Film and Darkroom

134 Stories, Experiments, Workflows, Reviews

Harman Phoenix Reversal Explored
A Follow-Up
September 2, 2025
This article is meant to be an extension of the work done previously by Dmitri (which can be found here). After reading up on his processes, I realized that there may be room for improvement, or at least experimentation. Over the course of five test strips from two rolls from the same batch, I think I’ve found something that works well for both scanning and projection.
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Fujifilm 200 Color Negative vs. Kodak Gold
Which One Is Better? or Is It the Same Thing?
August 19, 2025
Fujifilm 200 is a US-made colour-negative film with Fuji branding sold across many outlets, including my local drugstore. This film is the current successor to the Japanese-made Fujicolor C 200, a medium-speed, affordable colour-negative film. In this article, I’ll compare and review both films.
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KONO Color 200/OptiColour 200/ORWO NC200 Film Review
A New German-Made Colour-Negative Film, Sold in 135, 120, and Bulk
August 19, 2025
KONO Color 200 is a new colour-negative film packaged and sold by a German company, KONO Manufaktur, in 35mm and bulk rolls of 100’ (30.5m). It’s the same as Optik OldSchool OptiColor 200 and ORWO Wolfen NC200. I’ve shot three rolls of it this summer in various settings and have lots to say about the quality of the images, the price, and what this film means for the future of film photography. This review has a higher-than-average number of samples from the rolls, as I was lucky enough to get lots of “keepers.” Or it may have been the result of a massive upgrade in terms of image quality and scannability for InovisCoat GmbH! (I will explain who that is, too.)
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Comparing Two Newest Colour Films: Phoenix vs. NC200
The Only Non-Kodak Colour-Negative Films Made Today
August 19, 2025
There are only two colour-negative film lines in production today, other than those manufactured by Kodak. They are both made in Europe as the first completely new C-41-based emulsions since the mid-2000s. In this article, I will compare them side-by-side to see which of these formulas is closer to replacing Kodak’s legacy of innovation and excellence in colour photochemistry.
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Rollei RPX 25 Film Review
Very Sharp, Very Fine, Excellent With Vintage Glass
August 6, 2025
Rollei RPX 25 is a silver-rich, sharp, fine-grained panchromatic black-and-white film. In this review, I’ll share all I’ve learned about RPX 25 over the six years I’ve used it and why I think it may look so good with old lenses like the Voigtlander Ultron 2.0 or Zeiss Tessar 2.8.
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How to Fake CineStill 800T
Testing the “CineStill Is Just Kodak Vision 3 Film Without Remjet” Myth
July 28, 2025
In the wake of Kodak’s major change to their film chemistry and a year after the 800T branding controversy, we tested the internet myth of how CineStill films are made (we made our own and compared it to the branded stock). The results were entirely unexpected. We ran our tests twice!
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Polaroid 600 in SX-70 NO Filter, NO Mods, NO Flash?
A Review of the 2024 ‘Big’ Improvements in the Polaroid B&W 600 Chemistry
July 8, 2025
After several rounds of controlled and field tests, and a short conversation with Polaroid, I’m finally ready to share my independent experiment-based findings: Does the new B&W 600 film work with unmodified Polaroid SX-70 cameras?
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Kodak Tri-X 400 Film Review
Instant Classic Kodak Grain & Contrast
July 3, 2025
Tri-X is one of Kodak’s best-recognized films that has been around for over 85 years. In this review, I’ll introduce you to the history that lends significance to this film as well as the technical aspects, like the grain structure and dynamic range, that make it an excellent choice for home and lab scanning. I will also briefly compare Kodak Tri-X to the other long-standing ISO 400 black-and-white photographer favourite, Ilford HP5+ and explain the difference between Tri-X and T-Max.
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Welcome to Karmir Film Lab in Yerevan!
A Creative Stronghold for Film Photographers in the Caucasus
June 4, 2025
An article about a film lab and a creative hub in Yerevan.
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Where to Develop, Scan, and Print Film in Bangkok
May 12, 2025
Finding the film you want in Bangkok can be a huge challenge, and if you want your transparencies or negatives scanned on something higher-end than a Noritsu or Fuji Frontier, most people will tell you it’s impossible. (Fortunately, they’re wrong!) This article covers a wide range of services: film labs for E-6, ECN-2, B&W, and C41 processing, as well as places to buy film and get film scanned.
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Kodak Vision 3 500T 5219/7219 Film Review
Shot as Stills and Developed in C-41
May 5, 2025
Though it has been designed for movies, this film sees strong popularity amongst still photographers for its tungsten-balanced colour palette, fine grain, high ISO, wide dynamic range, and great response to cross-processing. In this review, I’ll cover all the technical properties and creative possibilities of using the Kodak Vision 3 500T, compare it to CineStill 800T, and explain Kodak’s recent crackdown on the sales of this film to individual photographers.
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Where to Develop, Scan, and Print Film in Bali
May 2, 2025
Bali has quite a few film labs with a large variety of services offered by each. Here’s a non-exhaustive summary of the options, locations, prices, and notes of the labs we tried.
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“Bluescaling” Lomochrome Turquoise
Going Beyond Redscaling for the Rare, Unseen Colours on Film
April 23, 2025
Lomochrome Turquoise is a false-colour negative film designed by Lomography to render freaky orange, cobalt, and marine palettes. Out of the box, this emulsion is already incredibly unique, but it can be pushed even further for a rare and wild look.
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Redscaling Lomochrome Purple
What Happens if You Shoot False-Colour Film “The Wrong Way?”
April 17, 2025
Redscaling means exposing the backside of colour film, which usually makes moody, red-dominant photos. But that’s on regular film. Lomochrome Purple isn’t regular — it’s a false-colour film, which means it behaves differently when redscaled. In this article, I’ll share some thoughts and samples from my week-long experiment shooting Lomochrome Purle loaded “the wrong way” with a dense green filter.
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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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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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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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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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Pushing Ilford HP5+ to ISO 100,000
Samples, Recipe, Discussion, and Development Times
January 8, 2025
This article is a follow-up to yesterday’s experiment with pulling HP5+ to ISO 3; whereas the former was fairly easy to do, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you try what I’m about to share with you here. Still, this resource comes with all the techniques and recipes necessary to replicate the experiment, as well as suggested times for developing HP5+ at EI 12800, 25600, and 51200.
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Pulling Ilford HP5+ to ISO 3
Samples, Recipe, Discussion, and Development Times
January 7, 2025
Ilford HP5+ is a ninety-year-old¹ black-and-white film known for its versatility, sharpness, and controlled response to various development methods. Many photographers love to push-process it and occasionally pull-process. Yet, to my knowledge, no one has pull-processed it to this extreme; thus, this may be the first time anyone has ever shared the technique and the results with the HP5+ shot as if it’s an ISO 3 film.
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