Astrum Bulk Film

Kino · Dec 18, 2019

Created to get this discussion out of a classified ad...

Source:
http://www.astrum-ltd.com/en.html

There is more information in this old thread, including a 2018 price sheet in PDF form. See post #4.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/astrum-svema-tasma-film.167609/page-2#post-2180788

Cholentpot · Dec 18, 2019

Kino said:
Created to get this discussion out of a classified ad...

Source:
http://www.astrum-ltd.com/en.html

There is more information in this old thread, including an old price sheet in PDF form.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/astrum-svema-tasma-film.167609/page-2#post-2180788

Excellent.

So is there someone to contact? Do I need to send a bottle of stoli to get things moving?

Kino · Dec 18, 2019

No. Just use the contact form on their website.

If you read the old thread I referenced, Photrio User "Paulbarden" has ordered from them before, as well as Raghu.

I am interested in both the 120 and 46mm, as I have a couple of TLRs that could use some 127...

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 18, 2019

Cholentpot said:
Excellent.

So is there someone to contact? Do I need to send a bottle of stoli to get things moving?

I have shared email address of Astrum representative to you by PM. Not sure I can share the email address here. Dmitriy takes a couple of days to respond to email queries, but he is great to deal with.

Cholentpot · Dec 18, 2019

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
I have shared email address of Astrum representative to you by PM. Not sure I can share the email address here. Dmitriy takes a couple of days to respond to email queries, but he is great to deal with.

Thanks!

Hunter_Compton · Dec 19, 2019

Interesting... I would also be interested in some of the 46mm color film for re-rolling 127. Based on the first datasheet on this page:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/what-a-process-an-6؟-astrum-135-color-negative-film.168050/

The color negative film is a daylight balanced 125 ISO aerographic film processed normally in process AN-6 but is compatible with C-41. However, the most interesting aspect is the fact that the film has no orange contrast mask, thus may not be suitable for standard wet printing but may be acceptable after scanning.

removedacct1 · Dec 19, 2019

I also deal with Astrum via Dmitriy, and sometimes he replies in 24 hours, and sometimes it takes a few days, but he always replies.

Astrum offers quite a variety of interesting film stocks and I've sampled several. I was given a couple of sample rolls of Astrum films a year and a half ago and I was pleasantly surprised by them, so I ordered more from Astrum directly. In my experience many are "old school" emulsions akin to 1960s Kodak materials, so for someone looking for "the Tri-X/Plus-X experience" these films may be worth your time to explore. One thing I will say is this: if you buy the Astrum Foto 400 (35mm pre-loaded cassettes), be aware that it is the thinnest polyester film base I have ever seen. This film will be very difficult to load in a Paterson self-loading plastic reel, I would think (I only use steel), and its a challenge to get it into negative sleeves for storage as well. On the plus side, these Foto films dry FLAT, and with almost zero film + fog base density. My favorite is Astrum Foto 200, because its less coarse than the 400, but a stop faster than the 100, and it has lovely "old school" tonality.

Here is a sample image shot on Astrum Foto 100, 35mm film, processed in Rodinal: https://live.staticflickr.com/1818/44124451431_b7bb9518d2_k.jpg

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 19, 2019

Are any of those aerial films, IR sensitive?

removedacct1 · Dec 19, 2019

Andrew O'Neill said:
Are any of those aerial films, IR sensitive?

Astrum does have an Infrared film in 35mm format, but I believe you have to ask for it (it doesn't appear on the current price list). I have a spec sheet for this film if you are interested.

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 19, 2019

paulbarden said:
Astrum does have an Infrared film in 35mm format, but I believe you have to ask for it (it doesn't appear on the current price list). I have a spec sheet for this film if you are interested.

I'm interested! Can you post it here? Thank you, Paul.

removedacct1 · Dec 19, 2019

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 19, 2019

paulbarden said:
View attachment 236644

Thank you. 750nm isn't too bad.

removedacct1 · Dec 19, 2019

Andrew O'Neill said:
Thank you. 750nm isn't too bad.

I felt I should point out that I have only viewed the specs for this Astrum film, but I have not yet tried it.

Grim Tuesday · Dec 19, 2019

paulbarden said:
I also deal with Astrum via Dmitriy, and sometimes he replies in 24 hours, and sometimes it takes a few days, but he always replies.

Astrum offers quite a variety of interesting film stocks and I've sampled several. I was given a couple of sample rolls of Astrum films a year and a half ago and I was pleasantly surprised by them, so I ordered more from Astrum directly. In my experience many are "old school" emulsions akin to 1960s Kodak materials, so for someone looking for "the Tri-X/Plus-X experience" these films may be worth your time to explore. One thing I will say is this: if you buy the Astrum Foto 400 (35mm pre-loaded cassettes), be aware that it is the thinnest polyester film base I have ever seen. This film will be very difficult to load in a Paterson self-loading plastic reel, I would think (I only use steel), and its a challenge to get it into negative sleeves for storage as well. On the plus side, these Foto films dry FLAT, and with almost zero film + fog base density. My favorite is Astrum Foto 200, because its less coarse than the 400, but a stop faster than the 100, and it has lovely "old school" tonality.

Here is a sample image shot on Astrum Foto 100, 35mm film, processed in Rodinal: https://live.staticflickr.com/1818/44124451431_b7bb9518d2_k.jpg

That's a quite lovely result. Has anyone tried any of the color stock?

grimp0teuthis · Dec 19, 2019

I have tried their 200iso color stock in 4x5. I asked and Dmitriy confirmed that the emulsion was Agfa Aviphot Color. I have since tried to buy more, but as of roughly 6 months ago, they didn't have any left. Note that http://www.astrum-ltd.com/en/kino-foto-materialy.html lists color film, but shows only 35mm in the available formats column. It may be that they had a leftover roll of aviphot that they were willing to cut and sell and that the currently-listed color films under the Svema brand are different.

The 4x5 emulsion I tried is great, but the base is extremely thin. I shot these two portraits (at EI 200) with it:

(both Epson v850 flat scans of negatives, inverted and basic color correction applied in Capture One).

AgX · Dec 20, 2019

Hunter_Compton said:
The color negative film is a daylight balanced 125 ISO aerographic film processed normally in process AN-6 but is compatible with C-41. However, the most interesting aspect is the fact that the film has no orange contrast mask, thus may not be suitable for standard wet printing but may be acceptable after scanning.

Maco long time offered such films in consumer formats too. Until Agfa cancelled their manufacture.

To ease RA-4 printing just add a mask by putting unexposed, but processed masked C-41 film in the filter drawer ("mask-substitution filter").

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 20, 2019

Current price-list shared by Dmitriy. There are some aerial films also available now.

Astrum Bulk Film

Kino

Cholentpot

Kino

Raghu Kuvempunagar

Cholentpot

Hunter_Compton

removedacct1

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

removedacct1

Andrew O'Neill

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removedacct1

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

removedacct1

Grim Tuesday

grimp0teuthis

AgX

Raghu Kuvempunagar

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Astrum Bulk Film

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