I’ve found a blog post showing some photos shot on NC500, but developed in ECN-2 chemistry: phillipreeve.net/blog/anal… The results show much more saturation than with C-41 development (and I’ve been told this is not a result of digital postprocessing), the colours still have pleasantly quaint tones though. It looks like it’s something worth trying with this film, and maybe also with stuff like Lomochrome Metropolis? What do you think?
Bastian got some excellent results with this film! Interesting that he compared it to Agfa Vista, it’s one of my all-time favourite emulsions. Many suggest it’s rebranded Fujifilm, but as the case often is in these cases, the evidence is scarce.
I’m wondering what the grain is like with ECN-2. Bastian’s scans don’t show it on the website. My scans showed it as exceptionally prominent (a lot grainier than Agfa Vista). Perhaps the “proper” chemistry can soften it a bit as well?
If I had ECN-2, I’d certainly give it a go.
Metropolis looks a lot like this film but it may not be the same thing. But now I’m curious about that too.
Edit: I wonder how developing NC500 in ECN-2 would affect the dynamic range. In C-41 it feels somewhat limited.
I’m currently shooting a roll of NC500 and I’ve found some labs nearby that do ECN-2, so I’ll consider trying it out myself. I haven’t yet decided though if I want the washed out look or the more saturated look for this roll, I guess we’ll see what kind of scenes I have a chance to shoot on this one.
