{"product_id":"optik-oldschool-santacolor-100-35mm-colour-negative-film","title":"Optik Oldschool SantaColor 100 - 35mm Colour Negative Film","description":"\u003ch1\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOptik Oldschool SantaColor 100 - 35mm Colour Negative Film\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKodak aerial survey film, hand spooled and pointed at things much closer to the ground.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDesigned to resolve detail from several thousand feet. It turns out that translates rather well to a Tuesday afternoon in town.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOptik Oldschool SantaColor 100 35mm Film is an ISO 100 daylight-balanced colour negative film made from Kodak Aerocolor IV, an emulsion built for aerial mapping and reconnaissance. Manufactured in the USA and hand spooled in Finland. Very fine grain, exceptional sharpness, and usable latitude from ISO 25 to 800. Standard C-41, 36 exposures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Makes Optik Oldschool SantaColor 100 Habit-Forming\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAn Emulsion That Was Never Meant for You\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKodak Aerocolor IV was made for medium and high altitude aerial mapping and reconnaissance work. It reached photographers through a crowdfunding campaign in 2022, and the reasons it had not arrived sooner are worth knowing. Kodak's minimum order came to roughly fifteen thousand rolls, and the film is too thin for standard spooling machinery, so every roll has to be wound by hand. That is a great deal of effort to get an aerial emulsion into a 35mm cassette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVery Fine Grain, Exceptional Sharpness\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA film designed to resolve ground detail from altitude has to be sharp, and this one is. Grain is very fine and detail holds up under scrutiny, which is why it turns up so often in conversations about the sharpest colour negative films currently available.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePunchy Reds, Lush Greens\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSaturation sits above Kodak's Portra series without reaching Ektar, and the contrast curve is longer than Ektar's. In practice that means colour with real presence that still holds its shape in the highlights, and a red response that is noticeably strong. Scans tend to come through on the warm side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLatitude From ISO 25 to 800\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the characteristic that keeps people buying it. The film gives acceptable results anywhere from ISO 25 to ISO 800 with appropriate pulling or pushing. Rated at 400 and pushed two stops in development it returns accurate colour with almost no visible grain, which is not a trick most emulsions will perform. Tell your lab what you rated it at and the rest follows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Base Is Not a Normal Negative Base\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe honest complication. This is not a conventional orange-masked colour negative, which is a consequence of its aerial origins rather than a defect. It affects inversion, and scans can come out looking wrong if whoever is doing the inverting treats it like ordinary C-41. The film is fine. The handling needs to know what it is looking at, which is worth bearing in mind when choosing where to send it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHand Spooled, With What That Implies\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery roll is wound by hand because machinery cannot handle film this thin. That is part of why it costs what it costs. It also means a little more variation between rolls than you would get from a factory-loaded cassette, which most people accept as the price of the emulsion being available at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eNo Remjet, No Complications\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike respooled cine stocks, there is no remjet backing to remove. It goes through standard C-41 at any colour lab without special handling, including ours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e36 Exposures\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA full 36-exposure roll in standard 35mm format.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e35mm, 36 exposures\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISO\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e100\/21°\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eType\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColour negative\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProcess\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eC-41, no remjet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLatitude\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISO 25 to 800 with pull or push\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSource emulsion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKodak Aerocolor IV\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMade in\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUSA, spooled in Finland\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eIs SantaColor 100 the same as Elektra, Aeronega or Maverick?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey all come from Kodak Aerocolor IV. What differs is who spools it, what speed they rate it at, how it is packaged and what it costs. We stock four of them because those differences are real even when the emulsion is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/products\/flic-film-elektra-100\"\u003eFlic Film Elektra 100\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/products\/alien-aeronega-35mm-colour-negative-film\"\u003eAlien Film Aeronega 100\u003c\/a\u003e rate it at 100, as this one does. \u003ca href=\"\/products\/this-is-how-i-roll-maverick-125\"\u003eThis Is How I Roll Maverick 125\u003c\/a\u003e rates it at 125 and comes hand-rolled into a recycled canister with no DX code, so you set the ISO yourself. Given how much latitude the emulsion has, the difference between 100 and 125 matters less here than it would on a less forgiving film. Pick on price, packaging and whose spooling you trust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCan you push SantaColor 100?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes, and it is one of the reasons to buy it. Rate it anywhere from 25 to 800 and pull or push to match. At 400 pushed two stops it comes back with accurate colour and almost no visible grain. Tell us the rating when you send it in, because we cannot see it on the cassette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eDoes SantaColor 100 need special processing?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. There is no remjet layer, so it runs through standard C-41 alongside everything else. The only thing worth flagging to your lab is the rating if you shot it off box speed, and the unusual base, which affects inversion rather than development.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBest For\u003c\/strong\u003e Landscape, travel, street and general daylight photography where sharpness and colour presence matter more than a forgiving meter reading. The latitude makes it unusually versatile for a slow film, so one roll can cover bright midday and dim interiors if you commit to a rating and push accordingly. C-41 development, scanning and printing are available here, and since we know what the base is, we invert it accordingly. Tell us what speed you shot it at.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerfect for:\u003c\/strong\u003e Photographers who want the sharpest colour negative they can load, anyone drawn to emulsions with an industrial past, shooters who like one film covering several situations through pushing, and anyone whose dependency has reached the stage of finding surveillance film genuinely romantic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAerocolor IV has been quietly doing serious work for years while photographers argued about Portra and Ektar. Getting it into a cassette took a crowdfunding campaign, a fifteen thousand roll order and a lot of hand winding, which tells you something about how much people wanted it. Shoot it at box speed for fine grain and strong colour, or rate it at 400 and push it, and either way you get something that does not look much like anything else in the fridge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe faster stablemate is \u003ca href=\"\/products\/optik-oldschool-santacolor-800-35mm-colour-negative-film\"\u003eSantaColor 800\u003c\/a\u003e, which shares the name and nothing else, and the rest of the range sits in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/optik-oldschool\"\u003eOptik Oldschool\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Optik Oldschool","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58435897590134,"sku":null,"price":10.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0941\/3892\/5430\/files\/SantaColor100.jpg?v=1786480358","url":"https:\/\/chemicaldependency.co.uk\/products\/optik-oldschool-santacolor-100-35mm-colour-negative-film","provider":"Chemical Dependency Lab","version":"1.0","type":"link"}