Film Rescue
Disc film - A buyers guide
There were four primary manufactures of Kodak's disc film format. They were
Kodak
Fuji
3M
Konica
Not to be saying anything at all about the quality of these films when they were new the following is a duscussion of what the trend is when developing these films now.
First off you must be aware and very aware of the generation number of any particular disc film. it's location is noted in lovely red text in the supplied photo. The higher the number the newer the film per brand. That is not to say that a Kodak gen 3 is the same vintage as a Fuji gen 3. They're not. I'll do my best to explain...anyone that knows better then I do please don't hesitate to let me know and I'll check and change the info if I can
Kodak manufactured generations 1 to 8. Number ones from the inception of disc film in 81 and 8s from the discontinuation of disc film in 97. The other generations fall pretty evenly inbetween. It does not follow that the older the film the worse condition that it is in. Here's the kodak trend. Number 1s turn out better then 2s to 5s but 2s to 5s get progressively better. Of all of the Kodak disc film the number 6s are the worst. 90% percent of them have some degree of solarization (some dye layers reversing out into positive creating a this effect). 30% of the number sevens are the same while the other 70 are generally still pretty good. Number 8s are the Cadillac of any unexposed disc film that you may find. Almost all are at least OK. Avoid 5 to 2 progressively more. Shoot a 6 if you want something really whacky looking, take a chance with a 7 or a 1 and if you find an 8 grab it!
The Fujis go from gen 1 to gen 3. Not sure when they introduced their film but I'd bet it wasn't too long after Kodak...a year tops I'd guess. Also I will have expected Fuji to have bailed out a bit sooner then kodak did but I'm not sure when...my best guess would be early to mid 90s. The higher the generation number with fuji the better but overall they trend worse then both Kodak and 3M. I'd avoid these for purchase now.
3M goes from gen 1 to 3 and much of what I said for fuji would be the same but I expect they got in a bit later. The higher the number the better the condition of unshot disc film. 3Ms generally turn out pretty well yet....that is with some consideration for their vintage. Buy as high of generation number as you can.
Lastly is Konica. They too had generation numbers from 1 to 3. These are for the most part all in pretty miserable shape if still unexposed. I'd aviod these even more so then the Fujis.
Worthy of note....expired film looses sensitivity to light....the older the film the brighter the light you might want to shoot in.
There are only three places worth considering sending your disc film to for development in North America. They are
Dwaynes
Fast and inexpensive. No special handling - if your film is in good shape so will the prints. There is no digital step so there is no digital improvements to the images. Garbage in garbage out. You won't beat the price and how amazingly fast you get the film back.
Film Rescue
Developed in high contrast AN-6 aerial film developer, scanned, quick digital fix-up and uploaded for preview so customer can choose and pay for only the pics they want. No charge if film is blank. Decent price but they operate in a 30 to 40 day cycle. Just miss the start of a cycle and it could take as long 9 weeks to get the online preview. Hit the beginning though the preview can be as fast as 3 weeks.
Rapid Photo
More expensive then the other two options but comes with all images regardless. Seem to be good honest folks trying to do things right. Includes cd and prints and modified developer to improve condition of film. Likely faster then Film Rescue to actually have the product back in your hands.
Sorry as I write these I must admit that I'm biased as one of the above companies is mine...I did my best though.
Have fun!
Disc film - A buyers guide
There were four primary manufactures of Kodak's disc film format. They were
Kodak
Fuji
3M
Konica
Not to be saying anything at all about the quality of these films when they were new the following is a duscussion of what the trend is when developing these films now.
First off you must be aware and very aware of the generation number of any particular disc film. it's location is noted in lovely red text in the supplied photo. The higher the number the newer the film per brand. That is not to say that a Kodak gen 3 is the same vintage as a Fuji gen 3. They're not. I'll do my best to explain...anyone that knows better then I do please don't hesitate to let me know and I'll check and change the info if I can
Kodak manufactured generations 1 to 8. Number ones from the inception of disc film in 81 and 8s from the discontinuation of disc film in 97. The other generations fall pretty evenly inbetween. It does not follow that the older the film the worse condition that it is in. Here's the kodak trend. Number 1s turn out better then 2s to 5s but 2s to 5s get progressively better. Of all of the Kodak disc film the number 6s are the worst. 90% percent of them have some degree of solarization (some dye layers reversing out into positive creating a this effect). 30% of the number sevens are the same while the other 70 are generally still pretty good. Number 8s are the Cadillac of any unexposed disc film that you may find. Almost all are at least OK. Avoid 5 to 2 progressively more. Shoot a 6 if you want something really whacky looking, take a chance with a 7 or a 1 and if you find an 8 grab it!
The Fujis go from gen 1 to gen 3. Not sure when they introduced their film but I'd bet it wasn't too long after Kodak...a year tops I'd guess. Also I will have expected Fuji to have bailed out a bit sooner then kodak did but I'm not sure when...my best guess would be early to mid 90s. The higher the generation number with fuji the better but overall they trend worse then both Kodak and 3M. I'd avoid these for purchase now.
3M goes from gen 1 to 3 and much of what I said for fuji would be the same but I expect they got in a bit later. The higher the number the better the condition of unshot disc film. 3Ms generally turn out pretty well yet....that is with some consideration for their vintage. Buy as high of generation number as you can.
Lastly is Konica. They too had generation numbers from 1 to 3. These are for the most part all in pretty miserable shape if still unexposed. I'd aviod these even more so then the Fujis.
Worthy of note....expired film looses sensitivity to light....the older the film the brighter the light you might want to shoot in.
There are only three places worth considering sending your disc film to for development in North America. They are
Dwaynes
Fast and inexpensive. No special handling - if your film is in good shape so will the prints. There is no digital step so there is no digital improvements to the images. Garbage in garbage out. You won't beat the price and how amazingly fast you get the film back.
Film Rescue
Developed in high contrast AN-6 aerial film developer, scanned, quick digital fix-up and uploaded for preview so customer can choose and pay for only the pics they want. No charge if film is blank. Decent price but they operate in a 30 to 40 day cycle. Just miss the start of a cycle and it could take as long 9 weeks to get the online preview. Hit the beginning though the preview can be as fast as 3 weeks.
Rapid Photo
More expensive then the other two options but comes with all images regardless. Seem to be good honest folks trying to do things right. Includes cd and prints and modified developer to improve condition of film. Likely faster then Film Rescue to actually have the product back in your hands.
Sorry as I write these I must admit that I'm biased as one of the above companies is mine...I did my best though.
Have fun!