Light or Dark, Chocolate is one of my favourite treats, especially in ice cream form. But when it comes to film, it becomes a classic type 100 film that I loved to work with for the limited time I had access to well-stored packed. I first got a taste for this lovely film during the earliest days of the Impossible Project when the folks got their hands on an entire warehouse of new-old-stock of integral and packed films and sold them to help raise capital for the recreation of integral films. And I went with a whole pile of different options, colour, black & white,Read More →

Respooling and shooting motion picture films have been around for several years now. The Vision3 line of the film presents a somewhat affordable way to shoot colour film since it is far more readily available than dedicated still photography film. But most people have been developing this film in C-41 chemistry. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, my first experiences with motion picture film developed in C-41 at home. And CineStill strips away the remjet layer specifically to allow motion picture film to be developed in C-41 lab machines. But technically, processing motion picture films, specifically Kodak Vision3 films, in C-41 chemistry is cross-processing. KodakRead More →

Once you have it down, one of the most satisfying parts of home development is taking it to the next level is building your B&W developer. And the first developer for many photographers that they brewed up themselves, including me, is Caffenol. As the name implies, it’s a developer with a coffee base. Specifically, the caffeic acid that is found in instant coffee. While it’s easy to buy all the raw material in your average grocery store to build your caffenol, there is something nice about having a ready-made pack. And it should come as no surprise that the fine folks at the Film PhotographyRead More →

Am I crazy for reviewing a camera that you can have for a song? Maybe? But I’m out here to talk about a camera that many will pass over due to age and the slow autofocus speeds. But when it comes to cameras in the history of photography, the F-401 fits in a strange little niche often forgotten next to the more advanced cameras of the day and, of course, the almighty F90/N90(x/s). And while I have given away the F90, and it gets far more use with its new owner, when I saw the F-401 offered up for free, I jumped on the camera.Read More →

When it comes to films that are not designed for normal pictorial use, I’m not one to shy away from them. That being especially after I went through three of the FilmWashi offerings, one of them being an Optical Audio Recording film. Even before I had loaded up Washi S into a camera, I had been approached by the Film Photography Project to beta test a new film they had acquired and were planned to release after collecting some developing times for the film. The name was FPP Super Sonic, and like Washi S, is an optical audio recording film. The idea of recording audioRead More →

Back last year I made a single roll review of the Eastman 2238 film, but now that I have a lot more resources available to me and having found three rolls sitting in my storage, I decided to do a proper review of this beautiful film stock. As I mentioned in the one-roll review, 2238 is what is called a Panchromatic Separation Film and is used to create archival film prints from colour film prints. Unlike past speciality motion-picture stocks this is a Panchromatic film, meaning it is sensitive across all the colour spectrums. Now, 2238, like all films, is not designed for regular pictorialRead More →

Among those who have shot the Derev Pan line of films the favourite is Derev Pan 400, and I do agree with that. When I ran the beta tests for the film, it was Pan 400, that was my favourite. Being a 400-Speed film, I thought there would be more grain than I expected, images were super sharp, incredible tones and contrast. You can run this film through any situation and developer and get some incredible results! Film Specs Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base: Polyester Film Speed: ASA-400, Latitude: Suspected +/- 2 Stops. Formats Avaliable: 135 (35mm) Roll 01 – Kodak D-76 I have toRead More →

When I initially beta tested the Derev Pan films the one film that was missing from the test pack with the middle child, Derev Pan 200, so this is a brand new film for me. There aren’t many mid-range speed films on the market today, especially in black & white films. You have Rollei Superpan 200, Derev Pan 200, Svema Foto 200 plus Eastman Double-X. So I had no real understanding of what to expect. Grainery than most films in the Derev line, it presents a generally low to a mid-contrast classic look. The trade-off for the grain is that the film is sharp inRead More →

Originally designed for aerial surveillance in Eastern Europe, the Derev line of films is new to the North American market thanks to the Film Photography Project. I had the honour of beta testing the film for the FPP and found that Derev Pan 100 is an excellent film for outdoor shooting on bright sunny days. Sharp with a decent touch of grain and an amazing tonality you can clearly see why this film was selected for surveillance. And while on my initial test I only worked with HC-110, I looked forward to trying the film out in various developers! Film Specs Type: Panchromatic B&W FilmRead More →

One thing that is always satisfying is being able to come up with new processing details for rare films. I did some extensive testing with Eastman 5363 back when the Film Photography Project began to release it for general photographic use. But now I have a new challenge from the group, Derev. Of course, there has already been some testing of the film by the Alpha team over at FPP HQ in New Jersey which gave me a baseline, so I went and checked over my extensive list of films looking for similar film speeds, film feel, and developing times to see if other developmentRead More →