Film Photography News — September 2022 Recap

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What’s new?

NONS launches a new lens for their Instax film SLR cameras. Polaroid angers film nerds, and Fujifilm raises prices by 15%. We’ve got three new films (planned and on sale) and a new premium compact camera (coming soon) from MiNT.

Also, Analog.Cafe celebrates five years on the internet! 🎈

NONS 35mm 𝒇2.4.

NONS is a new camera company that makes SLR bodies for Instax film. They got started in 2020 with Instax Mini and have since expanded to Instax Square with SL660.

One of the greatest challenges with their camera design has been vignetting. It was prominent in the early models; however, NONS has improved their design considerably since then. This new lens is made specifically to avoid those kinds of distortions on their instant film bodies. But the lens will also fit any Canon EF mount SLR.

The new NONS 35mm 𝒇2.4-22 manual lens features a minimum focus distance of .24m, 52mm filter thread, 8 elements in 6 groups — packaged in 62×57/255g EF mount.

The lens is currently available for pre-order for $89 at nonscamera.com.

Analog.Cafe Turns 5! 🎈

Since 2017, this website has published over 400 articles, essays, apps, and learning resources — free and ad-free for all to enjoy. This could never happen without the help of 116 contributing writers and film photographers who agreed to share their vision on this blog.

A huge “Thank you!” and a round of applause to all who contributed content, financial support, and feedback to the Analog.Cafe project. 👏👏👏

To celebrate, I’ve created five designs that visually spell out “Analog.Cafe” wordlessly using Polaroid SX-70 film and MiNT Flash Bar 2. These designs are now available on super-soft well-fitted T-Shirts printed by Cotton Bureau in Pittsburgh, PA (USA).

I wrote more about the process of creating the tees earlier this week.

There are two fits: men’s slim fit, a classy cut that works well on its own or with a blazer, and women’s junior fit, which is meant to be tight (see size chart in the listing).

The tees are available now from Cotton Bureau, FilmBase (Etsy), and Analog.Cafe.

There are five designs to choose from: Olympus OM-1, Olympus PEN FV, Minolta TC-1, Olympus Mju I, and Yashica Electro 35 GT.

15% OFF tees and cameras.

Use the CAFE5 coupon code at the shop to get 15% OFF the T-Shirts, film cameras, and more until October 1, 2022.

✪ Note: Your tees will arrive in orange wrapping from Cotton Bureau (USA).

Shop the Tees.

Polaroid Music.

This month, Polaroid launched a funky speaker with a music subscription service with a somewhat cryptic video that told little of its features. But that didn’t matter as the brand’s fans showed their colourful disdain for the product on Twitter and Instagram.

The community pushback was significant enough for Polaroid’s CEO, Oskar Smolokowski, to post a response defending the new project.

A part of that response was a tease of an upcoming new instant camera in 2023 — to “rival the titans of the ‘70s and ‘80s in terms of picture quality.”

Fujifilm raises prices by 15%.

Again. It was just April when the company gave their products a 60% price increase, with the latest increase nearing double the costs of some things since the beginning of the year.

New film, new cameras, new problems, and more.

The new ORWO Wolfen NC 500 film, one of this year’s numerous new C-41 emulsions, has had a slight delay as the German manufacturer worked on solving the global 35mm film cartridge shortage.

The film cartridge shortage is an issue I’ve heard of on several occasions this year; however, I think it’s “a nice problem” to have as it is an indicator of the buoyant demand and availability of film. Little metal will not stop the analogue renaissance.

Meanwhile, ORWO added an intent to release a new tungsten-balanced C-41 film in the near future. Note: that will not be a CineStill-style adaptation of Kodak’s motion picture film; the tungsten film by ORWO will be something different.

Atlanta residents (and beyond) can now enjoy Atlanta Film Co’s ECN-2’s selection of Kodak motion picture emulsions. These come with the remjet layer, which means no red halos and no possibility of developing them at a typical C-41 lab. However, Atlanta Film can do the job with the chemicals made specifically for this film.

CatLABS has a new black-and-white film on sale: X Film 320. You can learn more about it on Kosmo Foto. Argenti has also launched a new low-ISO monochrome emulsion — Docemasuno — learn about that project on 35mmc.

For the lucky readers who’ve got an extra $110,000 burning a hole in a pocket, Pagani — an Italian luxury carmaker — is now selling large format cameras. But hurry, they’re limited to just 75 copies! First dibs go to the car owners.

Finally, MiNT, the brand known for restoring and souping-up Polaroid SX-70 cameras, Instax rangefinder, and an Instax SLR, has announced its intention to start manufacturing a new premium compact 35mm film camera. Here’s what MiNT’s founder, Gary Ho, says about the project:

Latest on Analog.Cafe.

“Minox 35 EL Camera Review” — this camera is the predecessor to one of the smallest 35mm film cameras ever made. It lacks some features, and the film winding is a little tough, but the camera does have fewer knobs and switches, which could be a good thing for you.

“CineStill 400D Film Review” — one of the new colour films of 2022, 400D shares some attributes with its older cousins 800T and 50D, although the company says it is a combination of various components, rather than just Kodak film w/o the remjet.

“Sample CineStill 400D 35mm Film Scans” — if you want an advanced look at hi-res negatives without any edits to see what you can do with them, this is the link.

“Jupiter-8 50mm F/2 Lens Review” — a surprise of a lens, built decades ago in the Soviet Union, it’s capable of making beautiful pictures (given that you’ve got the correct model).

“Fujicolor Natura 1600 Film Review” — one of the priciest colour films on eBay; it features an impressively-fine grain (at the particular film density) and a natural, consistent colour balance throughout its entire dynamic range. In this review, I discuss those properties in detail and give a few tips on how to make the best use of the film’s advantages.

“Analog.Cafe Turns 5! 🎈” — in this article, I recall why this website still exists and list a few ideas for its future growth.

“Analog.Cafe 5th Anniversary Edition Tees! 👚👕” — since I didn’t want to sell mediocre clothing, I spent a small pile of cash and filled my wardrobe with similar-looking tees to find the best one. This article tells the story of my hunt for the softest, lightest, best-fitting T-Shirts.