Splitting 70mm film and different versions of Aerochrome II IR

["ROLLAND ELLIOTT (Quality Assurance Co-Op)" <rolland.elliott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I managed to successfully split some 70mm Kodak Aerographic Black & White film
and some of the new 70mm Kodak Aerographic Color IR film straight down the
middle.  I used a simple apparatus made out of three pieces of wood.  It is
basically a U shaped trough made out of three pieces of wood and a Xacto razor
blade in the middle. A frontal view is shown below:  I lined the bottom piece
of wood with some 100% cotton flannel cloth to prevent the wood from scratching
the emulsion.  And I put a Xacto razor blade (pointing down) in the middle
located 35mm away from each side wall of wood.
I used the setup below in a darkroom by sliding a piece of 70mm film across the
razor blade.  After the initial cut was started I put a piece of 70mm wide 1
inch tall piece of styrafoam (this piece of styrafoam was also covered with
some flannel material and had a small hole cut into it so it would fit over the
razor blade) ontop of the film so that the film would lie very flat and even
across the bottom.  After putting on a pair of cotton gloves I pulled the film
through the trough (in a smooth and even manner) as the razor blade neatly cut
the roll into two even pieces.

Thanks to Wayde Allen <allen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> for his insights into this
matter.  In an earlier IR digest he wrote:
>>>>I imagine you could use a mechanism similar to what is used for 8mm movie
film.  8mm film is actually 16mm film that is run through the camera one way
exposing half of the roll, flipped over and run back through the camera to
expose the other half, developed, and then split into two 8mm strips. The
splitters that I've seen in old catalogs look like a block with a razor blade
in the middle.   That's what mine looks like tooa  However, this is something
usually done   with the lights on I think.  I've never tried it.  It might be
possible to build a splitter, and run a leader out through the  light trap of a
bulk loader to get things started...........If you actually try this, I'd like
to know if it works. <<<<

Wade it worked!

                <-------70mm wide----->

                |                     |
                |                     |
                |                     |
                |                     |
           Wood |                     |Wood
                |                     |
                |                     |
                |   XActo Razor Blade |
                |___________|_________|
                 Wood

Each piece of wood was about 0.3 meters long and a couple of centimeters thick.
You have to be very percise when making this wooden trough.  Make sure the
trough is exactly as wide as your 70mm film and make sure the razor blade is
very sharp and located in the middle of the trough.  To get the dimensions as
percise as possible I used an acutal piece of 70mm film to space the trough's
walls and I used two strips of 35mm film side by side to percisely locate where
the razor blade should be put in. I would suggest practicing cutting the film






in half with a short strip of 70mm film in the day light before trying it in
total darkness.  This simple machine makes pretty accurate cuts, but the width
of the film does vary a little.  About + or - 0.5mm.  This can be a problem
depending on what kind of bulk film loading cassetts you are using.  Some
cassete spools are exactly 35mm across and this can cause problems because the
film will squeeze into the space, but their will be a lot of friction and
buckiling and wrinkiling of the film may occur when you advance or rewind your
film.  To wind up my color IR film I used some old Kodak TMZ cassete spools,
because they were slightly wider than the bulk casette spools I had.  When I
loaded the B&W IR film I used casette spools that had one end of the spool
broken off.  The bulk casette was no longer light tight but I always load HIE
in total darkness anyways so it doesn't really matter. I just used my hands to
tear off one end of the casette spool.  This leaves a slight ridge and the take
up spool stays inside the metal snap casette.  Here is a pic.

       __|___|__                 __|___|__
         |   |                     |   |
         |   |                     |   |
         |   |                     |   |
         |   |                     |   |
       __|___|__                   |___|
Regular Casette Spool         Casette spool with one end broken off.

Here are a few more tips.
1. Practice the entire loading procedure in the daylight before trying it in
complete darkness.
2. Make sure your darkroom is absolutely light tight!
3. Make sure your splitter has no dust or dirt in it before you turn off the
lights.  A single grain of sand could scratch your entire efforts.
4.  If you are in your darkroom and suddendly realize that you don't know which
side of the film is the emulsion side just lick the film leader with your
tounge and scratch it with your finger nails.  The emulsion side will feel
sticky and the film base side will remain smooth.
5.  Expect to be in the dark for a long time.  It took me about 2 hours to bulk
load 20 casettes.
6.  Be sure you have some kind of light tight container to put all of your bulk
loaded IR film inside of before you open it up.
7.  Your film will only have perforations on one side, so make sure your camera
can advance and rewind film of this nature.  And make sure that when you bulk
load your film the perforations are in the correct location.  My Nikon N90s can
handle film perforated only on one side, but the perforations must be on the
bottom.  In order for the film to feed through properly I also had to cut off
the 4 top teeth of the frame counter spool.  Don't cut off the bottom 4 teeth
or the camera won't be able to advance the film and you'll have to send the
camera in to get fixed.
8.  Realize that you will probably have to develop this film yourself by hand
since it only has perforations on one side.
Good luck to anyone who tries this.

I have shot two rolls of my bulk loaded 70mm Color IR film and the slides look
great.  I developed the film myself in E-6 processing.  So there is proof that
the 70mm AR-5 film is E-6 compatable!  There are still some annoying red specks
in some of the frames! :(  Hopefully one day we will know the cause of these
red specks.

I would think that a similar apparatus could be used to cut down 70mm film to
Medium format size.
However, instead of using 1 cutter with 2 razor blades positioned 5mm from each
side I would use two seperate film cutters.  I would imagine that it would be
very difficult to split the film into 3 strips all at one time.






I would suggest first putting the film through a 70mm wide splitter with a
razor blade positioned 5mm from one edge.
After throwing away the 5mm cuttings, I would take the remaining 65mm wide film
and put it through a second splitter that is 65mm wide and has a razor blade
positioned 5mm away from the other edge.
The final step would be to cut the 65mm film into 120 or 220 lengths and
attatch it to old film spools.
I've never used Med. Format equipment, but It should do the trick nicely!

I actually researched getting the 70mm film split down the middle by a
professional converting company before making my own splitter.  The estimated
cost of splitting the film was variable but I got estimates from $100 to $200
US for splitting one roll of 100 foot long 70mm film.  The price decreases a
lot if you have more than one roll split.  I was going to send in a roll, but
none of the companies I talked to seemed very enthusiastic about splitting the
film and their film width tolerances weren't very exacting.  I've heard in the
past that companies like Seattle Film Works and Signature Film make their 35mm
film out of old 70mm movie film, by splitting it down the middle.  If someone
could find out what converting company does this than you might get them to
split AND perforate a roll of 70mm film.
As far as availability of 70mm film goes, it's hard to come by, especially the
new 70mm color IR stuff.  I talked to about 5 Kodak reps. and four of them
didn't have a clue about this film.  They reported manufacturing troubles and a
couple said the film wouldn't be avaialble for a month or so. However, I talked
to the Kodak Aerial Film representative for my part of the US and he gave me
the following place to get it from:  Digital Link of
 Atlanta.  770-924-3603.  The Catalog number for a 100' 70mm perforated roll of
Aerochrome II Color IR film is :  8985616.
The roll cost me $180 and $5 for shipping and handling. I got the film about
ten days later and to my surprise it was shipped overnight Fed Ex in a
styrafoam box with an ice pack in it.  Great service and for only $5 ship. &
Hand.

In a previous IR digest I wrote:"Aerochrome II Color Infrared film is available
in 150' 70mm rolls with and without perforations."
After talking to several Kodak reps I don't know if this is true anymore.  None
of the reps were able to tell me about an unperforated version.  Does anyone kn
ow if it is available unperforated?
And lastly, there seems to be 3 different 70mm versions of this Color IR film.
 Aerial films made by Kodak.  IN addition to the Aerochrome II Color IR , there
is another film that is similar but has INCREASED IR sensitivity.  The third
70mm film is similar to the second version with INCREASED IR sensitivity, but
it comes on a thinner base so more film can be on one spool. I ordered the
technical data sheet for these films so I'll keep you updated when I get it.
Sorry for the long post.  Hope you found in informative
Peace, Rolland Elliott

Work Phone is 614-772-3537 Home # 614-772-2854
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End of Infrared-Digest V0 #146
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