American Cinematographer - April 2000 - 124

allows
of

a

momentary

concentration

photoelectrons, which

are gener¬
the time of exposure. This
concentration of additional electrons

ated

at

contributes

to more

efficient latent-

image formation and, later on, to
development of that latent
image. The SUFG technology is
incorporated into all the layers of the
better

emulsion, and the result of this tech¬

nology is a high-speed stock with
considerably reduced grain.

Cinematographers Jay Holben and
Christopher Probst conduct rigorous tests of
Fuji Film's Super-F and Eastman Kodak's
Vision series of motion picture emulsions.
Part 1 of 2
by Jay Holben

The first of the SUFG emul¬
sions
F

to

be unveiled

500T

was Fuji's Super(8572/8672), which was

followed

by the remaining stocks in
the name for the
stocks has not changed - they are all
still designated as the Super-F series
all of the stocks with a product
identification number ending in a "2"
have been updated to include the
latest technologies from Fujifilm's
this series. Although

-

laboratories. These stocks include
silver-halide

(to be concluded next month),

In this two-part series ofarticles
American

offer
the

Eastman

Cinematographer will
thorough examination of
Fujifilm Super-F and

a

Kodak Vision series of

motion

picture negatives. In our
attempt to offer definitive informa¬
tion about the behaviors of these

tools-of-the-trade
treatments,

under

various

each article will examine

the

design of the various emulsions
as recent improvements)
before presenting the results and
analyses of the intensive technical
tests, which were performed by cine¬
matographers Jay Holben and
Christopher Probst. The first of these
two comprehensive examinations
will present the results of the Fujifilm
Super-F series test.
(as well

Redefining
One of the

the physics

stumbling blocks
for emulsion engineers has always
been the cinematographer's demand
for more speed and less grain. This
oxymoron of physics presents
designers with quite a challenge - in
order to improve granularity, the
18

April 2000

crystals themselves must

8522/8622

(64D), 8532/8632 (125T),

be reduced in size, which also reduces
the light sensitivity of the film. To

8552/8652 (250T), 8562/8662 (250D)
and 8572/8672 (500T).

achieve

Another of Fuji's advances is
incorporation of Super DIR
Couplers and Two-Stage DoubleTiming DIR Compounds. These
innovations offer vast improvements
in sharpness and color reproduction
over traditional
high-speed emul¬
sions through a more precisely

a

high-speed and fine-grain

emulsion, the engineers at Fujifilm
have created

a
technology called
Super Unified Fine Grain (SUFG)
and incorporated it in the new
Super-F series of motion-picture
negative films.
The SUFG technology consists
of thin, hexagonal, tabular grains,

each of which is consistent in

shape
and size throughout all of the emul¬
sion layers. This thinner, flat grain
has a larger surface area, relative to its
size, that allows the crystal to have the
same
sensitivity as conventional
silver-halide grains, at one-third the
size. This allows engineers to main¬
tain the same emulsion speed with
smaller grains. Furthermore, the
grains are oriented parallel to the
film surface, allowing any incidental
light to be directed toward the lower
layers, while at the same time
controlling the scattering of light so
that exposure blurs can be kept to a
minimum. At the edge of each tabu¬
lar grain is a high-density region that

the

controlled release of high-diffusional

development inhibitors. The Super
DIR Couplers provide greater control
over the release of
development
inhibitors between adjacent layers of
the film emulsion; the Two-Stage
Double Timing DIR Compounds
further refine this process through a
two-stage chemical delay in dye
inhibitors that results in a sharp, vivid
color reproduction.
In normal development, a
development inhibiting releasing
(DIR) coupler limits the size of dye
"cloud" that is created when the

silver-halide
grain
is
processed and coupled to a dye
grain. Without DIR Couplers, the
dye cloud, like a droplet of water on

latent
American Cinematographer - April 2000

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