Last year, for an episode of the Classic Camera Revival, I interviewed Pedro, the owner of Máquinas de Outros Tempos, or Machines from Another Time, a dedicated film lab and camera shop in Porto, Portugal. One of the other projects that the company runs is Cinemot, a supplier of film, both respooled and directly contracted for production. After listening to Pedro’s passion for film photography, I decided to order some of the film stocks offered by the company the black-and-white offerings. More importantly, I ordered these directly from Cinemot, and the time it took to get from Portugal to Canada was rather quick. Those being Açores 400P, Pessoa 400D, Fado 200D, and Amália 100D. These arrived in Fall 2025, but having already run out the year’s schedule, I made a point of shooting the four rolls I ordered through January.
Nikon D750 – AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8
Cinemot Açores 400P
The name of this film stock, Açores, is for a series of nine islands that form an archipelago located 1450km west of Lisbon and 2449km east of Newfoundland. You probably know this archipelago as the Azores. The islands are known for their natural beauty and whale watching. This is a 400-speed with panchromatic sensitivity. I went and shot this roll at the box speed. I decided to run the film through the Nikkormat FT2 with the 28mm f/3.5 lens and then developed it in FlicFilm Classic MQ at the stock dilution.
The one thing I noted is that the film is on a thin base, which didn’t cause much trouble when loading it onto the reel for developing. The negatives came out looking good, with plenty of density and detail. With that thin base, the film dried flat, making scanning easy. Silverfast 9 and my V700 handled them well, and they scanned in decently with only minor adjustments needed. The images certainly came in high contrast, but the conditions didn’t help. But even so, in some cases, I got great mid-tones, and in better light, they would look even better overall. One thing that took me by surprise is the fine grain; there is some visible grain, which adds to the sharpness of the images, but nothing too serious.
This film would work better with a bit of under-exposure or a bit less development. One of the folks on Flickr suggested N -1, which I could see working. For the first roll, I am impressed with the results, and they’re a lot better than I was expecting from past experiences with films on a thin base. I cannot say what this stock is based on, but better light would give better results. While not my favourite, Açores certainly impressed.
Cinemot Pessoa 400D
Named after the noted Portuguese writer, Fernando Pessoa, are the country’s famed modernist writers. Pessoa began writing at a young age and would often write under different names, including those of fictional characters. Pessoa coined the phrase heteronyms to describe the some seventy-five characters that he wrote under. Pessoa did fiction, Poems, Critiques, and even translated works. This film is noted for its high sharpness and sensitivity in both bright and low-light conditions. I went and shot this roll at ASA 400 through the Minolta Maxxum 9 with the Maxxum 28-135mm f/4-4.5, and developed it in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B.
Like the roll of Açores, Pessoa also has a thin base, but I had no issues loading it onto my reels for development. I initially planned to use a more dilute HC-110 mix, either H or F, but, in the interests of time, I went with B. The negatives came out of the tank looking thin, but I could see some details. The negatives did scan in far darker than I expected, but with a bit of work in Silverfast and Photoshop, I was able to pull out some workable images. The results were similar to what I got with Açores 400P. The grain and sharpness were around the same. I couldn’t say much about the contrast because the negatives were so dark, but I think the tonality is about the same quality.
There is significant potential with Pessoa 400D. I’m actually surprised at how much I liked the stock. But why were the negatives dark? There are a couple of reasons that I can think of. First, the weather conditions: I was shooting on a dull day with bright white snow, so that will always trick a camera meter no matter which mode you’re metering in. And the Maxxum 9 has a solid meter. Second, the development time was too short; maybe a little extra push in development to bring out those shadows. Another option is to give the film a touch of overexposure, rate it at ASA 320, then develop according to the listed times.
Cinemot Fado 200D
Fado is named for a popular music style that is emblematic of Portugal and the Portuguese people. It is a music that carries the emotion of love, sorrow and emotion. The film is noted for its high-contrast and works well in low light and situations that need that contrast boost. I ended up shooting this roll at the box speed of ASA-200 through the Minolta Maxxum 7 with the Maxxum 28mm f/2.8 lens, I didn’t add any filter. I went and developed this roll in ZoneImaging 510-Pyro at a 1+100 dilution by using a calculated development time based on my parallel processing technique.
Fado, like the previous roll, also had a thin base, but again, it didn’t give me too much trouble getting it onto the reel. The negatives looked fantastic, exactly in line with a roll developed in Pyro, and they held the stain nicely and had a good density in the frames. And things only got better once I got the film into the scanner. I did have to do a bit of work in post-processing to get a bit more detail out of the negatives, but that’s where 510-Pyro shone. I love the tonality despite the dull weather conditions and tricky metering. There’s also great grain structure and sharpness that doesn’t add too much to visible grain.
Fado 200D is a clear winner in these trials, and while I did give it a leg up by using 510-Pyro. But this is a look and feel I like in my film photography: good medium contrast, sharpness, and a bit of visible grain without overpowering the image. Also, unlike the previous two entries, 200 is the proper speed for this film, but you still have a bit of wiggle room on either side.
Cinemot Amália 100D
The final roll of film I shot is also the slowest, Amália 100D is named for Amália Rodrigues. Rodrigues is a noted singer and actress and best known for her work in the Fado genre. The film is characterised as being fine grained and high contrast. I went and shot the roll at ASA-100 through the Nikon F5 and the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D lens with a yellow filter and then I developed it in Blazinal at 1+25.
Amália, unlike the previous rolls, had a slightly thicker film base and loaded onto the reels easily. When pulling it out from the tank, I noticed some banding on the negatives; it looked like a regular line of light leaks onto the film. I checked my tank, camera, and change back, and all the seals are good. Sadly, there were some quality issues with the actual film, but there were enough workable frames to make it okay. The frames that worked look good, plenty of density and detail. The results I did get are clean, the film responded beautifully to the yellow filter, and even in the challenging metering conditions, I ended up with beautiful tones and contrast. Using Rodinal increased the visible grain, but not too much, and the results are sharp.
I wish I had gotten more frames from this roll, because I had some fantastic shots on it that would have worked if it weren’t for that light leak running right through the frame. Before you say it’s my camera, I checked everything on the F5 and in my processing, and I didn’t encounter any similar leaks, which is why I’m going to give this film another shot next year. But I did like Amália and the result I did get, and it shows potential.
A Final Say
Overall, I enjoyed these films, with Fado 200D as my favourite of the four. Honestly, this is a look and feel I like in my film photography: good medium contrast, sharpness, and a bit of visible grain without overpowering the image. While I originally planned to review only one Cinemot film next year, I’ve since changed my mind and will review three. And those films are Açores 400P, Fado 200D, and Amália 100D. I’m sure I will eventually review Pessoa 400D, but not next year. The best place to get your hands on this stuff, and even try out some colour films from Cinemot, is directly from their online shop at cinemotfilm.com. Or if you happen to be in Porto, Portugal or can visit the beautiful city, make sure to pop into the shop and say hello! Máquinas de Outros Tempos is located at Rua dos Mártires da Liberdade 154, 4050-359 Porto, Portugal.