New, very low ISO film for anyone interested

MNM · Apr 9, 2020

Paul Manuell said:
I sometimes wonder why I bother posting on here. I genuinely thought a new, low ISO film might be of interest to some on here.

I may not end up using any, but I certainly appreciate your posting it. It does me no harm to know of it and if I do find some use in the future I have benefitted.

blockend · Apr 9, 2020

Agulliver said:
a low ISO film with poor latitude won't be suitable for the Lomography style of photography or cameras.

Indeed, unsophisticated (crappy?) cameras work best with expensive, high latitude emulsions like Portra 400 and Pro400H.

cmacd123 said:
sounds like yet another motion picture Laboratory intermediate film being sold as a offbeat camera material.

Almost certainly a process emulsion of some kind.

I'm not anti-low ASA, if they brought back Agfapan 25 tomorrow I'd be first in the queue.

Andrew O'Neill · Apr 9, 2020

blockend said:
if they brought back Agfapan 25 tomorrow I'd be first in the queue.

No you wouldn't. I would.

Sirius Glass · Apr 9, 2020

Kodachromeguy said:
+1. Any new film news is good news.And I wonder why Sirius and the other gent feel compelled to state that they have no interest in it. How does that contribute? How does that affect anyone else?

Of course please keep posting.

I have not interest in a film that has a narrow SBR latitude when I still have some wonderful unexposed rolls of slide films. I am interested in making prints now and have been for four decades. How does that contribute? The last time I checked each of us is allowed to post our opinions.

eli griggs · Apr 9, 2020

It sounds like just the thing for getting a handle on metering and shooting practices, for folks that want to get better at enlarger paper, paper negatives, where your exposures are supposed to be just on.

I would be interested in seeing what this film would do in the Hasselblad, even in 135 format, and hopefully in 6x6cm if it stays on the market.

I do no go out and try random films often however, this sounds interesting to me.

Agulliver · Apr 10, 2020

I quite like it's high contrast and could see myself loading up one camera with it and shooting it in the sunny months....though as far as I can see it's only available in packs of 5 ad due in September which might not be so well suited to my "needs". Still I think this has a market, some people will enjoy the low ISO and contrast.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 10, 2020

Astrum has some low ISO films that are much cheaper. For e.g. Micrat Orto negative film (ISO 3) is quite good (some examples here: https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=79033393@N04&view_all=1&text=micrat). I paid less than $1.5 per meter.

Jeremy Mudd · Apr 10, 2020

Thanks for posting - that's one that I want to try out for certain.

I've been shooting a lot lately with the SVEMA MZ-3 low ISO film from FPP. It's an ISO 3 film. I've been shooting it in my Mamiya RB67 ProSD in panoramic format. Not a lot of latitude but I like the punchy/contrasty look.

Jeremy

grainyvision · Apr 10, 2020

Plenty of slow and extremely slow films out there exist. Duplicating and reproduction films being the big ones. They're so slow that for practical purposes they don't expire unless kept in an attic. FPP sells a number of them. You can also get 100-400ft rolls on ebay pretty easily, though you run the risk of the can having been opened when buying from ebay. If you have some real dedication, you can even buy cine repro films in 70mm (IMax) format and cut it down to 120 format (62mm). It's very sensitive to how it's processed (best if you can mix a custom developer) but I'd recommend Kodalith to someone trying to figure out something like this. Speed is typically about 10 ISO, can be processed under red safelight, and capable of extremely fine grain results depending on processing. Ultrafineonline also sells a 35mm (with perforations!) ortho litho film that behaves almost exactly like Kodalith in my tests. For sheet film, Arista ortho litho is super cheap but a lot slower (see also, my blog on arista ortho litho processing: https://grainy.vision/blog/ortho-litho-reference ) and requires even more careful processing, but the results are these crazy weird pictures that I've yet to be able to come close to with other ortho litho films.

RoboRepublic · Apr 10, 2020

I have a hard time understanding the cynicism- maybe its intended to be humorous and its flying over my head
Paying respect to old cameras and their glass by using them- making pictures all the while - seems like a worthy endeavor to me.

Happy to hear from the folks that know and shoot these FPP films, thats some really cool stuff!

Huss · Apr 11, 2020

I

Paul Manuell said:
I sometimes wonder why I bother posting on here. I genuinely thought a new, low ISO film might be of interest to some on here.

I ordered a batch when it was first announced. 20% off the retail price.

grainyvision · Apr 11, 2020

Paul Manuell said:
I sometimes wonder why I bother posting on here. I genuinely thought a new, low ISO film might be of interest to some on here.

Personally I'd be a lot more interested if it was an 8 ISO color film (especially slide!) or at least available in 120 format. There's tons of films in the "very slow but usable" 3 - 25 ISO range that are much cheaper than $7/roll, but none available in 120 nor in color. For color it's either normal speed stuff or the 0.8 ISO intermediate films. Honestly I'm a sucker for weird slow films so I'll still end up buying some, but I'm not really expecting anything particularly unique from the example pictures compared to other available films

Agulliver · Apr 11, 2020

Paul Manuell said:
I sometimes wonder why I bother posting on here. I genuinely thought a new, low ISO film might be of interest to some on here.

You can't win. There are people here and elsewhere who only think of themselves..."I don't personally need this, it's not a replacement for the film I miss, so it's no use".

Each and every new option, even if duplicated cheaper elsewhere, is welcome. Sure, there might be other very low ISO films around but not as easy/convenient to buy as visiting Lomography.com or resellers. And in the end....how can another option be a bad thing?

BradS · Apr 11, 2020

Paul Manuell said:
I sometimes wonder why I bother posting on here. I genuinely thought a new, low ISO film might be of interest to some on here.

You are not the film. You are a separate entity from the film. What somebody thinks of the film has nothing to do with you and, what somebody thinks of you has no bearing on the film.

If you introduce a topic for discussion, you can expect it to be discussed...from every point of view. This is good....and still any opinions or facts expressed about a topic have nothing to do with you.

bluechromis · Apr 11, 2020

I appreciate hearing about the new film. I don't think Lomo is all bad, they injected some interest in analog and brought in a philosophy that was breath of fresh air when the photography world was becoming mired in obsessive digital technology concerns. But this film release may reflect a criticism that some make of Lomo. Perhaps because of their emphasis on spontaneous shooting not bogged down by involved technical considerations, they don't always provide much guidance in how to use products or improve results generally. It seems they continually come out with a new film, camera or gadget and say, "try this, try that, try this other thing." But I can't see that they do a lot to help folks use the stuff effectively or really offer much on how to improve one's photography generally a with better understanding of composition, lighting and other means. This is particularly problematic with a film like this that is likely to be tricky even for experienced users.

pentaxuser · Apr 11, 2020

bluechromis, from what I have seen of the Lomo outlook I wonder if it sees any need to do any of the things that I feel you rightly point out to be important? If the philosophy is "try this, try that" etc on the basis that it will sell some "new" film even if this is a short-lived success and short-termism rules the day then my fear is that film photography become a short-term fad which has little chance of sprouting roots

It might be that most of us here are from Mars and the new film users are from Venus and that's OK as long as the Venusians are not people whose philosophy is : "Hey, it was expensive and a bit wasteful of my money but nice while it lasted but now my needs are different. I either need or want to move on"

There is no long term future for film in this case that I can see

pentaxuser

Huss · Apr 11, 2020

earlz said:
There's tons of films in the "very slow but usable" 3 - 25 ISO range that are much cheaper than $7/roll..

Where please? I can't find any under 25ISO and much cheaper than $7/roll.
The cheapest I can find is Rollei RPX25 at $8.

Huss · Apr 11, 2020

bluechromis said:
I appreciate hearing about the new film. I don't think Lomo is all bad, they injected some interest in analog and brought in a philosophy that was breath of fresh air when the photography world was becoming mired in obsessive digital technology concerns. But this film release may reflect a criticism that some make of Lomo. Perhaps because of their emphasis on spontaneous shooting not bogged down by involved technical considerations, they don't always provide much guidance in how to use products or improve results generally. It seems they continually come out with a new film, camera or gadget and say, "try this, try that, try this other thing." But I can't see that they do a lot to help folks use the stuff effectively or really offer much on how to improve one's photography generally a with better understanding of composition, lighting and other means. This is particularly problematic with a film like this that is likely to be tricky even for experienced users.

Lomography.com has lots of articles showing how to shoot film,, tips of composition, interviews with photographers.
Here is one with the latest Fantome Kino film:

https://www.lomography.com/magazine...ajajiva-tests-the-fantome-kino-b-w-iso-8-film

summicron1 · Apr 11, 2020

folks here need to realize that lomo was promoting film when nobody -- NOBODY -- else was, not even Kodak. It saved a hard core of interest in film, it and Holga cameras, that was a base to build on later.

I personally probly don't need an asa 8 film, but I don't use cafenoll developer, or any of the other fancy shmancy chemicals folks here praise -- but I'm glad they do, all part of the mix.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 12, 2020

Huss said:
Here is one with the latest Fantome Kino film:

https://www.lomography.com/magazine...ajajiva-tests-the-fantome-kino-b-w-iso-8-film

These pics are nice, TFS. And again no special purpose developer was used which is quite encouraging.

bluechromis · Apr 12, 2020

Huss said:
Lomography.com has lots of articles showing how to shoot film,, tips of composition, interviews with photographers.
Here is one with the latest Fantome Kino film:

https://www.lomography.com/magazine...ajajiva-tests-the-fantome-kino-b-w-iso-8-film

I stand corrected.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 13, 2020

Huss said:
Where please? I can't find any under 25ISO and much cheaper than $7/roll.
The cheapest I can find is Rollei RPX25 at $8.

I've bought nice low ISO film from Astrum for less than $1.5 per meter length of 135 film. Astrum is a distributor of films based in Ukraine. They ship worldwide and several people from this forum have bought film from them. You can write to Dmitriy dmvarenik@gmail.com and get more information about the films available including the price list. I liked their Micrat Orto negative film at ISO 3. Some examples are in my Flickr stream.

grainyvision · Apr 13, 2020

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
These pics are nice, TFS. And again no special purpose developer was used which is quite encouraging.

That's kind of incredible to get from HC-110 B. I assumed it would require something super dilute or even a custom developer to get usable contrast on such a film

Agulliver · Apr 13, 2020

Although I do own the Lomography Konstruktor kit camera, I would't say that the "Lomo way" is my way. However there are some genuinely interesting photos over on the galleries at lomography.com and it's a valid art form in my opinion. Not my bag, but then neither are half the "old masters". It's also worth remembering that the Lomo crowd were promoting film when every other manufacturer/seller had given up. In the same way that hip-hop DJs kept the vinyl presses going, the Lomo and hipster crowd kept the coaters going. And for that I am forever grateful. Sure, Lomography sells some overpriced stuff (in my opinion) but their CN films are great. Nothing trick about them, they're good old Kodacolor VR 100, 400 and 800. They reintroduced the Diana and Holga cameras which certainly have a following. Holgas are interesting because I've seen some truly excellent photos taken with them and some full of light leaks and lens aberrations. I guess that's part of the appeal, you never quite know what you'll get.

As for this low speed film....yes, the Svema branded films are available but where can I buy them?

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 13, 2020

Agulliver said:
yes, the Svema branded films are available but where can I buy them?

I gave the contact details just a couple of posts above yours.

New, very low ISO film for anyone interested

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