AshigrainColour print · Print film
Svema TsP-8R
Свема ЦП-8Р
The Soviet mass-release print, reds leaning orange.
The Soviet colour print paired with LN-9, with dyes from Konovalov 1997 and reconstructed curves: reds come out slightly magenta and desaturated. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- by 1969
- Process
- Svema cold colour-positive development (domestic ЦП-8Р recipe, 18-22 °C)
- Maximum density
- ≈ 2.8
About the film
Svema TsP-8R (Свема ЦП-8Р) was the colour print film of Soviet mass release copies, made by Svema in Shostka and also by Tasma in Kazan.
A 1979 cinematographer's handbook gives it as the print stock for LN-7, LN-8 and DS-5M negatives, and in the 1990s it printed LN-9. In 1980 the cinematographer Tatyana Loginova told the trade journal Tekhnika kino i televideniya that The Wild Hunt of King Stakh (1979) kept its silver-grey palette on an ORWO PC-7 reference print, but that the mass prints on TsP-8 had turned brownish-ginger, too dark and empty in the shadows. She called colour positive the most urgent problem for Soviet film chemists to solve. In 1990 Soviet cinema's need for colour positive was put at about a billion metres, of which only half arrived, and of its three suppliers, Svema, Tasma and East Germany's ORWO, only ORWO kept to its deliveries. After the Soviet Union broke up, Tasma stopped making cine film, Svema raised its prices close to foreign levels, and Russia's film authority turned to Kodak, Agfa and Fuji for print stock as well as negative. TsP-8R was developed cold, at 18 to 22 °C, in its own domestic colour-positive developer. Writing in 1997, Leonid Konovalov judged its cyan dye too blue, which makes reds print orange, and argued for a turquoise cyan instead.
Sources for this history
- Коновалов Л. Как разобраться в кинопленках (1997), Internet Archive
- Гордийчук И. Б., Пелль В. Г. Справочник кинооператора (1979), Internet Archive
- Иофис Е. А. Кинофотопроцессы и материалы (1980), Internet Archive
- Большая советская энциклопедия: Кинопромышленность, booksite.ru
- Артюшин Л. Ф., Барский И. А., Винокур В. А. Справочник кинооператора (1999), Internet Archive
- Изобразительное решение и техника съемки кинофильма «Дикая охота короля Стаха» (Техника кино и телевидения, 1980, № 10), Техника кино и телевидения
- Величко Г. В., Вороновский Л. И., Хайтовская Г. Т. Кинетика извлечения тиосульфата при обработке кинопленок (Техника кино и телевидения, 1981, № 8), Техника кино и телевидения
- Дефицит кинопленки становится все более острым (Хроника, 01.03.1990), Энциклопедия отечественного кино
- Цветные диапозитивы — средство образной информации (Советское фото, 1969, № 8), Советское фото
- «Техника кино и телевидения»: указатель статей за 1970 год (Тихонович С. Е. Способ повышения светочувствительности пленки ЦП-8Р в процессе обработки, № 7), Техника кино и телевидения
The look
Svema TsP-8R was the colour print stock of Soviet mass release copies, made by Svema in Shostka and Tasma in Kazan. It printed LN-7, LN-8 and DS-5M negatives, and in the 1990s LN-9. Leonid Konovalov found its cyan too blue, pushing reds towards orange.
LN-9 on its Soviet print vs on Kodak 2383: slightly magenta reds against the orange reds the literature describes.
A tungsten-lit interior on the Soviet print.
Best for
- Printing Svema LN-9 and DS-5M negatives
- Soviet release-print looks
- Comparing TsP-8R with Kodak 2383
Among the prints
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Kodak Vision3 500T night frame, printed on each film.
Science & sources
A Soviet colour print film, shown after Svema LN-9. Its dyes are digitised from Konovalov 1997; its other curves are reconstructed from Soviet specifications and handbooks, not digitised from a datasheet.
The following trademark notice is provided in English.
Svema is named only to identify the film; its trademarks belong to their respective owners, whose identity is unknown.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with the Ashigrain model on the same axes. This shows the calibration to source curves; comparison with photographed film is a separate question.
Characteristic response
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations, while halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. A real film capture also depends on development and print timing.
- Свема ЦП-8Р has no datasheet with curves. Its three dyes are digitised from a figure in Konovalov 1997, but its characteristic curves and spectral sensitivities are reconstructed from Soviet specifications and handbooks (Konovalov 1997; Гордийчук & Пелль 1979; Иофис 1980), not digitised from a datasheet.
- The spectral sensitivities follow the handbooks' general statements about Soviet positive films, not data specific to ЦП-8Р.
- The dye curves come without a printed neutral; the dye scales are taken as printed. No base or minimum-density spectrum is printed, so the spectral minimum density is approximated.
- No MTF or granularity is published for ЦП-8Р.
- The Status A grey aim is assumed: no laboratory aim densities are published. No lamp or filter spectrum has been published.
- Modelled projection flare raises screen blacks. Its strength is assumed because the available sources do not measure it, so it does not establish measured projection contrast.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
This preview combines the print film with the named camera negative. In this comparison, the print has no separate exposure index or measured grain response.
Sources
- Reconstructed: Гордийчук И. Б., Пелль В. Г. Справочник кинооператора (1979), 1979 edition, p. 189