Lomography Fantôme Kino 8 Film Review

Lomography Fantôme Kino 8 is a low-ISO black-and-white motion picture film sold in 35mm/36exp.

This film shows exceptionally fine grain, which it typically renders in extreme contrast, as seen in numerous samples posted online. However, I was able to get very natural-looking images out of Fantôme when I developed it at home with my solution of Rodinal 1+50.

Kino is a relatively new series of Lomography films spun from bulk cinema stock, including Fantôme 8, Babylon (ISO 13), Postdam (ISO 100), and Berlin (ISO 400). Naturally, I gravitated towards the extreme choice, the super-slow ISO 8. I think it was a good choice.

In this review: Grain, resolution, sharpness. Dynamic range. Exposure guide. Developing Fantôme 8 in Rodinal. Scanning Fantôme 8. How much does Fantôme 8 cost, and where to buy it. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Grain, resolution, sharpness.

Lomography does not publish technical information for any of its films, but it’s safe to say that Fantôme 8 produces some of the finest grain.

None can be seen even when I blow my scans up to fill my entire 27” screen. Zooming in on my 4,000DPI scans only reveals a slight texture — a reminder that those are film photographs after all — but no more than that.

My new scanner’s top resolution (Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED) isn’t as impressive as that of my old PrimeFilm XAs’ 10,000DPI, which I’m sure would’ve resolved a little more grain. Still, there’s probably little point to that other than to compare Fantôme to the CMS 20II, which, according to Adox, has no equals: “No other film is sharper, no other film is more finegrained, no other film resolves more lines per mm (up to 800 l/mm).” Or if I were to print my 35mm frame in 40” × 30” at 300DPI.

Dynamic range.

Dynamic range is an important property of film and any photographic medium. More so with film, as every emulsion differs in the total range of brightnesses, it can capture at once and how it renders them once it “saw” them.

Kodak and Fujifilm publish this data for virtually every film they make; Lomography does not. My rough estimate for Fantôme 8 is five stops. You should take this estimate with a grain of salt since it’s just a guess, and even if it is correct, it may change depending on how you expose and develop this film.

For context, five stops of dynamic range are similar to what you’d expect from slide film, like Fujifilm Provia 100F. This means you’ll need to get your exposures correct within a stop and expect highlights to over- and under-expose. I’ll explain how this works further below.

Thankfully, over- and under-exposures have soft transitions. This means that they shouldn’t look overly abrupt or ugly. But you should expect to see a lot of contrast in all conditions.

Exposure guide.

ISO 8 is so low that in full sun with a 1/500s shutter, I had to open up my lens to 𝒇2. Shooting wide-open on a sixty-year-old lens in strong light with high-contrast film revealed things about it that I’ve never noticed before.

I discovered that I like the bokeh of my Ultron lens even more and that it looked very unique in such conditions. I’ve learned that there’s a lot of swirl, vignetting, and softening in the corners that are typically hidden at lower apertures or in darker settings. All of those things gave my images a new character that felt quite enjoyable. Of course, modern or higher-end lenses will produce fewer of those aberrations, but you may still notice something about them that could not be apparent with normal films.

To shoot this film, you’ll need to measure your light manually or use a camera that you can set to ISO 8 for this film. There’s no DX code, so a point-and-shoot like Mju I that relies on it will not work.

I used the Sunny 16 rule, which proved relatively easy in full sun and occasional shadows.

Most of my scenes were front-lit. Backlit scenes produced a lot of contrast as this film can not render both shadows and highlights simultaneously due to its low dynamic range. If you care about seeing details across your entire image, you can use a light meter to find a delta value between the shadows in highlights in stops. If it’s more than five, chances are one of those areas will not have enough information.

 ☝︎ Further reading: “How to Make Perfect Exposures on Film.”

Developing Fantôme 8 in Rodinal.

The film canisters have a QR code that takes you to Lomography’s repository of film development guides and other downloads. The development guide for Fantôme 8 is here. It lists times for Kodak D96, Kodak HC 110, Ilford Ilfosol 3, Compard R09, and Tetenal — but nothing for Rodinal.

Since Rodinal was all I had at the time, I looked it up at the Massive Dev Chart. Thankfully, they had it listed: 8min at 20℃ with 1+50 dilution.

As you can see from the results in this article, Rodinal works pretty well with Fantôme 8. No unusual contrast levels or issues with grain. However, the film base is quite thin, resulting in a lot of curling, which called for some weights to ensure it hung straight to dry. While this could’ve been trouble while loading the reels (as is the case with Lomography Color 800), the task was manageable with Fantôme.

Scanning Fantôme 8.

Even though the film came out curly, it wasn’t difficult to scan. Thanks to its thin base, it would not resist being straightened and laid flat in the holder. The negatives also had an excellent density profile (very little base fog), making inverting the negatives as simple as negating them in Photoshop or any software of your choice.

I’ve made some slight adjustments to contrast in addition to equalizing the images. Those contrast adjustments were made to counter my old lens’ tendency to flare (which caused some loss of contrast), which this film has really brought to the forefront. If you don’t like that, consider using a modern lens or a lens hood.

How much does Fantôme 8 cost, and where to buy it.

Fantôme 8 is relatively affordable, selling between $9 and $15 — as long as it is in stock. I’ve added a few links here for marketplaces and stores that may have it, or you can check out your local Lomography shop.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Lomography Fantôme Kino 8  film purchase using this link so that this website may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!