By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

Last year, when Foma announced the release of a new film, I’ll admit, I was immediately interested. What drew me into the film is that it was an orthochromatic film and not sensitive to the red end of the visual spectrum. I’ve worked with these films, notably Ilford Ortho+ and Rollei Ortho 25 plus. The trouble with these is that they are slower films, rated at ASA-80 (or ASA-40) and ASA-25, respectively. I’m not one to shy away from slower films, but it can get rather dull and grey here in Ontario during specific points in the year. So, having an Ortho option rated atRead More →

By:
On:
In: Musings
With: 0 Comments

While every type of review I write comes with unique problems, nothing is more challenging than writing a film review. Film reviews have been done for years, mostly in dusty photographic journals and magazines and reviewed under exact conditions and in large quantities. If I tried to follow these methods, it would take me years to complete and require a large volume of films, cameras, lenses, and equipment I need more room for. Like all my reviews, I set out my method to work within the realms of what I wanted these reviews to cover: the basics. I’ve aimed these at beginner and intermediate photographersRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

Have you ever wanted to see outside of our visual spectrum? Well then maybe infrared photography is for you! While true Infrared films are long gone, these days we have a tonne of films that can, when properly filtered expose the infrared light. Among these films sits FPP Infrared B&W, the original film stock is unknown, but it does do exactly what it says on the tin, it is a film that can be shot both filtered and unfiltered and produces images that can only be described as magic! For this review, I went with a mixed approach to filtration, shooting the first roll withoutRead More →

By:
On:
In: How To
With: 0 Comments

One of the more interesting parts of B&W film photography is the ablity to adjust how the film behaves. There are many different ways of adjusting how the film looks, you can over or under expose the film, or push/pull the film in development. You also have various different developers to adjust how the film looks and different dilutions. But there is also the ideas of adding coloured filters to your lens to change what light and how much light hits your film. Now it might seem weird to put coloured glass over black & white film, but it can adjust and change how differentRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

Have you already reviewed this film? The answer would be yes and also no. ORWO Wolfen NP100 is a film that is a variant of the cult favourite motion picture film, UN54+. However, the folks at Filmotec have added an anti-halation and anti-static layer to the film stock to make it better for still photography. And that’s enough of a change for me to warrant a full-on review. Now the history of ORWO is complicated; the company was formed from the original home of Agfa in the German town of Wolfen. When World War Two divided Germany in the post-war era, Wolfen ended up inRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

This is only the second time I’ve reached a significant milestone in my ongoing reviews, the magic number of one hundred. And to be clear, I’ve done one hundred film reviews, not reviewed one hundred separate film stocks. And that’s because I’ve reviewed some rebadged films; sometimes, I knew it was a rebadge and then made a point not to go after that film stock again, notability ORWO films. I reviewed the four motion picture-specific films from ORWO as their Lomography rebadge. But in the case of Fomapan 100, I reviewed that first as KosmoFoto Mono 100 and then again as Fomapan 100. Agfa AviFotoRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

It has been awhile since we got a new product from the folks at FilmFerrania in Italy. While they are not anywhere close to releasing a slide film (it was a pipe dream from the start in my opinion) they have recently released a slightly slower film from their original P30 release. It has also taken some time for this film to reach me here in North America. But it was well worth the wait, because it takes a lot to make a film, so any new film in 2023 is a good thing for the eco-system. Of course, Orto is not without challenges, itRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

Regarding CatLABS, you never know what they will pull out of the bag next. Earlier this year, I reviewed their latest version of the XFilm 320 Pro and was presently surprised with the results. While I never touched the original version (which is said to be Eastman Double-X), I did try their original version of XFilm 80. I loved the stuff in my original review and revisiting it at ASA-32. When I got my hands on the new 320 stuff, I grabbed a box of XFilm 80 II. And I’ve been sitting on it for a while, but during the hot days of summer finallyRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

When it comes to film from FilmWashi, they can get their hands on some pretty unique stocks. And I’ve had some good luck with most of their films; others have struggled a bit. Thankfully I’ve been working through my wish list in their catalogue and have gotten my hands on most of them. But one has been out of stock until recently, and that’s FilmWashi A. Described as a motion picture leader film, the film is spliced onto the front of a motion picture prints to help lead the film through the projector. But it can be used for high-contrast uses, like titles or thatRead More →

By:
On:
In: Reviews
With: 9 Comments

I’ll admit, I love a good exotic film developer that can develop any film to their ideal conditions. But lets be honest here, some of these developers are expensive, hard to acquire and require rigorous attention to detail to make them work perfectly. And often are so fine tuned they will only work on a handful of film stocks that a also difficult to come by. Sometimes you want a developer that will do its job and nothing more than that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, compensate for over or under exposure. Produce ultra-fine grain, or enhance tonality and edge sharpness. Rather than presentRead More →