In the past several years, as film prices rise and film choices diminish, it’s become quite common to tap into 35mm film stocks that are ordinarily sold for motion picture use, and adapt them for still photography. Nudging us all down that path are dozens of companies (and even individuals) who are buying the motion picture stocks in bulk, cutting them down, loading them into 135 roll film cassettes, and selling them at retail, or via online marketplaces. While Eastman 5222, also known as Kodak Double-X, is a common black-and-white motion picture film that’s long been packaged and used for still photography, the practice is increasingly popular in the past few years for color films, namely Kodak’s Vision3 stocks. These films, however, have some unique attributes that make them unsuitable for most lab development, and challenging for home processing as well. Among them is the fact that technically speaking, they’re designed for the ECN-2 process (and chemicals), not the more common C-41 process of developing standard color negative films for still photography. In this article, we dive into the differences, and what you need to know to get great results from these films.
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How to Cut and Load Film for the Goerz Minicord
In mid-2022, I was generously gifted a very special camera by a friend: a Goerz Minicord, reportedly the smallest twin-lens reflex (TLR) ever made, and one of the smallest truly serious film cameras ever made for that matter. My friend had inherited the camera, I believe, but had never shot film in it. I have very few “shelf queen” cameras — those that sit on a shelf and either don’t function, or for which film can no longer be purchased. If I own a camera, I want it to work, and I want to have used it at some point or another. As a result, my first objective was to figure-out how to get film into the Minicord and give it a go. Now that I’ve figured it out, it seems useful to share what I found.
Continue reading…Combating the Increasing Cost of Film: Why and How to Bulk Load
As I write this article in November 2021, film photography blogs, podcasts and social media are abuzz about rumors (or promises) by Kodak to raise prices on film again in January 2022 — the latest of a seemingly endless series of increases. It’s not just Kodak; Ilford has raised prices, as have secondary brands like CineStill, Lomography, Adox, Foma and others. And as is customary for companies recently, they’re all blaming COVID-19 and supply chain difficulties and their own rising costs as the reason. Whether you believe that story or sense opportunism, it doesn’t matter: film photography is getting more and more expensive, nearly every day. So, what do we do about it?
Continue reading…Side-by-Side • Kodak HC-110: Dilution B vs. Dilution H
In this first of a new series of articles, we take a look at how, and to what extent, using two different common dilutions of Kodak’s HC-110 black and white developer impacts the resulting film images. Our novel approach to this series hopefully will make it extremely easy to see and identify the differences — an approach we intend to bring to a number of comparisons in the months ahead.
Continue reading…Tracking Fixer Exhaustion: My Approach
I used to think that the best way to get into an argument with someone was to discuss politics. I think there may be a close second: Talking about exhaustion of darkroom chemicals — at least if reading photography forums is any indication. But I’d prefer not to argue about it, and instead offer a way to track the exhaustion of a key chemical in the development process: fixer.
Continue reading…My First Foray Into C-41: Success!
A few months ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic dug its claws fully into the United States, I finally decided it was time to open-up the box of CineStill C-41 chemistry that had been sitting on a shelf since December, and set about processing the pile of color negative film that had been accumulating up to now. I have to confess: I’d been dragging my feet, fearful of this moment — worried whether I’d end-up simply ruining some film and losing shots I’d worked so hard to capture. As it turns out, the worries were unnecessary.
Continue reading…Why Process Film at Home?
Since getting back into film, I’ve slowly invested in the hobby with the aim of lowering the overall cost and having a bit more control over the creative process. That led, of course, to processing and scanning film at home. After processing dozens of rolls at home (all quite successfully, I might add), I have the operational experience both to calculate and talk about cost, and to reflect on the benefits I’m seeing — some of which were unexpected.
Continue reading…Diagnosing Light Edges on Images (Dark Edges on Negatives)
Since I’ve started developing my own film, I’m pleased to say I have yet to ruin any of the dozens of rolls of film I’ve processed at home — every single roll has resulted in usable negatives, with seemingly proper density. However, something has been dogging me, and I only recently discovered that it was my own fault: Images with light edges (on the positives), dark edges (on the negatives).
Continue reading…Accidental Cross-Processing: Outstanding (and Unexpected) Results
On a recent trip to New Jersey, I picked-up a Hasselblad 503CW. (Edited: I’ve since reviewed the camera; follow the link.) Because I didn’t have any film with me, the camera shop kindly threw-in a few rolls of 120 so I could immediately start shooting. Since they also let me choose what I wanted from their film fridge, I opted for three Kodak rolls: Portra 160, Portra 400, and Tri-X. It was a beautiful day, lots of sunlight, so the Portra 160 went into the magazine as my first-ever roll of film in the new Hassy. When I got home, I took it for processing as usual to Englewood Camera. But the results were nothing I was expecting.
Continue reading…More Film Processing Back; More Mixed Results
Late last week, I received back from The Darkroom my latest batch of film processing. It was a mixed batch; four cameras, six rolls. And the results were also mixed. To be sure, there were some photos I really liked and am proud of. And there were also a ton of duds I didn’t even bother uploading to Flickr. But this process has gotten me thinking about film, about control, and about those results.
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