Light Lens Lab has announced yet another new film emulsion just in time for the Lunar New Year.
Their current project is a T-grain black-and-white film — a modern-style fine-grained emulsion, the results of which Light Lens Lab shared on their blog: lightlenslab.com/blogs/upc…
The new film does not have an anti-halation layer (thus producing a similar effect as the CineStill 800T made popular — but in black-and-white). In monochrome, the images produced in this film look sharp, with a bit of haze around brightly lit objects. That, LLL said, will be fixed in the new batch.
The fact that a relatively young lab managed to produce a T-grain emulsion (which is the most advanced tech we have for producing small, tightly packed crystals — more: analog.cafe/r/ilford-delta…) is very impressive. Yet LLL’s ambitions do not stop there as their announcement lists all modern film chemistries (including colour films) in their future plans. Can they manage that? We’re yet to see.
One thing’s for certain is that the demand for film is now reaching a critical mass — enough to encourage well-resourced businesses to enter the market and attempt to compete with the likes of Ilford, Kodak, and Fujifilm.
Light Lens Lab was founded in 2018 by Mr. Zhou in Shangrao, China, “dedicated to optical research, development, and manufacturing of high-quality photographic equipment.”
Well, the “yet another film emulsion” could lead to think that there are lots of them. Apart from Kodak, Ilford and Foma, most nice film boxes in the market are rebranded Kentmere (Ilford) or Foma. Sometimes some Agfa film for special purposes (the regular Agfa APX film itself is Kentmere since years ago). A truly new BW emulsion, specially if it is T-grain is something we haven’t seen in a while.
The other point that you missed is the anti-halation layer. LLL made very clear that this is only for the tests they are doing currently. The film that would reach the markets would have one.
Other than that, yes, LLL is showing ambition here. And you pointed correctly the reason: film production is increasing due to a higher demand. Something very unexpected only 10 years ago!
Dmitri Jan 30, ‘25
Andrés PB Jan 31, ‘25