Film Prices, Aerochrome, and the Members’ Handbook

A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members

5 min read by Dmitri.
Published on February 21, 2025. Updated on February 21, 2025.

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Now is a good time to buy film as the prices have actually lowered worldwide. A new market report breaks them down by type, currency, and availability.

Speaking of prices, I’ve got plans for the most expensive roll of colour film you can buy. I’ll share them right after I introduce the new Members’ Handbook and update you on my progress with Film Q.

In this newsletter: Members’ Handbook. Film Q. How not to shoot Aerochrome. Film prices are at a two-year low. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Members’ Handbook.

After eight years of weekly updates (since 2017!), Analog.Cafe has become one of the largest film photography resources on the internet. It now hosts 650+ articles, several web apps, and a number of special features — some of which are designed specifically for GOLD members.

There’s now a lot that this website can offer, which is why I wrote a short guide to its premium features, like high-resolution images, advanced web apps, and exclusive articles. It’s called “Members’ Handbook.”

The above guide goes hand-in-hand with the piece titled “About Analog.Cafe Accounts,” which describes everything this website can do for anyone with a free or paid membership. This includes bookmarking, commenting, email newsletters, article submissions, and more.

As this resource grows, I’ll keep both of these guides updated.

I’ve also added contextual menus to all article titles to make browsing and finding what you need a little easier. They look like three vertical dots ︙. Tap or click them to view summaries, ways to share, and links to relevant sections. If you’re browsing one of the list sections, like Guides Tutorials, clicking the ︙ will give you an option to search within those sections. You can even limit your search to just the member-exclusive articles by tapping the dots on the GOLD Member Zone page title.

Film Q.

Speaking of the website updates, I have a progress update on the film negative inversion tool I mentioned last month.

Film Q is designed to connect with your cloud storage service, like Dropbox, and invert your film negative scans in batches offsite. This means quicker results and no software to run on your computer. You can use Film Q on any device, and it will always upload your inverted files in the same place. Film Q uses an open film negative inversion technique that’s easy to replicate and understand, but it relies on you to do the final colour adjustments.

This month, I had a few people try it, which helped me find a number of bugs that weren’t obvious initially and gave some ideas on how to simplify the interface of the web app. It’s a new concept, which means I’ll probably have to write and film a tutorial for it once Film Q goes live.

I am currently moving the code onto a new custom hosting service that should allow the app to automatically assign new resources if many people use it at once and shrink back down during the quiet stretches. This is a complicated setup, so it’ll take some time to complete.

I’m hoping to open up the registration for all GOLD members to try the app (without having to get on a call with me) by the end of March. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

View this image in HD with GOLD

Kodak Aerochrome with Hasselbland XPan.

How not to shoot Aerochrome.

Something someone said last month got me thinking about Aerochrome, the most expensive and rare film on the market. Or it might’ve been the new Harman Red 125 that inspired me to devise an outrageous experiment: redscale this colour infrared film.

Kodak Aerochrome layer sensitivity and colour dyes when redscaled.

There are some challenges with this plan, given that the sensitivity of the most important layer (the IR channel) will be diminished when the emulsion is flipped upside down, while its sensitivity to visible red light can become extreme. I made some sketches based on all the emulsion layers and how they may affect the final image (it’ll probably look much greener than usual). But there’s only one way to find out if it works.

Next month, I’ll post a few samples — and if they’re at all interesting, I might take my very expensive roll of Aerochrome out and get a few pictures that aren’t just tests.

Film prices are at a two-year low.

Whereas Aerochrome is obscenely expensive (about $10 per single 35mm frame!), typical film prices are now as low as they were back in 2022. Many films, including Kodak Tri-X, dropped in price — despite the recent announcement that would’ve suggested otherwise.

This article explains which films are best buys right now and lists a few stocks that may be difficult to find. The sections about prices by region and my thoughts on whether shooting film will become even cheaper in 2025 are reserved for GOLD members.

That’s all for now. Thank you for your support — I really appreciate it!

— Dmitri.

This post is for GOLD members.

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