Film Photography News — December 2024 Recap

☞ This is the 69th monthly Analog.Cafe Newsletter with the latest film photography lore. Sign up to get it via email on the last Tuesday of every month (it’s free).

What’s new?

We have a winner! Three new film camera accessories launch this month (and a print newspaper), each discussed in the new “News” page. I briefly speculate about the future of film photography.

💛 GOLD members get to read the new “How to Make Sharper Photos on Film” and “How to Service the Nikon F2 Photomic Metered Prisms” guides in full.

🎁 GOLD memberships are on sale until December 31st! Use GOLD24 during checkout to get your first 2 MONTHS FREE. You’ll get access to all premium articles, apps, and features. In this newsletter: What’s new? And the winner is…… Three new camera accessories, a print newspaper, and the new “News” page. The future of film photography. Latest on Analog.Cafe. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

And the winner is…

Regular readers may notice that I’m sending this newsletter early — usually, it’s the last Tuesday of every month. This is to announce the giveaway winner!

(I’m giving away an Ektar H35N half-frame 35mm film camera and three rolls of film. If you are a subscriber, you are on the list I’m randomly picking a name out of, which this time is):

Alejandro G. M. 🥳

Thank you all so much for supporting Analog.Cafe. This project takes time and effort to run, and your contributions make it possible.

2024 was the first year of the membership program, which I think helped push this project to the next level. Because of your invaluable support, I could spend the necessary time to write extensive, well-received guides, like How to Edit Film Scans, Master the Sunny 16 Rule!, and publish advanced web applications like Chem Log.

I might run more giveaways in the near future — let me know if you think this is a particularly attractive idea for you.

Also, not all giveaways were for paid members this year. I love the idea of shipping a camera to someone who’s never shot film before or hasn’t tried a particular stock. There’ll be more of that, too.

Three new camera accessories, a print newspaper, and the new “News” page.

The News page on the website now includes the three latest #editorial posts. #editorial[s] are short news and opinion bites about film photography that don’t necessarily have the depth of a full article but are timely.

The first #editorial to make it onto the page this month is a bit about Grégoire Huret’s new project, Paname Paper. This new print publication explores a theme deeply rooted in Parisian identity via street photography on 35mm film, printed with inky blacks on crunchy paper.

December isn’t known for film photography product launches; yet, this year, there are three new toys announced (two of which are in store):

The 135 Autocarrier is Filmomat’s premium film scanning rig that costs $1,500. As a software engineer, I’m especially interested in their automatic frame detection. From variable frame spacings, overlapping frames, half-frame cameras, panoramic cameras, and uncertain frame edges on photos with large underexposed areas, many issues must be solved (?) and tested vigorously to perform without supervision. With a price tag like that, this would be my expectation. I’d love to know if they got that right.

NONS CAMERA took on another technical challenge I found fascinating. This time, it’s an optical correction needed to fill a full Instax Square frame with a Hasselblad instant back. Medium format is 3mm smaller on all sides than the instant frame film area, which yields a dark border on all photos. Their new solution includes lens (and viewfinder) filters that fix that issue.

Reveni Labs has also released an optical solution (of sorts) with their portable laser rangefinder holder. The holder is a 3D-printed piece with a “first-surface mirror” designed to clip a $20 consumer device into the accessory shoe of a zone-focusing camera. The invention is intended to assist with focusing film cameras that don’t have a rangefinder and aren’t a SLR or a TLR (e.x., Pentax 17). However, it is a laser, which you probably shouldn’t point at people.

 ☝︎ Further reading: “How to Zone Focus Quickly and Accurately.”

The future of film photography.

The future is never certain, even when it comes to personal circumstances. Yet a few known announcements and figures can fuel some light-hearted speculation, which may be fun to consider as 2024 is coming to a close.

The ‘24 feels like a year when we realized that photography isn’t all about precision and sharpness. A number of articles and videos discussed the rise of the digicam (a simple vintage camera, often underpowered, made in the early ‘00s/‘10s). That rise is often credited to the digicam’s focus on photography/away from distractions, and, sometimes, a compelling colour reproduction.

Of course, digicams aren’t film. Some may think that this niche is a direct competition or even a threat to film photography. Yet, from where I’m sitting, it looks like a kin signal that many of us are looking to find ways into photography that are anti-consumerist and are against the notion that more tech is always better.

This year also felt like another step up for the analogue medium thanks to the waves made by the new Pentax 17 and Rollei 35AF film camera launches and many, many new products. Though it’s true that film is still a niche (and many people still aren’t aware of it still being a thing), it feels like it’s been occupying more mainstream airwaves these past 12 months than it has since the 2010s when it was collapsing.

The access to film photography and its continuous, sustainable growth isn’t unquestionable. Film prices have steadily increased since I started tracking  them in 2018. As I’ve been saying , all photography is a privilege. Nevertheless, it may be hard to deny the fact that the reason for the price hikes (other than general inflation) is the growing interest from the public and the bullish attitude towards film by key brands like Ilford and Kodak, both of which have publically announced a significant investment into modernizing their equipment.

 ☝︎ Further reading: Save money by developing film at home, bulk-rolling, and tracking film prices to get the best deal.

Based on what I’ve seen this year, it looks like 2025 will be an even bigger year for film photography, a medium that refuses to die.