Ancient wisdom required (silver halide)

[SiriusB]

A bit of a strange question in the 21st century i know but...

Does anyone know which currently available 35mm films col/ b/w /slide work best for astrophotography? seem to remember

something about reciprocity failure??

My last foray into astrophotography many many moons ago was a dismal failure.Thought i might give it another bash.

As i have a collection of old 35mm slr gear i'd like to start with that- try to get the basics right before splashing out on any digital kit.

At worst i waste a few £ on film, if i go the digital route now it could all end in (expensive) tears.

You all with me now?

Hence the odd question

[steppenwolf]

Many a fine image has been taken using SLRs and good old fashioned film.

Despite astro objects being relatively dim, don't be tempted to use too high an ISO number film though as images will become grainy which is the equivalent of 'thermal noise' in a digital image. Lower ISO numbers will require longer exposures but colour saturation (with colour film) will be better with lower ISO and signal to 'noise' ratio will be better with mono film using lower ISO values.

Reciprocity failure will play a part in this unfortunately as film does not respond in a linear manner like a digital sensor so doubling exposure time will not necessarily result in an apparent doubling of the light collection.

[SiriusB]

Thanks Steve,

But can you recommend any particular films?

My Favourite daytime films are fuji superia, ilford hp5 & fuji velvia, but they might be useless for astro work for all i know?

[barkis]

Effect of reciprocity failure on various colour films.

Film......................................Colour shift toward

Ektachrome 64........................Yellow

Ektachrome 200.......................Cyan

Kodachrome 400......................Red (Slightly)

Kodachrome 25........................Yellow

Kodachrome 64........................Little change

Fujichrome 400........................Red Slightly

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A table taken from Michael Covingtons Astrophotography book.

Not sure if all, or any of these films are still available.

The numbers to the right of the films, are their ISO speeds.

The reciprocity effect on each type is to the right.

The book has lots of Info. so if there is anything in particular you need to know, I will have a look for it in the book.

Hope you are able to get started with your SLR and film AP.

It is still medium in use these days I'm sure.

Ron.

[steppenwolf]

Fujichrome Provia 400F RHP III Pro was a good choice for red sensitivity from what I recall and the amateur version of this, Sensia 400 had similar characteristics. Can't comment on others I'm afraid as it is some time since I did slide photography!

[SiriusB]

Ok, thanks for the help guys, i'll see if any of these are still available & go from there- i've a feeling several have got the bullet, but we shall see.

Any black & white films ok anyone?

Yes its slowly coming back- no good using colour print film for A.P.- they make a dogs

dinner of 'em at the printers.Got to be slide or b&w!

[davew]

E200 is / was good. Haven't seen it recently. Mr Cad had some the last time I looked.

I take it you remember how long the shutter has to stay open ? Your going to need an accurate mount or do star trails.

Good luck.

Dave.

[rabbithutch]

Kodak quit making Kodachrome some months back.

It really makes one of my favorite Paul Simon songs out of date.

[barkis]

Tri-X Tech Pan, but I think HP5 replaced that.

Kodak Tech. Pan 2415 was a very fine grained B&W film, and even un hypered, was good on deep sky in about 30 minute exposures.

Info.from Covingtons AP book again.

Ron.

[davew]

You could visit Cloudy Nights - Telescope Reviews: Viewing forum: Film Astrophotography

Plenty of reading there.

Dave.

[Tim]

ooooh, a blast from the past as they say! Lots of old favourites mentioned above, but it must be 25 years since I was in a darkroom fiddling with refilling film cases with film from a can! We have it SOOO darned easy these days!

[dmahon]

If you're going to use Kodachrome, I'd get a move on:

Photojournalist Steve McCurry has had the pleasure of shooting the very last roll of Kodachrome 35mm film manufactured by Kodak. It was processed at Dwayne’s in Parson, Kansas. Dwayne’s is the last Kodachrome processing lab in the world. It’s Kodachrome services end December 10, 2010

[SiriusB]

You could visit Cloudy Nights - Telescope Reviews: Viewing forum: Film Astrophotography

Plenty of reading there.

Dave.

Thanks for the link Dave, some really useful info there.

I don't think my mounting is up to anything too serious, but i'm gona start out with some piggyback stuff, If all goes well i might look into some proper imaging gear, but as that quickly gets expensive, i'll see what i can learn on the cheap first.

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

[andrew63]

As an aside, with the cost of film and the time and wastage, you can get cheap digital cameras these days, and people are always flogging stuff in the non sensical drive for mega pixels - i have more in my phones than in my camera!