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I have a troubled history with 200-speed films. They’ve always given me more trouble and often try too hard, which can be detrimental. I struggled to find a way through Fomapan 200 and Rollei Superpan 200. Both Svema and Derev Pan 200-speed offerings were far more trouble than they’re worth. And then last year, along came Kentmere 200, a middle child for the Kentmere budget offerings. In all these colour film releases, Kentmere 200 took a backseat. But I latched onto Kentmere 200 almost right away. I already enjoyed Kentmere 100 and Kentmere 400, and the first flush of Kentmere 200 proved a solid performer.Read More →

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I had a lot of fun last year working through some of my cameras and picking a different camera and film each month and shooting them for the enjoyment of photography. Often I would tie the roll to a YouTube video, specific blog post, developer review, or a podcast episode, but sometimes it would be for the fun of photography. These were always posted to Instagram and I worked again in collaboration with the community of folks through the 12monthsonfilm account. For 2025 I’ll admit there were repeat cameras from last year, but I did make a point to include some new arrivals and thoseRead More →

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In: 1812:Revisited
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By 1814, both sides were starting to tire of the war. For the Americans, they had been facing no actual movement. The Royal Navy was causing havoc on the east coast. The British held Mackinac Island, Fort Niagara, the District of Maine, and Prarie Du Chien. The Americans only held Fort Erie, having been turned back in their Niagara invasion. They were under siege and had some control of the western edge of Upper Canada but nothing beyond the settlements of Sandwich and Amherstburg. The possibility of peace negotiations had started in 1813 but were soon shut down. However, with long lines of communication betweenRead More →

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Like my last developer review (Fuji Microfine), Fuji Super Prodol (SPD) has little information online about the developer. SPD is the faster version of Prodol and according to what I could find online says that this developer is designed for push-processing films. And to make things even more interesting is that looking at the chemical formula it shares similar characteristics to Crawley’s FX-37. This was part of the care package from a reader that included Microfine which turned out to be an amazing developer with Fuji Acros 100 II. The package does appear to be a modern pouch, and appears to be still in productionRead More →

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The war had ground to an unceremonious stalemate; it had not gone to plan for both the British and Americans. The Americans continued believing that the Canadians would welcome them as liberators rather than invaders and join them in an easy campaign to free them all from the shackles of the Crown and a distant parliament. The British believed that once Napoleon was safely taken care of, a series of campaigns on the eastern seaboard would help the Americans sue for peace on British terms. None of that happened. Instead, the Americans were left to command a small sliver along the Detroit River of UpperRead More →

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The war had become a stalemate, and peace negotiations reached an impasse. Drummond’s siege remained in place but had been reduced to ineffective artillery fire, and most of his troops were reduced by illness due to the ongoing rain and poor conditions in the camp. Drummond’s requests for additional troops had been granted, and elements of the 4th and 82nd Regiments marched with heavy siege artillery to Niagara. On 4 September, the American defenders of Fort Erie did attempt to dislodge the British attackers. The short skirmish resulted in several deaths, including the traitor Joseph Willcocks and many of his Canadian Volunteers in the shortRead More →

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While I’ve always known that Fujifilm produces chemistry for film development, I had always assumed it was primarily aimed at colour processing. Since they still manufacture (possibly) mini-lab processing systems for labs to develop C-41. But black & white chemistry? Then I received an email. A reader graciously offered to mail me some developers that were difficult to obtain in North America. I initially thought of Europe, but then a lovely package arrived from Japan and inside were two pouches of Fujifilm Microfine and two pouches of Fujifilm SPD. Well, I was touched, but Microfine was a name I had seen before on the massiveRead More →

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Dear Chicago, I like ketchup on my hotdogs, sorry, I do, but I don’t when I’m in Chicago. I’ve done a shot of Malört, it was interesting for sure. I’ve visited a bunch of cities of various sizes throughout the US, but the one that I honestly thought I could live and survive in was Chicago. There is something about the city that attracted me, I felt comfortable here. And that’s saying something because I don’t like big cities. The first time I visited it was almost as if I was returning to a friend. My first tastes of the city came from the showRead More →

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In: Musings
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One of the most rewarding and frustrating parts of working with traditional film mediums is developing the film yourself. This often allows for faster turnaround and greater control. However, when things go sideways, you can only blame yourself. I started developing black & white film myself over ten years ago now for two reasons. First, I was inspired after attending my first Photostock event, where I saw all the fantastic work people were doing and had the opportunity to chat with my good friend Matt Marrash. Second, my local lab had reduced its processing to a single day of C-41. The owner (Joan) took meRead More →

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Through the balance of 1813, neither the Americans nor the British made any significant gains to achieve victory. The biggest issue was with the overly cautious commanders on both sides; Major-General William Henry Harrison failed to exploit the rapid retreat by the British Army after their defeat at the Battle of the Thames. He chose to establish a loose beachhead along the Detroit River. Similarly, the Americans had only briefly pushed their advantage in the Niagara region but ended up only able to maintain a small occupation force in the region bolstered by over-enthusiastic traitors. On the British side, Major-General Francis de Rottenburg had nearlyRead More →