometimes.

edz · Jul 3, 2006

kb244 said:
Ahh ok, I'd figure I ask, since the only ortho film I'm playing with is this Kodak UltraTec as you can see some of my results here thus far (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

was kinda hoping to know if any more standard ortho film existed that i could get into, Tho if I wanted sheet film ortho B&W jandcphoto seems to have this classic 4x5 10 sheet pack for 2.99$ which I might try sometimes.

That's not, I think, an ortho document film but recording film that's sensitive to red (not insensitive). If I'm not mistaken its intended exposure is to red-laser-diode or helium-neon laser emission.

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

I'm confused now, if Ultratec is sensitive to red, then it would not have captured most of the shots, and I would have fogged up the entire roll just from the safelight alone.

kunihiko · Jul 3, 2006

I have a roll of ortho film in 100ft which my friend gave me. It's Fuji. I thought it's for making movie film(to convert taking nega film to projecting posi film). Kodak should have similar products, I guess.

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

Could be... has no info on the edge of the strip when developed, and then again 35mm still photography came about when they adapted 35mm movie film to go into a camera.

Kino · Jul 3, 2006

kb244 said:
I have looked at places like freestyle and jandcphoto, but I cant seem to find somewhere online that has bulk rolls of orthochromatic 35mm film. Any tips?

Karl,

How much do you need?

I can get you some 2366 B&W fine grain master positive (KS perf .1870 pitch) and some 2302 B&W Fine Grain Release Positive (also same perf pitch); the first is an interpositive and the second a release print stock (both orthochromatic).

NOTE: 5366/7366 is the acetate version of the 2366/3366, which is estar: data sheet

2302 data sheet

These stocks are still produced for copying motion picture film and the lab I work at uses hundreds of thousands of feet of these stocks a year. We typically resilver/reclaim some at the end of each reel we print, so I could send you a small amount for you to respool without a problem.

You can buy your own, but the minimum purchase is 1,000 feet. The 2302 is going to run about $275 USD and the 2366 will be about $375 USD if I remember correctly. Not bad for a lifetime supply of film, but if you only need a few feet to accomplish something, my way is cheaper!

Let me know via PM.

Frank

Gerald Koch · Jul 3, 2006

Be careful, Kodak 5366 is descibed as "blue sensitive" by Kodak. This is not the same as orthochromatic that has a sensitivity which extends into the green region of the spectrum. Blue sensitive films record blues as very light gray and all other colors as black. Think of the photos by Mathew Brady during the civil war which were taken with only blue sensitive plates.

BTW, Kodak makes two panorthochromatic films, Eastman 5231 (EI 80D and 64T) and 5222 (250D and 200T). These have limited red sensitivity and normal contrast and are probably more suitable for general camera use. They can be purchased as short ends from companies that sell motion picture film. Price can be quite reasonable anywhere from 5 to 10 cents per foot.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Jul 3, 2006

Frank, I got around making a stack of B&W slides with the 2302 you left me, and it works great! I kept some on the side to try as an in-camera negative, and will develop it in some dilute developer, probably Rodinal 1+100.

(To be more correct, the film is blue-sensitive only, not blue+green like most ortho films. It works great under safelight.)

I read in an old Kodak darkroom book that this emulsion is rated at 40 ASA daylight, 10 ASA tungsten. If I have the chance soon enough to shoot it in-camera, I'll post some pics.

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

Blue Sensitive sounds interesting.

Kino · Jul 3, 2006

Gerald Koch said:
Be careful, Kodak 5366 is descibed as "blue sensitive" by Kodak. This is not the same as orthochromatic that has a sensitivity which extends into the green region of the spectrum. Blue sensitive films record blues as very light gray and all other colors as black. Think of the photos by Mathew Brady during the civil war which were taken with only blue sensitive plates.

BTW, Kodak makes two panorthochromatic films, Eastman 5231 (EI 80D and 64T) and 5222 (250D and 200T). These have limited red sensitivity and normal contrast and are probably more suitable for general camera use. They can be purchased as short ends from companies that sell motion picture film. Price can be quite reasonable anywhere from 5 to 10 cents per foot.

Gerald,

True; the 2366 is a dupe stock, so the slow speed and low green sensitivity is not a problem in a motion picture printer. This emulsion is, in fact, very close to silent film emulsion, the old EK #1 stocks used in the 1890's to 1910's, BUT the green sensitivity is too high to be an exact match.

I posted the links to the data sheets; a quick peek at the curves should be enoug to warn anyone...

Frank

Kino · Jul 3, 2006

mhv said:
Frank, I got around making a stack of B&W slides with the 2302 you left me, and it works great! I kept some on the side to try as an in-camera negative, and will develop it in some dilute developer, probably Rodinal 1+100.

(To be more correct, the film is blue-sensitive only, not blue+green like most ortho films. It works great under safelight.)

I read in an old Kodak darkroom book that this emulsion is rated at 40 ASA daylight, 10 ASA tungsten. If I have the chance soon enough to shoot it in-camera, I'll post some pics.

That ASA sounds high, but I'd be interested in what you find out. I have shot the 5234 dupe neg stock in a 35mm Konvas motion picture camera and determined it to be about ASA 12; I would think the 2302 would be in the same region.

It is an interesting stock; caucasians look very dark photographed with blue sensitive only stock and that is why everyone (at least the white actors playing whites) wore white greasepaint in front of the camera and why people like Dougas Fairbanks DIDN'T when he played native american roles.

Shoot a Macbeth chart if you have it; that will give you some interesting results...

kb244 · Jul 3, 2006

Kino said:
That ASA sounds high, but I'd be interested in what you find out. I have shot the 5234 dupe neg stock in a 35mm Konvas motion picture camera and determined it to be about ASA 12; I would think the 2302 would be in the same region.

It is an interesting stock; caucasians look very dark photographed with blue sensitive only stock and that is why everyone (at least the white actors playing whites) wore white greasepaint in front of the camera and why people like Dougas Fairbanks DIDN'T when he played native american roles.

Shoot a Macbeth chart if you have it; that will give you some interesting results...

Is there a manner of using a blue filter or sort to lessen the green sensitivity to be able to replicate the looks from the vintage film frames, or are they fairly close that I shouldnt worry about it. Though I think I asked a friend the same about putting blue on a panchromatic film or orthochromatic, and he was basically saying because they record the different light spectrum differently it wouldnt be quite the same.

Kino · Jul 3, 2006

I wouldn't think from the curves that the green is all that substantial, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect too much.

Gerald Koch · Jul 5, 2006

kb244 said:
I asked a friend the same about putting blue on a panchromatic film or orthochromatic, and he was basically saying because they record the different light spectrum differently it wouldnt be quite the same.

Any panchromatic B&W film can be made to respond as an orthochromatic film by using a minus red (cyan) filter on the camera.

Where to get 35mm bulk Ortho Film

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