Why all this "new" film?

This post started out as a straightforward post about favourite films, I like shooting but ended up becoming something slightly different.

It seems as every week we hear of a “new” film being released, Candido, Flic Film, Vandal, Cimemot, Mr Negative and the list goes on. Other than different names and slightly different pricing all these film are just a variation on a theme and that theme is Kodak's cinefilm Vision 3.

Now some of these come with a remjet layer and some have it removed, the remjet is a carbon layer, there to stop static build up when flying through movie cameras at 23 frames per second and also to stop halation from stray light in the camera. All films have an anti-halation layer even still film, only it's not as strong, it can be seen in Fomapan 100 if you pre-wash, it's the bright green water that comes out.

Cinestill were the first to produce this remjet removed film for still cameras and development in C41 this was around 2012. This is a Vision 3 500T without remjet, with the removal of remjet, light bounces around inside the camera and produces halation around light sources.

Red & Green light halation from Cinestill 800T

So where is all this “new” film coming from?

In 2012 Kodak Eastman filed for bankruptcy but being a worldwide company they faced a few challenges, one of these being a $2.8 billion claim by the UK Kodak Pension Plan (KPP). This was resolved and Kodak Alaris (KA) was formed when the KPP paid $325 million for personalised imaging & document imaging businesses, which gave KA the rights to Kodak's still films and chemicals. Kodak Eastman still make the films but Kodak Alaris sell it.

Kodak Eastman held onto the Cinefilm side of the business and have deals in place with Hollywood to produce this film for directors such as Tarantino, Spielberg, Nolan and Wes Anderson. They also held onto other emulsions such as Aerocolor and Double X 5222 B&W. Aerocolor can be found as Washi X, Santacolor, reflx lab pro 100 and probably a few other names and Double X is usually just Double X or BWXX, you would of see this mentioned for Chris Nolan's Oppenheimer movie.

Along with selling to Cinestill, Kodak seem happy to sell to anyone who has the cash. Some of these bigger buyers like Reflx Labs are probably buying 1000s of feet of this film, you only have to look at their website to see what they offer.

There are also small solo entrepreneurs that are buying up small quantities and selling on eBay and Etsy, there is a big cottage industry selling this particular film stock. Some of the big companies have also figured out how to remove the remjet, similar to Cinestill and everybody is looking to have their slice of the pie.

Cinestill were the only player for over ten years but with Kodak now selling to anyone, things got ugly in October 2023. I won't go into the details here but you can read about the controversy here.

Cinestill 800T

I have shoot with these films in the form of Cinestill 800T, Vision 3 500T and 250D, T is Tungsten balance and D is Daylight.

Personally I have never really got on with either of these films, I don't like the halation on the Cinestill, also in daylight the Tungsten has to be balanced for daylight either with a warming filter or in post.

800T in daylight not colour corrected

Colour corrected

Any film that has the remjet removed can be processed in C41 chemicals but if the remjet is still on the film it has to go through ECN-2 processing to remove the remjet. NEVER SEND VISION 3 TO A CONVENTIONAL LAB TO WILL MESS UP THEIR MACHINES!

This can be expensive and take time, the cheapest processing I have seen is about £10 and it can also take upto a couple of weeks to get your film back, also because of the remjet removal you can if people are not careful end up with scratches on the negatives.

Although the Vision 3 films are cheaper, there are sometimes issues with it, the cannisters are usually recycle and don’t have a DX code on them so automatic cameras will have a problem, sometimes although they say 36 exposures you may find you only get around 32-34 and finally light leaks can be on the film, this is usually true of the smaller “manufacturers”.

Light leaks galore

Breaking down the cost of these Cinefilm films compared to still film shows that although the prices of still film have gone up, they are still better value.

Cinestill 800T £20 plus processing £4.99 Total £24.99

Vision 3 500T £7 plus processing £10 Total £17 and possibly a two week wait.

Kodak Ultramax £10 plus processing £4.99 Total 14.99

For me shooting with these films hasn't been the best experience, the Cinestill was OK but it's a bit of a one trick pony and the halation puts me off along with the cost of the film.

The Vision 3 although cheap to buy, works out expensive in the long run and not always having DX coding, possibly short rolls and light leaks really puts me off it.

Yes, still film has increased over the last few years but I still believe it's the best avenue for me.