make your own film - diy

saw this in another forum, i think it's wild.

 

 

here's a snippet from the guy.

 

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In this set you will find random photos and information on a project a friend has undertaken - a machine to make

his own camera film.

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hisham, wonderful thread :)

Ever make your own ice cream? I can make some ice cream that is better than anything I can buy, but

it also cost twice as much as premium ice cream and takes a lot of work. It is theooretically possible to

make your own B&W film, but it will cost you somewhere between 10 and 100 times what you spend for

Tri-X and it will take many hours of work to make a few rolls of film. Here are a few steps in the process:

 

Prepare photographic grade AgNO3 by getting 99.99% pure silver and dissolving it in HNO3

 

Obtain some KBr, KI, Na2S2O3, Au, and some photographic grade gelatin.

 

There are several different kinds of gold sensitizers. Pick one and learn how to make the solution.

 

Dissolve the gelatin in cold water and then heat it to 160 +/- 0.5 F. Add the correct amount of KBr and

KI. The concentrations should be within 0.5% of the standard.

 

Prepare a dilute solution of AgNO3 accurate to within 0.5% of the standard.

 

Run the AgNO3 solutions into the salt.gelatin solution at a controlled rate for (I'm guessing) 60 minutes.

This is where you precipitate the AgX grains.

 

Chill the gelatin so that is sets up solid. Extrude it through something like a pasta maker to make

"noodles". Wash these noodles in pure running water.

 

After washing, gather these noodles and let the water drain out. Put the noodles into a kettle, add water

and gelatin, and heat to 110 F. Adjust the pH and vAg to standard. Add the right amount of Na2S2O3

and gold sensitizer and increase the temperature at 2 degrees per minute until hit reaches 150 F. Hold

for 5 minutes and cool at a similar rate. Chill hte "emulsion" until needed for coating.

 

Buy that coating and drying apparatus pictured on the Flickr link. Purchase some 5 mill cellulose

acetate.

 

Mix the emulsion with some water and more gel and appropriate coating aids (surfactants) and

antifoggants. Coat the mix on the acetate, chill and dry.

 

Slit the film to 35mm width. A jig with razor blades will work for short runs.

 

I don't know how your are going to perforate the film without some expensive work from a precision tool

and die company.

 

Spooling the film is easy. Most of us have done this will bulk loaders.

 

Now that you've done all of this, you will have a film that is slower, grainier, and has shorter lattitude

than Tri-X (which was introduced 54 years ago). It is also likely to have some coating defects in the form

of streaks, slugs, and repellencies.

 

When I go through the trouble to make ice cream, I end up with something that is better than anything I

can buy. For at least the next 20 years, I'm confident you will be able to buy film that is much better

than anything you can make

There is a long post over on APUG.org on the Dark Orange and the "Machine"

 

In the post i think there is a sample of the coated film. It looks very promising.

 

-ian

That's noble! Reminds of a British guy who had a hows-that-done show for a while: one time he made audio tape, using cellotape and rust.

Mendel... i think you and i may have seen the same footage some time ago.

 

was very a very interesting process.

Very likely. I can't remember the guy's (or the show's) name, it was on weekly for a while, on our Public Broadcasting Channel. A very intelligent, low-key guy who knew a lot about most everything. Another show he created some kind of air conditioner or fridge, I think. His approach was always to illustrate the inner workings of devices by creating crude but functional (though often short lived) versions.

This would go well with my Holga.