Silberra: Missive #19 to Backers

The Silberra Project on IndieGoGo.com has just released an update as of posting today.  Konstantin Shabanov has listed off several points, first and foremost is that rewards will start shipping in January, 2019.  The Silberra PAN100 and PAN160 rewards and the Fast Shooters Kits will be first up.  ORTO 50 will ship in January with a bonus of 4x5 sheets of this film becoming available on the Silberra web store.

BIG Shooters Kits rewards will include a new film called Cinema in place of PAN100.  This film is already listed in the web store.  Apparently, Silberra will be working on more films, but not ORTO 100.

Silberra plans to release a new reversible paper, for prints directly from large format cameras.  While not a direct printing out paper, reversal processing kits can be used to make a positive image.  A baryta paper will also be introduced for alternative processes.

Check the full update out on IndieGoGo.

Seasons Greetings to One and All!

Kodak Apps for Film

Kodak has a couple of useful apps for your phone.  On iOS, one can find Kodak Professional Film App.  This app lists the Kodak films available today, the technical data for each film, a locator for processing labs and a sunrise/sunset calculator, to catch those golden hour shots.

The Kodak Cinema Tools app gives useful info for cinematographers, plus embedded in it are tools such as a depth of field calculator for multiple film formats.  As the description for the app says:

"...this app will calculate your near limit, far limit, hyperfocal distance and circle of confusion. Simply enter the values you know in the KODAK Depth of Field Calculator app and instantly have the answers you need to capture the image you envision."

Web Comic: It Fogs Photographic Film

Nerdy web comic, xkcd, featured a strip on Monday that mentioned photographic film.

The comic describes itself as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."  One of the features of the graphic is that hovering a mouse cursor over the image produces a witty quip.  On phones and tablets, tapping the comic may reveal the follow-up message.

Find the piece here:

xkcd: Laptop Issues

 

Kickstarter: Save Pack Film

On December 5th, at 5pm CET, Save Pack Film will launch a Kickstarter in an attempt to resurrect the peel apart Polaroid film of the past.  It looks like they may be looking at the colour pack film, called FP-100C when produced by Fujifilm.

Hopefully, we will not see a repeat of Film Ferrania and Silberra film, which have gone under the radar for some time now with no communications.  Film Ferrania is allegedly producing film now, but Silberra has not let anyone know what is going on publicly.

This blogger wishes Save Pack Film well, and hopes that they get an overwhelming support from pack film afficianados and a successful project launch with product for supporters.

Obit: Michael A. Smith, Founder of Lodima Press

A valuable member of the photography community, Michael Smith of Lodima Press passed away.

A short obituary page lists some of his contributions to the photography community.

One of his contributions to silver halide photography was the revival of a silver-chloride printing paper.  Lodima Fine Art Silver Chloride paper is marketed as a replacement for the discontinued Kodak Azo  paper.  This type of paper was used by master photographers such as Edward Weston and others.  The paper is ideal for large format contact printing. 

The Lodima name is Amidol, a venerable developer from the 19th century, spelled backwards.

Jack the Hat: Now Offering Camera Repair Supplies

Jack the Hat, a family store in the UK, is now offering camera repair supplies, such as helical lens grease, camera and lens lubricant oil, repair materials such as light trap flocking material, light trap foam of various thicknesses and more.

The UK is certainly offering up many vendors and manufacturers that support analogue film photography, including Jack the Hat, Analogue Wonderland, SilverPrint, First Call Photographic, Patterson Photographic, Intrepid Camera, Ilford and more, any of whom if I have forgotten is by unintentional mistake or just not knowing of their existence.

Many of these vendors ship worldwide, so feel free to support the silver halide film industry via the UK if it makes sense for you.

Disclaimer:  Ag+ Process has not vetted any or all of the vendors mentioned and does not specifically endorse any particular vendor.  Your blogger is a satisfied consumer of Patterson Photographic and Ilford Photo products.  Caveat emptor.

Newsletter: Beau Photo November Newsletter

Beau Photo Supplies is a photo shop in Vancouver, Canada.  They specialize in all things photographic, including analogue photography.  Want to rent an 8x10 camera?  They have it.  Large format film?  They have 2 1/4 by 3 1/4 sheet film for sale, and more.

Their November newsletter (PDF) features primarily the big move the store is making to a new location, but the publication includes news about both digital and new film features.  For example, the sheet film mentioned and a new Dubble film from KONO!  called JELLY, which features pre-exposed hues for a creative look, film cameras for sale on consignment, etc.

Worth a read through, even if you cannot visit the store.

Polaroid: News from Polaroid Originals

PolaroidOriginals is offering a Halloween deal of a  free pack of B&W instant film with the purchase of the new OneStep+ camera until October 31st.  The camera is on sale $26 off.  The OneStep+ is based on the iconic OneStep camera from the 70s, with updates to the technology of today, including Bluetooth connectivity, a PolaroidOriginals app with controls for light painting and double exposures.

For the Polaroid fan, the company is offering a 2019 Polaroid-a-day Photodarium calendar.  Peel off a new Polaroid photo from a selection of photographers around the world every day, with information about the photographer and the image on the back of each photo.

Weblinks: Everything You Wanted to Know About Pyro

There are a large number of different developers for B&W film.  The recent rise of monobath developers not withstanding, if one wants to experiment with various developers there is no end.  The so-called staining developers, which are based on either Pyrogallol or Pyrocatechin, have a strong following.

Some claim that Pyro developers give a better negative, with better highlight separation, sharpness and acutance.  Some claim modern developers are comparable.

One of the reasons to use staining developers today is to make negatives for two purposes:  printing with silver halide papers with visible light, and for printing with alternative processes using UV light, such as Platinum (Pt) or Palladium (Pd) processes.  Regular developers tend to produce suitable negatives for one or the other.

The pyrocat-hd website gives a ton of links to formulas to make your own Pyro developer, a list of Pyro developers at Photographer's Formulary. and more.

Emulsive: Every Emulsion from A-Z

Emulsive.org is a massive resource for all things film, but it can be hard to find the really useful things.  One of those is the list of every single film stock still made today, complete A-Z.  While the beginning has a rant on the usual negativity from the Internet, the listing is up-to-date as of writing and is an impressive compendium of work.

Not only is every manufacturer listed with every film that they make, but there is a breakdown of which format each film is produced for, and a total count of each emulsion made for each format by type of stock.

For example, the total number of films available for 110 format is 4, while 120 has 82 brands of film to choose from, 35mm has 158 and so on.

Well done.

Article: 8 Reasons to Use Film

Canva, a company that makes apps for graphics design and image editing, gives 8 reasons to try film photography.  An interesting take. 

Kickstarter: the risks

While some Kickstarter projects result in many happy customers, and your blogger has funded several Kickstarters that succeeded fully, while at least one has fallen short, there is the risk that a Kickstarter project fails without giving out any rewards.

DPReview reports that Dr. Rudolph's APO Plasmat Lens 105mm f2.7 by Meyer Optik was one such project.  The company behind the project filed for bankruptcy, leaving those funding the Kickstarter with no rewards and no chance of recovering their funds.  The starting pledge was US$ 1,049, so there are probably some unhappy customers out there right about now.

A contributing factor may have been a traffic accident involving the CEO and main investor for the company, Stefan Immes.

JCH: Introducing Kassha

JapanCameraHunter has come out with yet another product, a single use camera loaded with JCH StreetPan, Kassha.  Not to toot just his own horn, Bellamy puts the new Kassha up against the established brands, the Ilford  and the Lomo single-use cameras.  The Kassha is priced at ¥2,000 or nearly $18 in US dollars at time of writing, compared to $16 for the Lomo B&W camera (currently out of stock) or as little as $10 for the Ilford disposable.

In the comparison between the three cameras, JCH shoots several different scenes with an identical comparison photo from each camera for the scene being evaluated.  This gives one a good anchor to see which camera excels in each case.  The Kassha seems to do well with street scenes and where contrasty results are desirable, perhaps no surprise since it is loaded with JCH StreetPan. 

Read the full review at JCH for your own conclusions.

Printing: Mortenson's 7 Derivative Technique

Ed Buffaloe revisits Mortenson for his printing technique in this article on the Unblinking Eye.  Not to be dismissed so quickly, as by the f/64 Group of Ansel Adams et al, there is a method to his madness.  The article explains how a good print is arrived at and why you should not print it that way.

Invaluable is the print comparison chart that shows the typical results from the exposure of the negative and the development of such a negative in a 3x3 grid (for the underexposure, normal exposure and overexposure of the negative and the underdevelopment, normal development and overdevelopment of the negative).

The so-called 7-D negative is all about the gradation, according to Mortenson.  Well worth the read for any B&W photographer.

Photokina: Kodak Ektachrome Shipping Now

Kodak announced at Photokina that Ektachrome 100 in 35mm still format will be shipping to distributors immediately.  On October 1st, Super 8 format will be released, then sometime in the near future, the 16mm movie film format will ship.

While not available at major photography retailers as of writing, it should be available soon.

Your blogger shall be keeping an eye out for this product, so expect a few shots posted once it is available.

Technical data for the new film can be found here (PDF).

Emulsive: Getting the Most out of Ferrania P30

Hopefully, when Film Ferrania starts selling more P30, one can take advantage of the tips in this article on Emulsive.org on Getting the Most out of P30.

The article features an in-depth testing of P30 Alpha with six different developers, with controls for different cameras, metering methods and scanning technique.  In the conclusion, it is stressed that the development technique for this film is quite important and that only vetted labs by Ferrania are recommended.

Well worth the read if one is going to use this film.

At the time of publishing, Film Ferrania has released an update to Kickstarter backers.  Hopefully, good news.

Blog note:  Emulsive has many articles on film photography, so should be on one's reading list.  This blog will select an article every week or so from Emulsive that may prove to be of interest to readers.

Pre-Kickstarter: Packfilm

Doc FLorian, who has been hard at work trying to revive peel-apart, Polaroid packfilm, has recently made an announcement of a one-shot, all-in deal to literally kickstart the Save Packfilm effort. He has assembled a team of superheroes, and hopes to revive packfilm once again.

While fraught with hazards, the efforts of Film Ferrania and Silberra on crowd-funding sites have both been derailed to some extent, Doc is hoping to raise the funds and put into action a plan to produce the now long discontinued Polaroid format.

For those who want to support the Save Packfilm project, the Packfilm Supporter Shop offers new old stock Fujifilm FP-100C packs now, with € 10 from the sale of each pack funding the project. Alternatively, a voucher is available for those who wish to fund the project immediately, that can be used at the Supporter Shop later.

Visit the Kickstarter here.

Disclaimer:  This blogger has contributed to the Silberra project and received perks from that project in addition to purchasing product from the Film Ferrania Shop when it was available.

Youtube: Review of Intrepid 8x10 by Ben Horne

Photographer Ben Horne received an Intrepid 8x10 camera as payment for a video segment he did for Intrepid Camera. Earlier this year, he took the camera out backpacking to get a feel for the machine.  He discusses some of the peculiarities of this camera and some of the benefits that it brings to the table.

First off, the camera is about 5 lbs, quite light for an 8x10, yet is fairly sturdy and does provide for front standard movements and some rear standard movements.  Even so, it folds flat to a compact format for storage.  Ben likes the ground glass, even though he has an Arca Swiss camera, and finds the Intrepid ground glass nice to use.

One of things peculiar to this camera are that the ground glass must be in the vertical orientation before collapsing the camera, which is fairly easy given that the back has magnets that help center and hold the back before screwing it down.  The reviewer also found that since the movements are not geared, that trickier movements using both front and rear standards may be hard to get right.

Check out the full review on Youtube:

Film Ferrania Update: Summer 2018

Film Ferrania has released yet another update, after a hiatus of several months now.  The details are that the government has finished mandated upgrades to the building power plant, and now for the first time since February the team will be able to make film again.

After yet another upgrade, this time to the ventilation system, the plan is to produce 100 rolls of P30 a week, week after week.  Production is planned for September.

We shall see.  Most happily, one hopes.

Your blogger will go back to summer hiatus until later in September - not that there is not much happening in the film world today, but that your blogger has no time to post about it. :)

Film Ferrania: Six Years On

Film  Ferrania has broken Internet silence for the first time since April to say that they have been doing nothing since then.  Fortunately, that nothingness included securing "the resources necessary to finally provide continuous production of P30 film with all processes done in-house."  Lets just say this sounds like great news, and soon by Fall, one could hear of sales of P30 again.

Your blogger secured some samples of P30 from the online shop many a month ago, and having more to experiment with would be welcome.

Hopefully, having production of P30 will allow them to experiment to create the E6 slide film promised back in 2014....

FPP: Giant Film Database

The podcasters at Film Photography Podcast recently disclosed the existence of a giant film database, a searchable list of film products for virtually any film made.  Called the Giant Film Database, it resides off an industrial products website.  Search for film, such as Konica Impresa, Agfa Vista, Kodak Plus-X, etc., etc. or enter the six digit DX code from a film canister, such as 017530 .

Hopefully, the project will find a permanent home somewhere.  This is a worthy project!

EMULSIVE: Review of the Instax Square SQ6 Instant Camera

Raymond van Mil reviews the recently released Fuji instant analog camera, the Instax SQ6.  This camera shoots Instax Square instant film and is an analogue camera, unlike the Instax SQ10.  The SQ10 is basically a digital camera that can print Instant Square film.

Raymond says of the camera, "It’s a wonderful, affordable and lightweight instant camera to have laying or hanging around."

Read the review at Emulsive.org.

Article: Subminiature Film Cameras

The Film Photography Project has an article on subminiature film cameras.  Subminiature is generally any format smaller than miniature, or 35mm format.  This includes 110 format, Minox film, 16mm film and others.  These cameras are small, pocketable and fun to use.  The 16mm and 110 formats are the easiest to use, since 16mm film is still available and 110 format film is still sold today, notably by Lomography.com.

The article mentions SubClub.org, which is a great resource for everything subminiature.  The message board, called a Round Table by the site, is run by Yahoo, but shows little activity of late.  However, some members have started a new mailing list on groups.io.

Sign up and check out the new mailing list, Subminiature-Cameras, if you have one of these interesting cameras or an interest in acquiring one.

Explore the list of cameras, film resources, darkroom tools for these cameras and more, at SubClub.org.

Kickstarters: Diana Square and, you know

Lomography.com has kicked off yet another crowdfunding campaign.  They must have heard MiNT mention that the RF70 was the only manual control square format instant film camera.  Because the Diana Square is just such a beast, with a lo-fi Lomo take.  The camera is based on the Diana toy camera and is said to offer the same look.  Kickstarter here.

Also making the rounds everywhere, by Hamish Gill of 35mmc fame, is the pixl-latr.  An easy to use device to scan film using a digital camera.  Simply a plate of frosted acrylic with specially positioned pegs and a snug fitting cover plate, the device can hold any single piece of 35mm, 120 format or 4x5 format film perfectly flat for ease of copying.  Gets the job done and needs no software to run.  Kickstarter here.

Both projects have exploded past their original fund-raising goals.

Silberra: Next Batch: PAN100 and Ultima 160

Silberra has announced on Instagram that they will soon be shipping the next batch of crowdfunded film, Silberra PAN100 and Ultima 160.  Those who backed these films should receive their rewards in a few weeks.

As reported earlier, the PAN100 and Ultima 160 are already available from the Silberra Shop at $6 a roll.

Disclaimer:  This blogger backed the Silberra Indiegogo campaign.

EMULSIVE: All of May 2018

The EMULSIVE.org blog has graciously put all of its May postings on one page.  There is a huge quantity of material to ponder, read and learn from.  Highlights include the segments that review every film stock available today, camera reviews, photographer interviews and more.

Well worth a visit.

News Around the Web: Ektachrome, Silberra, Leica M7, MiNT RF70, ISO 3200

First up, Kodak demos some test shots on the revived Ektachrome film.  While not as impressive as the Ektachrome of old - one instagrammer slammed the test shots - it is good to see progress.  One could even see that if it is difficult for Kodak to resurrect a colour slide film, perhaps it will be difficult for, say Film Ferrania.  Sadly, no updates from the latter since April and still sold out of P30.

Silberra released an update last week, see updates here, of some length.  Though they have missed all their deadlines after the ISO 200 films were mailed out (your blogger was lucky enough to get two rolls of ISO 200 film from Silberra, but camera and development issues squashed those efforts), they are working hard on getting rewards out.  The Silberra online shop lists Ultima 100 and Ultima 160 as available, so perhaps those rewards will be mailed out soon.

PetaPixel reports that the Leica M7 camera has been discontinued, citing an article from the Red Dot Forum.  The M7 was introduced in 2002, leaving the Leica MP and Leica M-A as the remaining film bodies available today from Leica.

PetaPixel also reported on the  MiNT Instantkon RF70, an Instax Wide compatible instant camera with manual controls.  A folded bellows keeps this camera compact when not in use, an upgrade from the bag bellows used by some other folding instant cameras. Capped with glass optics and an f/5.6 lens with several apertures and shutter speeds available.  See here for more details and pre-order details.

Note that MiNT has a program that offers free instant film.  Simply register, then post qualifying images using MiNT products to Instagram.  A good deal, if you can get it.

In the high speed film department, ThePhoblographer reviews two high speed films, Ilford Delta 3200 and Kodak TMax P3200. 

PolaroidOriginals: One Step 2 Update

PolaroidOriginals has updated their new OneStep 2 instant camera.  The camera takes 3.1 inch square photos on either I-type or 600 type instant film.  The camera now has an external viewfinder barrel and comes with a tripod mount, a built-in 1100mAh battery that can be recharged by USB and a lens that has a fixed focus of 60cm to infinity for ease of use. 

Retailing at $119.99 at the PolaroidOriginals site.  I-type film retails for $15.99 with 8 exposures per pack.

"Just pick it up, aim and create Originals." -- from PolaroidOriginals

35mmc: Silent Auction for Charity

The 35mmc blog has been around 5 years since May 19th. So to celebrate, Hamish Gill is offering a silent auction of a 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 lens in champagne gold colour.  He will be accepting bids until the end of the month.  Highest bidder takes the lens.  See the site for details on how to bid. 

So what is special about this lens?  Hamish says in the blog note, that "this 7Artisans lens is a limited edition 1 of 10 champaign gold 50mm 1.1. There is now, and only ever will be 10 of these lenses – they are numbered."  Hamish also notes on his shop, "the 7Artisans 50mm F/1.1 is currently the lowest cost M-Mount lens on the market – which being as it is a 50mm f/1.1 lens is quite a remarkable feat."  There is a 35mmc review of this lens here.

The charities he will be donating to are the Disabled Photographers Society and a hostel local to him that runs a creative group.

As previously covered here, the 35mmc blog writes about 35mm compact film cameras.

Ilford: For the Love of Film

Ilford, makers of FP4+, HP5+, Delta films and more, has a magazine and story section.  On the 17th, they published a piece, For the Love of It All, by reformed analogue photographer Mike Basher.  Once a digital photographer, he sought out the pensive photography of silver halide film.

Includes some stunning B&W images.  Worth a read.

Article: Tetenal C-41 Chemistry

35mmc, the blog about compact 35mm cameras, has a guest article by Parallax Photographic on the Tetenal C-41 chemistry kit.  This kit is available in 1L and 2.5L sizes.  The 1L kit can process up to 12 to 16 rolls of 35mm film, depending on a number of factors. 

Tetenal kits are available from Parallax in the UK, in the US both Amazon and B&H sell C-41 kits in powder form, in Canada, buyfilm.ca sells the 1L and 2.5L kits in powder form and in Germany, MacoDirect.de sells the liquid chemistry kits.

Lomography has an earlier article on the E-6 kit, which seems harder to get.

Promo: Film Photography Project Monobath

The Film Photography Project has a special promo code for their recently released Monobath solution, monobath.  Just enter the code monobath in their shopping cart any time before May 15th for $4 off.  Regular price is $25 for a liter (about 4 35mm rolls).

The FPP Monobath is formulated to develop and fix your film simultaneously in around 3.5 minutes at room temperature with, as the name suggests, just one solution.  Using the FPP Permanent Archival Wash, a total of 2 minutes of rinsing will finish the task. 

Reputable sources have maintained that a monobath has advantages over the usual three step method, the most significant being ease of use.  Mastering the monobath technique is easy and satisfying, it’s great for beginners, travellers and those who like to experiment with different methods of developing B&W films.  The FPP project has carefully prepared a list of B&W films that are compatible with the product.

Monobaths are not new, but a well formulated monobath is a treasure, according to some sources.  Grant Haist, who passed away in 2015, was formerly a senior researcher with Kodak Labs for over 30 years and had written a seminal book, "Modern Photographic Processing," that has an entire section on monobaths.  If you can afford this book, then if you click the link provided, Ken Rockwell will receive a small stipend already included in the price of the book.  Better Ken than Amazon pocketing the tithe.

Covered previously, was the R3 Monobath by the New55 Project, which has since been updated to the R5 Monobath.

Article: Edwin Land Bio

This week would be Dr. Land's 109th birthday!  To celebrate, Polaroid Originals briefly details the story of Edwin Land from boyhood interest in light to the invention of the iconic integrated instant film.  Read the article at 10 Magical Moments in Edwin Land’s Life that Paved the Way for Polaroid Originals.  There is more to Dr. Land than meets the eye.

Silberra: Pan 100 and Pan 160 Release

Silberra broke radio silence for a brief note that they will be announcing the release of their IndieGoGo crowd-funded films, Pan 100 and Pan 160, later this week.  Back in February, they sent out Pan 200 and Ultima 200 films.

Your blogger backed this project and received the EI 200 speed films as promised.  Looking forward to some more interesting films now.

Ilford: HP5 vs. Delta Professional 400

Ilford likes to keep people informed about its products, film or chemistry, and how to use them.  Recently, Ilford released a post comparing HP5 and Delta Professional 400.  The post makes pains to mention the difference between the Core-Shell™ crystals in Delta film and Kodak T-grain - not the same!

The post goes on to list the virtues of HP5, good exposure latitude, ease of development and tolerance of processing variations.  Meanwhile, Delta 400 has ease of printing, a sharp, clean look, but perhaps more care in exposure and development is required.  Read on for more details.

LEX E-mount + Analog

A Sony photographer with a bent for silver halide film photography built a camera that takes Sony E-mount lenses.  Under the name LEX Optical, he has produced a prototype for the LEX camera that can be hand built by anyone with sufficient skills. 

The camera features a thin Copal-branded shutter, supporting electronics boards that can soldered by hand - no surface mount parts, a cast mounting plate and nylon body.  The body has been dyed and coated to prevent light leaks.  The camera takes any 35mm film.  While the camera does not understand DX coding, the exposure can be set from ISO 6 to 512,000.

The LEX camera is intended to be released as an open source design that can be modified by others, though it may be offered fully built as a crowd-funded project first.

World Pinhole Day

Today, April 29th, is World Pinhole Photography Day!  Grab a shoebox and some film or paper, and make a pinhole camera.  The Phoblographer even has a detailed article on making a shoebox pinhole camera.  There are also a whole bunch of pinhole camera ideas at the WPPD site.

Photos may be submitted for display on the World Pinhole Photography Day site up to May 31st.

Ilford 2018 ULF, On Now

Ilford has their annual Ultra Large Format (and other formats) drive from, like, last Thursday to the 25th of May.  Place orders with your dealer by then.  See Ilford ULF for details.

Kickstarter: Rolleiflex is Back!

The Kickstarter project alluded to in yesterday's post on the new MINT TL70camera, was actually introduced as a new Rolleiflex instant camera by Rollei.  The project was fully funded within 22 minutes.  In fact, the top stretch goal of $135,000 looks achievable at this point, with 33 days to go.

The camera takes the ever popular Instax Mini film, looks much like the TLR of old, with a bit of a slim down on the knobs and controls.

Check it out:  Rolleiflex Instant Kamera

MINT Rollieflex

MINT has teamed up with Rollei to offer a TLR style camera on Kickstarter.  There will be a few as yet unspecified tips of the hat to the iconic Rolleiflex in the update to the MINT TL70 model camera.  This camera shoots Fuji Instax Mini instant film. 

Special first 24 hour price offer will be in effect.  A trip to the MINT Camera site shows that the TL 2.0 is on sale at a reduced price for a limited time.  The 2.0 model featured an improved, bright viewfinder, aperture control and bulb mode over the first model.  It also features an unprecedented 48cm close focussing distance, unheard of for a TLR.

Kickstarter is to open on April 26th, so head on over and look it up, the specs should be interesting.  No listing available for MINT on Kickstarter at time of writing.

Blog Note: April 8th

Things have slowed down around here, not because the film industry has slowed down, but because of the day job.  There is also the aim of the blog, which was originally discover and cover resources for film photography in one place.  There are many sources for news from larger blogs that have full-time journalists covering general photography and film photography topics.  A tiny blog run in the spare time of an individual cannot necessarily keep up with the pace.  This blogger accepts no advertising, allows none next to the content (thanks Google!) and can report freely on whatever topic is related to film photography.

Apart from Fujifilm, which is cancelling its film production in contrast to other manufacturers that are expanding their markets, the silver halide business is doing well.  With the crowd-funded film companies successfully rolling out stock, your blogger received a few rolls over the past few months.

Some Ferrania P30 arrived as did a couple of rolls of Silberra B&W film.  This blogger sponsored Silberra in their effort to produce film.  A couple of rolls were exposed and processed as time permited.  The results were not great, mostly due to out of date or inaccurate development information.  The developer used here is one of the more rare options, but is available locally for a fair price.  Worked great for Kentmere and Ilford films and even a roll or two of Fomapan.

The P30 ended up over-exposed and over-developed, which is not a good combination.  The camera used might have contributed to the over-exposure.  The roll of Silberra was grossly under-developed, but likely was exposed properly.  The result were thin negatives with little detail.  The camera also decided that the roll had ended before it really reached the end.  So there is a strip of light grey, completely clear, completely flat Silberra film on the cutting room floor.  I doubt this was due to the film, but instead the fancy electronics in the camera having a bad day.

A couple of notes about the development of these two films.  First, the P30 left the pre-rinse and developer solutions completely clear and colourless after disposal.  This is somewhat unusual, as even Ilford films tend to add a little colour to the solution that comes out of the tank.  Second, the Silberra film imposed an inky, black colour to the pre-rinse.  Not sure whether that was the anti-halation layer coming off or something else.  The rest of the solutions were not so affected.

The Silberra PAN200 film was exposed using the Thingyfy 37mm pinhole lens.  Available for film SLRs with the Nikon F mount, Minolta A mount or the Pentax K mount.  At roughly f/140, landscapes in the snow came to mind.  Unfortunately, the issue with underdevelopment proved to be unrecoverable with the challenging contrast of a snow scene.  Will try to get some photos from these films soon.

Remember, April 29th is World Pinhole Day this year!

Kodak TMax P3200

As has been announced all over, Kodak TMax P3200 film will be released this month.  In fact, Kodak has announced bricks of this 35mm film will be shipped to the USA on Monday.  Many shops are declaring that this film is already available, such as Film Photography Project (use the code at Get a buckoff for $1 off a roll) and Film Supply Club.  Film Supply Club offers film at cost for a monthly fee of $12 paid annually (i.e. $144 per year).

This film was announced earlier in the month, and is a nominally E.I. 1000 film that can be pushed to E.I. 3200.  The E.I. stands for Exposure Index, and is the correct notation to use for the speed of a film that either does not have an ISO standard film speed (like P3200) or is exposed at other than the box ISO speed (thanks to TOP on P3200).

Ilford has mentioned that they not only provide a T-grain E.I. 3200 film like TMax P3200, but also have a 120 roll film version available also.  P3200 is available only in 35mm format.

The grain on T-grain films is very fine, so even at E.I. 3200, these films will have a nice look.  Imagine it in 6x6 format.

Adorama has an interview with Alaris on P3200.  While Adorama does not list P3200 on sale as of writing, they should have some soon.

Robert Shanebrook, author of Making Kodak Film, points out that introducing another TMax film is fairly straightfoward compared to reformulating Ektachrome from scratch.  Ektachrome uses different manufacturing processes and techniques, while P3200 can be formulated using the existing TMax processes.

Ag+ Process is not a customer of nor has any dealings with any of Adorama, Film Photography Project nor Film Supply Club.  It is recommended to research these shops yourself.  See also Ken Rockwell's recommendations (updated and worth the read).

Silberra Mails Film: PAN/ULTIMA 200

If your reward for supporting Silberra's IndieGoGo campaign was PAN/ULTIMA 200 film, Silberra has announced that they are mailing out these film rewards now. 

They continue to work on their online storefront, however performance problems beyond their control are slowing efforts.  Stay tuned as this project evolves.

Disclaimer:  this blogger backed Silberra's campaign.

20x24 Studio Continues into 2018

20x24 Studio intends to operate into 2018, in contrast to a previous announcement that operations would conclude at the end of 2017.  According to John Reuter. “The aging chemicals have been the main problem but the replacing of some and alterations in recipes and process have allowed us to continue to provide a viable product.”

Thanks to ThePhoblographer for pointing this out.

Film Ferrania: The Saga Continues in 2018

Film Ferrania has just released its first update for 2018 - and it is a doozy. First things first, on Thursday, January 25th, the Ferrania Shop will open at noon Eastern in the United States and Canada. The shop will sell B&W P30 film. It is not clear if that will be 35mm cassettes or 120 roll film.

Why 120 roll film? The second part of the announcement is that production of 35mm film is capped by production bottlenecks. So, Film Ferrania will be installing equipment to make production of film more efficient. The 120 format film is the easiest to produce and package, so they will do that first.

Then, in late 2018, the company will attempt to formulate colour reversal film, the film that the Kickstarter campaign promised as rewards back in 2014.

So far, so good. In fact, this is great news for 2018! Now if only we could hear from Silberra and how their production is rolling....

Disclaimer:  This blogger has funded Silberra film.

Blog Post: In Praise of Film Photographers

Richard Pickup wrote in favour of amateur photographers due to the thoughtfulness and time devoted to the craft of film photography. Unlike commercial photography, amateurs are permitted time, expense and freedom of expression in their photography. Film lends a hand, in that the results are not immediate, that the time spent waiting for processing and return of the film (even if it is a few hours if one develops film at home) cannot be spared by commercial photographers in general.
 
Worth the read.

Silberra, Film Ferrania, 20x24 and New55, Film Production in 2018

Happy New Year!

That aside, the news for silver halide and light sensitive processes is moving at a fast pace.  The first week of the year nets several new stories that will be touched on here.

Silberra concluded their crowdfunding campaign with about $35K in funding.  The funds were released at the end of last year, but Russian banking holidays will delay receipt of the cash until January 9th.  For this reason, Silberra has announced that they will not be sending out rewards until that time.  The rewards scheduled for December are being packed, so should be ready when the funds arrive.

Silberra has contracted with Foma Bohemia to package 120 format film, and they are working out a contract for 35mm film.  The ULTIMA100 and ULTIMA160 films are ready and will be hand rolled initially.  

Silberra hopes to open their virtual online store soon, so that their products will be available to order.  Speaking of online shops...

The Film Ferrania online shop is still not open and there has been no news since August of last year.  The Kickstarter for this project was successfully funded over 3 years ago.  The promise was the manufacture of an emulsion similar to the  Scotch brand E6 slide film.  So far, the project redeveloped the venerable P30 B&W film from Ferrania's past.  Despite the demand for this product, only one campaign for an Alpha run of the film has been made.  The project had hoped to sell the film on demand from its online store.

While we cannot count out Film Ferrania yet, there are two other projects that have concluded production.

The first is the 20x24 project, which used a stockpile of 20x24 format Polaroid film stock, chemistry and pods to produce giant instant prints.  The project also owned one of the huge 20x24 Polaroid studio cameras.  The camera rented out for $1750 a day and each print cost about $125.  The hope to fund the production of new materials just never came to be.  So now that the existing materials will soon expire, and no longer produce quality prints, the project is shutting down this year.  

The second is the New55 project, which produced 4x5 instant two part film.  This project depended on the 20x24 project for chemistry and pods for the developer.  An unsuccessful Kickstarter attempted to raise the funds necessary to produce the equipment to manufacture their own pods and chemistry.  Without the 20x24 project support and no equipment, the project had no means to continue and shut down at the end of last year.

On the bright side, Kodak has promised Ektachrome will hit the market in 2018, and they have this podcast on their progress on bringing Ektachrome to market.