8mm Forum: Additional Observations on Film stocks ...

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 15, 2009, 06:26 PM:

I was writing a fellow film fiend about some observations about film stock recently, and I thought I'd reprint it here ...

As for kodak SP, not all of it is made equal. I have some Kodak SP prints that haven't faded a bit, or barely show any real fade, (such as my print of "Warlords of Atlantis" 4X400ft, or my 2X400ft Battlestar Galactica), and from what I have observed, these, strangely enough, tend to be the earlier kodak SP stock. The later Kodak SP prints, (such as the two Bonds I bought from you), sadly, have fade already.

It makes sense, however, that earlier Kodak SP would hold up better. When any film stock is first produced and developed, they are more cautious. As they continue to manufacture the film stocks, they learn where they can "cut corners" and therefore, later printings on the very same stock, may not hold up as well.

One of my optical sound print sadness's, is my feature print of "Gorky park" (Lee Marvin, William Hurt). Now, this print came out in 1983. You would think that this would have held up really well. This was, however, manufactured and processed on some of the very last "regular" Eastman stock, so this print was at the end of a long line of compromises, regarding processing.

Perhaps the same exact Eastman (formula) as the 1970 print, but different developing process's.

It's the same with early Eastman as with early Kodak SP. Those earliest optical sound prints that I have, (Point Blank 1967, Romance of a Horsethief 1970), have held up incredibly well. later eastman film stock prints, (Gorky Park, most Universal digests), have either worse fade than the 1970 print, or REALLY bad fade.

Even in much later Kodak SP stocks. I have an optical print of
"Stand and Deliver" (1987) and it already has the beginnings of fade, so it's obviously not L.P.P. That optical print that was just being sold on ebay of "Lethal Weapon" is from the same year,
and it has the beginnings of film fade as well.

A pity!

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