I’d like to share a unique and serendipitous image my film camera created this Earth Day.
British Columbia had a record number of forest fires last year (cbc.ca/news/canada/british…); the 2024 burning season is close.
The fire that appears to consume the Vancouver Island beach forest in this image is a spontaneous and unintended effect of the photographic film’s physical properties.
I won’t stretch the symbolism here (instead, I’ll share a couple of tips on how we, as film photographers, can do better — below). But the way this photo turned out is fascinating, and I’d like to talk about it:
35mm film canisters use felt to shield the emulsion from unwanted light. Their little hairs can leave a pattern on the first frame (unless you or the camera advances 2-3 frames immediately after loading film). That pattern often resembles little flames because of the red dyes, which react to light following the pattern of the tiny hairs.
The Island beach forest in this photo is in the far distance, approximately in the middle of the frame. And it just so happens that the tips of the trees coincided with the part of the frame that was exposed to the light through the felt hairs. The result: it looks like the forest is on fire.
I’ve got emails from Dupli Ltd and CineStill announcing the resumption of the Kodak Professional Photo Chemicals series, which was in limbo for about a year after its previous manufacturer (Sino Promise) stopped making them. XTOL, T-MAX, and D-76 will be made and sold again.
I was meaning to write about this earlier, but the task escaped me. 35mmc has announced the news today (and PetaPixel did so a little earlier), which I’d like to acknowledge as a helpful reminder; you can read their summary of the news here: 35mmc.com/13/04/2024/kodak…
This film was long gone from the shelves in the US & Canada (+presumably the EU), yet it was still sold in Japan (see analog.cafe/comments/nfg3 #video)
Fujifilm is famously secretive about its film production lines, at least in the anglophone world (Kosmo Foto’s Stephen Dowling often has to translate Fujifilm’s announcements from Japanese to get the news across). This tight-lipped approach likely gave rise to a conspiracy theory which suggests that Fujifilm stopped making films decades ago, and we’re simply buying frozen stock. (I don’t think it’s true; all evidence points to the contrary).
However, back in 2021, Fujifilm exec Mark Reynolds came to meet photography retailers in the UK to assure them that Fujifilm is “committed to analogue products” (35mmc.com/10/11/2021/inter…, additional write-up & context: analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…). At that meeting, Mark said that restarting the production of Fujifilm Pro 400H is an “ongoing conversation.”
This is all I could think of when I saw Yvonne’s video last month. Unfortunately, instead of Pro 400H, we’ve got another discontinuation. 👎
The inaccurate light metering may be due to the fact that most LR44 batteries available now have a voltage of 1.5v. Using batteries with a voltage of 1.45v may yield better results. I hope this information can help others.
CineStill got a lot of pushback from the community. Many bloggers and YouTubers vowed never to buy their products and called them names (probably for clicks).
But real life isn’t made of villains and heroes. Lives and businesses are complicated stories involving countless decisions, and the repercussions of those actions aren’t always clear. This is why it’s so important to stand back for a moment and do the due diligence to get as many facts about an event as possible. This is what makes good reporting.
Daren did just that for us in his podcast-style video about the CineStill controversy that shook the film photography niche to its core late last year.
Crown + Flint is an iOS and Android app for generating EXIF data and keeping detailed notes while making exposures on film.
If you’d like to store the camera, film/ISO, lens, shutter speed, aperture, date, location data, and photos, this app can help you get there. This is comparable to the kind of data that digital cameras will embed for you automatically (something that film generally can not do).
Crown + Flint uses automation to help you pre-fill well-known cameras, films, lenses, and date/location data. However, you’ll still need to fill out the rest by hand for each shot and whenever you load new film. You’ll also need to take an additional photo on your mobile device as a reference for your film frame.
The app launched back in Sept 2023; this April, it brings a fourth app update with bugfixes and additional features (see the complete list here: crownandflint.com/press/20…)
Crown + Flint is free to try (you can store data for five frames) and $24.99 for unlimited use.
I would be amiss not to mention a free Analog.Cafe app, Film Log here as well (analog.cafe/app/film-log).
Film Log works on all devices and stores the essential information about your film and camera. It’s made to help keep track of your emulsions and equipment while freeing you up to shoot film independently.
Unfortunately, FilmBase (a five-star-rated Etsy shop that sells much of the gear tested on Analog.Cafe) will no longer offer shipping outside the US and Canada.
Here’s why:
Sometime last year, I noticed that Canada Post began to blanket-reject all shipments to the EU that included film cameras. Their reason had always been the same: “There’s a battery in a package.”
I’m well aware of the postal service’s rules. It’s not difficult for me to comply: nearly half of the cameras I use don’t need a battery, and the remainder use consumer cells that I always ask the buyer to get on their own. None of the packages I’ve sent ever had a battery.
However, Canada Post’s “system” consistently and incorrectly assumes that there’s a battery. Marking that there isn’t one does nothing to dissuade their machines.
What ended up happening is that I receive a returned package at my home a week later and am forced to explain to the customer why the delay. Then, I have to use a significantly more expensive shipping provider (UPS or DHL) which charges at least $150 per package — unacceptable for my and the customers’ wallets.
This makes me sad.
But the good news is that shipping is still fast and free to all US states and anywhere in Canada (at least in the southern provinces).
Thank you, everybody, for your support and understanding.
Flash photography can be indispensable and has a variety of creative applications. I took the time to learn how to use it with all my cameras and wrote a well-received guide on it here: analog.cafe/r/a-simple-gui….
I typically avoid it (flash) because it introduces more gear, a look that isn’t always personally desirable, and a bright burst of light that can be startling/distracting.
Do I detect a certain snobishness about your comments about flash photography? The MG-1, like a lot of budget rangefinders, has leaf shutter in the lens so you have flash sync at all speeds. You can find the manual for this camera, here:- butkus.org/chinon/yashica/…
It appears that Lomography has discontinued their Diana Mini camera. Their Monday morning (PST) email says there’s still some stock left, but they won’t be making it again (as I understood the message; I’ve contacted Lomography for clarification and will update this comment once I hear back).
Diana Mini is a plastic toy camera that can switch between a square and half-frame aspect ratios on 35mm film. It uses a 24mm lens with two apertures (f/8 and f/11) with a single shutter speed of 1/60s. It uses zone focusing with the closest distance of two feet/60cm.
I understand. Could you tell me what may’ve gone wrong and have you developed this exact film using the recipe? The results were confirmed for P3200 specifically, I’ve certainly seen better results with slower emulsions.
I have been meaning to respond to your original post. I was saddened to see how badly your negatives came out, and even more sad to see that you believed and others “confirmed” that this is normal! It is not! Proper Caffenol recipes produce negatives of the HIGHEST quality, indistinguishable from negatives developed in Kodak D76 or similar. Not grainy, not dark and murky. Clear, fine grain, great tonality and contrast. It makes me cringe to see all the people online saying you get poor quality negatives from Caffenol. I have been shooting since the 1990s on dozens of film stocks and with dozens of developers. I have been using nothing but Caffenol for the last few years since I realized its advantages. The only drawback is development time is a bit longer than commercial developers.
FYI: This month’s Community Letter will be published on Thursday instead of the usual Tuesday. I’m off to the islands for a mini vacation where I’ll be testing some cameras and not thinking about work.
Community Letters are the monthly overviews of the latest news, events, and stories from the film photography internet. They are emailed and published on the blog every last Tuesday.
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