suddenly have a lot of vericolor 4111 film - uses?

[tor kviljo]

About to terminate my restless hunt for sheet film to secure some years supply (OK - I now have the best part of a small freezer filled, and are slowly calming down), I bid on a case of 20 boxes of recently outdated Vericolor III film in 4"x5" sheets from Columbus Camera. Payment arranged, and the film appeard a few weeks later. Opening the case just to check everything before putting it in the freezer, I found my self face to face with a large pile of Vericolor 4111 film, not Vericolor III. Angry emails to Columbus camera did not help: they obviously thought "vericolor is vericolor" & listed it as the common one - Vericolor III. They did not have Vericolor III at all, so exchange for real stuff impossible. I were of course invited to send it all back for refund of payment & shipping both ways. However, I had not paid much for it, so I desided to keep the film for either intended use or pictorial use.

The Vericolor 4111 film (and a number of related emulsions from 35mm & up) is coated on a clear (not orange) estar-base & intended to be used for producing transparencies from direct copying of color-negatives (negative - to negative - gives positive colors) & dev. in C41. Resolution of film is very high - much higher than Vericolor III (which is GRAINY), but speed is low. It is supposed to be exposed in 3200K enlargers/copy-apperatus and using about 50y/50M (pink) as additional filtration.

Just for test, I ran a few sheets through camera at ASA 10 - shooting outdoor & using a 85A filter. I developed the film in E6 standard dev. time, and got a (good resolution) positive, but with strong blue cast. Last is as expected - It would not have appeared neutral in color before filtration equivalent to orange mask + 50y/50m + 3200K to daylight were applied. Now, question is: have anybody experimented with this film in camera for producing high-res. negatives (or diapositives) using the proper filtration?. With scanning as preferred methode for making negative reday for printing, the lack of a color-mask should not be to any trouble, and low speed could have its benefits now & then.

Having ample possibility to dev. both C41 in house, I belive that using it as a negative film would be the least critical when it comes to proper filtration & exposure. Anyone having thoughts about this?

Appreciate guesswork & words of experience on this one!

[Donald Qualls]

One semi-obvious solution to cure the blue cast in E-6 is to process the film for reversal in C-41.

No, really, it's simple to do. Just develop first in your choice of B&W developer, expose to light, and redevelop in a standard C-41 process. All the silver developed in the first developer will be bleached along with that produced in the C-41 color dev, but only the C-41 dev will produce dyes -- and you'll get a positive color image, with correct color balance (barring the need for filtration to counter the lack of an orange mask on the world -- the film is probably balance to need little or no filter for copying a conventional C-41 negative).

[Mark Sampson]

To correct for the tungsten balance, use an 85B filter on the camera... Develop as normal for C-41. An unmasked neg will require much more filtration in the enlarger, add 50R to your normal filter pack for starters. (It's almost 3 stops slower than color paper.) I've made many color transparencies for projection with this film, enlarged from color negs (its intended purpose), but have never used it in camera. Good luck- let us know what your results are.