Any Use of Copy Film?

[RedSun]

I've seen some old copy film, mostly BW, just wonder what they can be used for these days. Can I use them, say 4x5, like regular BW film?

[Andrew O'Neill]

Does it produce a direct positive?

[RedSun]

Not sure. That one is Aristatone Continuous tone.

[Vaughn]

My experience is with Kodak Copy Film. Very sensitive to small changes in exposure and development -- which would be more than an advanced beginner would usually want to deal with...where getting consistent usable negs for silver printing is desired. But those same qualities can be used to get not only 'normal' negatives but also for negs for other alt photo uses. I was using it to get the high contrast continous tone negs I wanted for carbon printing (DR of the neg a little over 2) -- especially when the scene was lacking in a lot of contrast to begin with (like only 4 or 5 stops).

The draw backs is that it is usually quite slow and orthochromatic. Neither bothered me much in my landscape work. It was a bit more expensive than Tri-X and TMax, but Kodak Copy Film is one I miss. Rollei Ortho25 seems to be a good replacement -- but costly and I do not know its present availability. I have used four sheets or so from a ten-pack so far.

[lacavol]

I've only ever dealt with Kodak Rapid Process Copy Film it is 135 B&W reversal film. I still have some left even though it expired in 1991. The best results I have gotten to date were at Sunny 16 outdoor lighting. I exposed the film at f11 for 30 seconds and processed for 6 minutes in HC110 1+49. Still a little contrasty but interesting. I'm thinking about trying 1+60 at 6 minutes and maybe 35 seconds.

Oh, hi I've been lurking for a while. Don't have a LF camera yet, just a Horseman 2X3 is my largest.

[RedSun]

This makes sense. I was interested in some 4x5 BW copy films. It appears it is limited in its use, mainly for archiving. You may be able to stretch, but it is not for general use.
Well, if the price is good, I may try some ot if.

[Mark Sampson]

There have been many, many types of b/w 'copy' film. Kodak alone must have made forty or fifty different types, and there are a few still being made. To generalize fearlessly, compared to normal b/w camera film they tend to be slow, contrasty, fine-grained, and not panchromatic. They were meant for use in the lab; but with some testing you can use them as camera films, but none of them will look like Tri-X, FP4+, or whatever normal film you are used to.

[rjmeyer314]

Somewhere in my files I have an article from a photo magazine on using Copy film for low contrast pictorial situations. I've tried it and got good negatives from it. For the most part I used copy film to make negatives for a bunch of old family photos for which the negatives had been lost.

[cyrus]

Copy film is mostly used in darkrooms for making masks

[E. von Hoegh]

Copy film is mostly used in darkrooms for making masks

Yes, there was also a type for duplicating slides IIRC.