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MACO™ Electron Microscope Films

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A new electron microscope film?

Let's face it, the digital revolution is destroying the entire conventional emulsion coating based photographic industry. With no new darkrooms being built, the big name enlarger and darkroom equipment manufacturers have either merged, shut down entirely, or are struggling to stay alive. The same is true for those who make plastic darkroom ware including developing trays, safe lights, etc. With digital photography, none of these items from the old days are needed. And the major photographic film manufacturers, have been shedding unprofitable emulsion product lines right and left, and this has been true for not only the European manufacturers like Agfa and Ilford (which happens to be in bankruptcy court) but also Fuji in Japan and Kodak in the USA. Since much of the TEM world lives on Kodak® Electron Microscope Film, which has been the standard of the industry, any thought that Kodak (or other firms) would suddenly one day announce that the TEM film was being discontinued, has been every TEM operator's worst nightmare.
Now enter MACO, a long time German manufacturing firm of a wide range of high quality coated emulsion products. MACO has made a substantial business out of picking up the manufacturing of discontinued products from the "big three". Working with SPI Supplies, MACO has been able to develop what we, as well as others, feel is an exact "plug in" replacement for Kodak SO-163" to "are exact plug-ins for Kodak SO-163 and 4489. OK, there might be needed some minor adjustment in the exposure conditions, but some who have tested the film report no such change is needed. They can use the same chemistry they have been using all along and there is no need to suddenly start using MACO chemicals (although that option is always available).

And as part of the agreement with MACO, SPI Supplies will be selling the new MACO film cheap. In fact, most people are astonished that it could be that much cheaper than SO-163 and 4489. So the first question is, how can the MACO TEM film be so much cheaper and still be good? Easy......we have eliminated all the middlemen from the distribution chain. The film flows directly from MACO to SPI Supplies and from SPI Supplies to our own distributors and end user customers.

Two new films from MACO:
The two MACO films are designated as If you have been a user of Kodak SO-163, you would find MACO EM film to be nearly a plug-in replacement. In fact, since the silver content is three times higher for the EM film than for SO-163, it will exhibit a much broader dynamic range. Putting it another way, some find the film to be preferable to SO-163. But because there is three times more silver, you will find that your fixer has to be replaced three times faster, not a serious price to pay considering what you are gaining.

If you are a user of Kodak 4489, you would find MACO ES film to be a close but not quite a plug-in replacement. You will find comparable high resolution characteristics. The silver content is more like Kodak 4489 so you will not experience any dramatic increase in fixer depletion rate.

So we hope you will try out the new MACO TEM films. We don't even want to get into the kind of contest of "which film is better". While we were not able to detect any significant differences between the two MACO vs. the two Kodak films, we won't claim that there are no differences. But we would expect that just like there have always been those arcane discussions over the years as to which of the various TEM films was "better", we would expect that would continue. But we offer this film to those customers who want and need an excellent film but are not going to worry about whether it is exactly on the cutting edge in terms of contrast or even grain size. We see our market as being those customers who are facing shrinking budgets and who would jump at the opportunity to save approximately 35% on their film costs.

More good news from MACO:
For those who have used Kodak 6415 Technical Pan Film, which is no longer available, MACO has recently introduced its MACOPHOT ORT25c black and white orthochromatic film, available in rolls, perforated and unperforated, as well as cut sheets. To the best that we can determine, when using the same chemistry you had been using for Kodak 6415, the MACOPHOT ORT25c either is or is close to being plug-in compatible.

And remember: Only SPI Supplies offers a flat rate shipping/handling/insurance program among those supplying the TEM market which means that if you do order film, everything else you order at the same time comes essentially freight free, another cost saving benefit when purchasing from SPI Supplies.

Emulsion products presently available for EM laboratories:


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Tuesday May 13, 2008
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