By
Kevin Craske (CRC Technical Advisor)
It's
finally dead, E4. Kodak has produced an colour infra-red film for a
number of years, but although all 'normal' stock changed to 'process E6'
a long time ago, for some reason, best known to Kodak (if anyone knows
why it stayed 'Process E4' let me know) the colour infra-red reversal
stock remained 'process E4'. As time went on it became harder and harder
to process, the only lab I know, and I am sure there are others so I
wait for the letters, was Argentum. The problem was that it cost about
£14 a roll and they only ran a batch processing run about once a week.
Now I'm not complaining. It costs a lot to run a processing line and
with only a small throughput you have to recoup your cost s and make a
profit. Running an E4 line nowadays is certainly a low volume
operation.
It
is good news for CRC members as we now have an infra-red film which we
can play with, and unlike the old E4 film which you should not mix with
other E4 films, this film is completely compatible so you can have your
infra-red film in the same soup as the picys of aunt Maud. There is a
word of warning however if you send the film to a processing lab.
Firstly the film is marked as process AR-5. Now this is for aerial
processing which apparently tones down the rather high contrast and
gives a better reproduction. The cost of this is one stop less
sensitivity.
But
don't let this put you off. The film is 'Process E6' so make sure you
tell your lab. Also, some labs use infra-red light and night vision
equipment to examine the progress of films in their line. Well it does
not take too much intelligence to see that this would be fatal. Thus put
a BIG notice on the film warning that it is sensitive to
infra-red.
I
am given to understand that the film is a vast improvement on the old
material having stronger more saturated and cleaner colours than the old
film. The comments may be seen to be in contradiction with other
comments I make concerning improvements' but this is a whole new film.
The processing has changed and the whole characteristics have been
improved. I say all this with a 'so I am told' proviso. I have not tried
the film yet but I can well believe the comments. I did try the old E4
stock many years ago, just to say I had tried it and that was it.
Although it was infra- red I did not like it. It appeared muddy with an
overall cast so that was it. The literature for this film specifically
mentions the points about the old film I did not like so perhaps we can
believe the comments when they say that the film is a drastic
improvement. I also understand that you can cross process it in C41
chemistry.
All
in all, it would seem that this is a film which is well worth looking at
if you want to experiment with false colour. It is available in 35mm er
well that is.................. A telephone call to every
photographic shop in Norwich revealed that you cannot get it.
Never mind I thought, a call to my wholesalers. " Er, well
the film is so new that it has not been entered into our computer
yet". " Then how are you going top charge me." "
Well we are not, you see not only has it not entered into our computer,
it hasn't entered into our stock."
"So you haven't got it"
"No". "Any
ideas when?" "No." I write this in september so it may be
available by the time you read it but it certainly was not easily
available when all the raving reviews and literature went out.
So
there you are, watch this space and if you do get some and try it lets
hear about your experiences.