Film Photography News — July 2024 Recap
🎈Birthday Film! Updates From Ilford, Lomography, Adox, Polaroid, Magnum
6 min read by Dmitri.Published on . Updated on .
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What’s new?
Ilford’s BIG investment into film photography, Lomography updates its Color’92 film formula, and Adox launches its rapid C-41 developer presale. Calls for submissions from Lens Culture, Analog Forever, Polaroid/Magnum, and The Sustainable Darkroom.
Also:
🎈 Analog.Cafe just turned seven! To celebrate, I made a limited run of affordable colour film with special perks. It’s called Cinema Shorts.
💛 GOLD members get a new guide: “How to Get Pastel Colours on Film.” In this Community Letter: What’s new? Harman (Ilford) makes an enormous investment in film. New colour film: Cinema Shorts. How to get pastel colours on film. Lomography Color’92 formula update. Adox C-TEC 41 rapid C-41 developer. Calls for submissions. Latest on Analog.Cafe. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!
Harman (Ilford) makes an enormous investment in film.
Earlier this month, Harman Technologies Ltd. (the company that makes Ilford black-and-white film and Harman Phoenix colour film) announced a “multi-million-pound” investment into their factory tooling.
Their first new machine “will more than double the number of film cassettes Harman can produce every year.” As some of you may know, Harman and Kodak are the only two factories that can make metal film canisters for 35mm film, which has been a significant bottleneck for global film production. A big, positive news for companies like CineStill that rely on this product.
“This type of equipment has not been commissioned by film manufacturers since the 1990s,” says David Jenkinson, Harman’s operations director.
The company hinted at further upcoming investments into machinery and research at their Mobberley manufacturing hub.
That said, there’s one more affordable colour film option that has just become available for you today:
New colour film: Cinema Shorts.
It’s a big date for a small blog. Analog.Cafe turned seven years old this month. It’s time to celebrate and I can’t think of a better way than shooting more film!
Cinema Shorts is a new, affordable, hand-rolled Kodak 50D and Kodak 250D motion picture film that comes with development instructions and a list of labs that process ECN-2 worldwide.
Preorders are now open! Your options are:
Price: $39 for three 35mm/36exp. rolls.
🥳 Bonus: Each box includes a secret code you can redeem for three months of GOLD membership on Analog.Cafe!
I’ve only made ten packs of this film, two of which were sold earlier this week. More info.
How to get pastel colours on film.
There are guides, posts, and presets online that offer approaches for creating airy, pastel-themed images on film. But none are as comprehensive as the write-up I posted last week.
This month, I explored the history of the art medium, our perceptions and preconceptions about the aesthetic, colour theory, and a variety of techniques. There’s much to consider if you want to create pastel-themed images predictably and consistently.
“How to Get Pastel Colours on Film” is the internet’s most comprehensive article on this surprisingly challenging process.
Lomography Color’92 formula update.
This month, Lomography announced an update to their keystone colour film, Lomography Color’92.
The company shared a few samples with me, some of which you can see in the earlier #editorial.
If you’ve shot this film, you can probably tell that the changes aren’t significant. The results look similar, if not identical. But tiny improvements can be like that. There may be things in the emulsion that won’t be noticeable unless you compare it one-to-one with the previous version (see the minimal differences between Kodak Portra 800, Lomography Color 800, and Flic Film Aurora 800). Those changes may cost a lot of effort to the producer, which is why I can understand Lomography making the announcement.
While imperceptible for general work, small changes may matter in the long run or in the physical world when developing film (e.g., thicker emulsion base, better archival properties, etc.)
In any case, Lomography does not usually share technical information, so we’ll have to trust that the new one is somehow better.
If this knowledge gap bothers you, let me know. I might run a test to see if there’s a perceptable difference between the older and the current Color’92 releases.
Adox C-TEC 41 rapid C-41 developer.
Developing colour film is a fun and meditative process. But it’s still nice to get it out of the tank sooner, which is why Adox’ new C-41 chemicals are a welcome addition to the kitchen.
While the developer itself isn’t necessarily faster, the bleach & fix step can be shortened to four minutes, which is twice as fast as a typical eight-minute process. The downside is a slightly faster expiration rate.
Adox answered a few questions about their new chems on Instagram. I summarized those answers in this thread.
Calls for submissions.
I’ve been shooting a lot of film this summer. I dare to say that some of those photos may even be good. I’m also confident that you may have much better images in your portfolio. Those are the photos that you should submit to some/all of the numerous calls for submissions I came across this month:
Polaroid x Magnum Open Call (details). Deadline: August 12.
Lens Culture B&W Photography Awards 2024 (details). Deadline: August 21.
The Active Image: Political Ecologies & Photographic Agency Exhibition by The Sustainable Darkroom (details). Deadline: August 1.
Analog Forever Online Exhibition (details). Deadline: August 1.
Of course, submissions are also accepted year-round on Analog.Cafe!
Thanks so much for reading this far and for your support, whichever form it takes. Please feel free to contact me directly or comment anywhere on this website. I love feedback. 🩷