20x24 color film?

[RETRO MoGraph]

Hi folks,

I'm just tire-kicking here, but i'm curious, has 20x24 color film ever been available?

I know about the discontinued Polaroid and also some DIY efforts, and i saw Portra listed up to 20x24 on a couple of legacy webpages.

But as far as i can tell there is nothing currently available.

I heard about some intermittent production runs by Kodak & Ilford that happen when enough speciality orders have amassed, but perhaps that's only for B&W film?

Thanks for your time!

[Mark Sampson]

As I understand it, Kodak has very large minimum requirements for film special orders. Keith Canham, the camera maker, often organizes such orders from Kodak; I'd ask him.
Ilford offers film special orders once a year, but that is for black-and-white only, of course.
i haven't heard of Fuji offering special orders, but perhaps someone else here can answer that question.
And apart from the cost of purchasing 20x24 color film, there's the related question of who could process it.

[Drew Wiley]

You'd have to process it yourself in 20X24 drums, one sheet at a time. If it can be custom cut to that size at all by Kodak, it's likely to cost you over $200 every time you trip the shutter, for each shot. And the bulk order might be well over $10,000. The odds of anyone else joining such a pool would be quite unlikely. I don't see the point in it. Even if you build a 20X24 color enlarger - a daunting prospect - the depth of field issues alone won't compete with 8X10 results in large prints. And near contact-print quality can be obtained using 8X10 enlargements with critical apo enlarging lenses and other optimized protocol, including the right film and paper. The proof is in the pudding. I just made some of those last week, and will soon do more. The film flatness issue alone would require a specialized holder of either vac or adhesive variety. Lots of logistical problems.

But no harm kicking the tires, and imagining. Just don't kick the Rolls Royce hood ornament.

[Tin Can]

A special few have ordered and used

They don't brag

Remeber the NYC Train station

Perhaps I saw some in California at the Movie in the round with standing only with a guard rail

I was amazed!

[Oren Grad]

Yes. See, for example:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...00057174681726

If you're seriously interested, ask Keith Canham:

https://canhamcameras.com/kodakfilm.html

+1 to what Drew said about the cost.

[Drew Wiley]

Many of the NYC station Colorama prints were enlarged from 35mm, and some from 8x10 originals. The nearby separate suite of big DT prints was enlarged mostly from 4X5. I once talked to the owner of the former lab which made the DT's. It's probably been quite awhile since Kodak cut anything larger than 11X14, and back then it probably would have been Vericolor L. Some of that turned up at an estate sale in this area a few years ago when a big studio owner passed away. To prove there was actually film in the boxes, the idiot in charge of the auction actually opened up the boxes and took cell phone shots of the film inside them! But it was all no doubt hopelessly outdated anyway, on shelves all those years and never frozen. The biggest chrome film was 11X14, while color neg was present in 8X10, 11X14, and 12X20. The largest commercial enlargers made, and once in use in the Bay Area, were only up to 11X14 capacity, so all this was relative to contact printing instead, possibly by a local DT outfit still in the area at the time. That particular studio mostly did medium format portraiture via ordinary C-print optical enlargement. It was almost an assembly-line operation in a big attractive building. One of their former assistants who did a lot of the actual shooting left, opened window business in the same neighborhood, and then ended up in our window & door dept across the Bay, and is due to retire this winter.

[Tin Can]

I never open FB

However I have been in 2 buys with Mr Canham

Thanks Oren

Yes. See, for example:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...00057174681726

If you're seriously interested, ask Keith Canham:

https://canhamcameras.com/kodakfilm.html

+1 to what Drew said about the cost.

[RETRO MoGraph]

Thanks guys,

So with all these headaches, why does anyone shoot on 20x24?

[domaz]

Thanks guys,

So with all these headaches, why does anyone shoot on 20x24?

Probably for 20x24 color contact prints. Is it worth it? That's really for you to decide.

[RETRO MoGraph]

Probably for 20x24 color contact prints. Is it worth it? That's really for you to decide.

Right!

To be honest, i didn't see much in 20 x 24 that impressed me .... seems kinda like the extreme mountaineering of photography: "We do it because it's there"! ....... I'm not a fan of shallow depth of field, perhaps that's part of the problem?