Analog.Cafe

659 Reviews, Guides, and Essays

Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000ED Film Scanner Review
Small, Fast, Impeccable Colour, Batch Scanning — 23MP Scans in 20 Seconds!
April 15, 2025
Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED is Nikon’s fastest dedicated 35mm film scanner, manufactured in the early ‘00s and ‘10s. It is one of the few vintage devices that connects with modern computers via USB 2.0 without issues or modifications. In this long-term review, I’m taking a closer look at what it’s like to digitize film with this scanner and compare the results to other popular tools: PrimeFilm XAs, a professional film lab, and Sony a7III digital camera with a macro lens.
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Analogue Photography Notebook
Stationery Review
April 10, 2025
Analogue Photography Notebook is a follow-up and an accompaniment to Andrew Bellamy’s Analog Photography: Reference Manual for Shooting Film.
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“Greenscaling” Aerochrome
The World’s First and Attempt to Redscale Colour Infrared Film¹
April 8, 2025
Aerochrome is one of the most expensive and difficult films to shoot. This may be why few have experimented with this stock. Today, I’m challenging those boundaries with the world’s first attempt to redscale a.k.a. “greenscale” this colour infrared film.
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The Redscale Film Guide
A Simple Analogue Technique for Styling Your Frames in Red + More Colours
April 1, 2025
If colour film is inserted with the emulsion side facing away from the lens, it will create darker, red-dominant images. That’s redscaling. This guide explains how this works, where to find redscale film, how you can make your own, and a special trick to get even more colours.
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Film Photography News — March 2025 Recap
A New Film Inversion App, New Film, Lomography’s DigitaLIZA, and 4x5 Rolls
March 25, 2025
Lomography’s new DigitaLIZA rigs make scanning film easier 🤝 film Q is a new film inversion app from Analog.Cafe. Cameradactyl invents a new “film” format, plus ORWO teases a new ISO 200 colour film (and we know what it looks like!)
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Can You Scan Film Without Changing Its Look?
And Other Film Digitization Questions Answered
March 24, 2025
The opaque nature of scanning software makes comparing film stocks and understanding the results of different exposures, colour filters, and film brands unreliable. This guide introduces a technique for consistent and predictable film negative inversion. It also answers a few questions about scanning film, starting with an explanation of why it may not be possible to create an image from a film negative without interpreting/changing the colours, whether one film stock can be digitally edited to look like another, what may be the technical advantage of shooting film if it’s going to be scanned with a digital camera, and whether it’s possible to tell if an image was shot on film or digitally.
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“Greenscaling” Aerochrome + New Film Inversion Tool
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
March 21, 2025
In this newsletter, I’ll share my initial results from the ongoing experiment of redscaling Aerochrome and talk about another project that’s been occupying most of my waking time this March: film Q.
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VueScan Professional Review
A Scanner App & Driver for Legacy and Modern Film Scanners
March 11, 2025
VueScan is an app that works with over 7,400 scanners, many of which were manufactured over twenty years ago. After switching from SilverFast, which I felt was cumbersome, expensive, and frustrating, I’ve stayed with VueScan for over five years. In this review, I’ll go over the interface, capabilities, drawbacks, my workflow, and the reasons why I think VueScan is indispensable for any photographer who scans film at home.
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Film Q User Guide / Help Docs
Invert Film Negatives in Batches Online
March 6, 2025
film Q is a web app that batch-inverts film scans (TIFFs, JPEGs, camera RAW files, and more) using histogram equalization. This document explains how to use the app, how it works, its advantages and limitations, and how to troubleshoot common issues.
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Film Photography News — February 2025 Recap
February 25, 2025
New colour film from Harman, film prices are lower than they’ve been in years, Lomography releases two new instant film cameras, their (and Ferrania’s) accounts get hacked, and ONDU Pinhole stops making pinhole cameras.
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Film Prices, Aerochrome, and the Members’ Handbook
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
February 21, 2025
Now is a good time to buy film as the prices have actually lowered worldwide. A new market report breaks them down by type, currency, and availability. Speaking of prices, I’ve got plans for the most expensive roll of colour film you can buy. I’ll share them right after I introduce the new Members’ Handbook and update you on my progress with Film Q.
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Members’ Handbook
What You Get With Your GOLD Membership
February 20, 2025
Thank you for joining the Analog.Cafe GOLD membership program! You are supporting a small, ad-free, privacy-friendly independent publisher. This handbook summarizes all the things you get in return for your patronage.
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Kodak Vision 3 250D 5207/7207 Film Review
Shot as Stills and Developed in C-41
February 18, 2025
Kodak Vision 3 250D is a colour-negative film made for motion picture cameras. Its image quality is on par with Kodak Portra 400 and other colour-accurate fine-grained low-contrast emulsions when developed in ECN-2. But for this review, I’m processing it in C-41. I also compare my results to CineStill 400D, which has been claimed by many to be 250D w/o the remjet. (It is not.)
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Nikon AI-S Nikkor 50mm 𝒇1.8 Lens Review
And Its Five Siblings
February 11, 2025
Nikon AI-S Nikkor 50mm 𝒇1.8 is a lightweight normal manual focus lens for Nikon F cameras. In this review, I’m sharing my experience with it on my Nikon FM2n and FE cameras, a bit of history, and identification for the SIX variants. Plus: my thoughts on whether the Nikkor is worth the extra ~$75 as compared to the cheaper Series E.
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Colour Film Prices Are at Their Lowest Since 2022!
As Long as You Have the Right Kind of Money
February 4, 2025
Film is a vital consumable for the analogue photography ecosystem. Whenever it becomes more expensive or less available, the community feels the impact. Lucky for us, the past twelve months brought us favourable pricing after years of steady increases. In this article, I will break down the latest findings from the annual retailer survey, discuss how costs may differ depending on where you live, and explore some of the best film stocks to buy today.
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Film Photography News — January 2025 Recap
New Lens, New Film, HP5+ @ ISO 100,000, Four-Ish New Cameras, and a New App
January 28, 2025
Nine new things have launched or were promised to launch for us film photographers: a fancy new Omnar M mount pancake lens, new cheap colour film, (maybe) four new film cameras — one of which is Fujifilm’s Instax WIDE Evo — two new gadgets from Reveni Labs, and a new chemical dilution calculator app. I’ve also performed two experiments and shared detailed notes about drastically altering the sensitivity of a popular film stock.
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HP5+ @ISO 100,000, Film Prices & Private Beta
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
January 24, 2025
2025 is off to a fast start with an outrageous film experiment: pushing and pulling one of the world’s most popular black-and-white emulsions beyond anything anyone has ever done. As for next month, there’s a new app that’s been in development for over three years that I’d like to run by interested GOLD members. Plus, a note about film prices in 2025.
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Fujifilm 400 Color Negative Film Review
An Unexpected Alliance With Kodak. Is This Just Ultramax?
January 21, 2025
Fujifilm 400 Speed Film is a new offering by a Japanese manufacturer made in the USA. It is a replacement for their earlier made-in-Japan Fujicolor Superia X-Tra, which, at some point, used a fourth cyan-sensitive colour layer to produce better tonality in mixed lighting—a technology famously used in their legendary Fijicolor Pro 400H emulsion. In this review, I’ll examine this film’s origins and technical and visual properties. I will also discuss how it may be the same as and different from the Kodak Ultramax 400.
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Nikon FM2/FM2n Film Camera Review
With Honeycomb Titanium Shutter
January 14, 2025
This camera’s 100% mechanically powered titanium honeycomb shutter curtains can reliably sync with flash speeds up to 1/250s and fire at a bullet speed¹ of 1/4,000s when needed. The FM2 is one of Nikon’s longest-living SLRs: it remained in production for 19 years! This review dives deep into this camera’s pedigree and features.
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Adox CMS 20 II: An Ultra-High Resolution Film Review
Tested With Adotech IV and a 400-Megapixel Scan
January 10, 2025
In this review, I share my experience shooting and processing this film with the specialized Adotech CMS IV developer as well as the non-specialized Ilford DD-X, discuss its technical specifications, and share the results of my attempt to produce a 400-megapixel scan (the absolute maximum I’m capable with my current hardware and software).
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