StreetPan400 JCH

Sometime next week I will be getting 10 rolls of Street Pan 400. I am excited to try it out. It is apparently a resurrected film possibly a cine film. Not sure actually but it is not a rebadged film so when you shoot StreetPan you are shooting the real deal. It is being sold by Japan Camera Hunter in a 10 roll minimum purchase. Kind of expensive so it will not be my regular film unless it is so special it just has to be that way. I am currently shooting Arista 100 and HP5.

Has anyone tried it out or seen some results from the film?

what do you mean "shooting the real deal"? is there some film that's a fake deal?

Don't know how shooting "the real deal" brings any advantage... I shot Arista Premium 400 often and it has no influence on the result compared to Tri-X-the-real-deal.

I am just going to ignore the snarky stuff if that is ok. However if somebody wants to talk about a new film on the market then I am interested.

I'm not being snarky.
I just have absolutely no idea what t is you are trying to say.
What's a film that's "the real deal"?
it only has meaning contrasted to something that's not "the real deal"

can't you explain?

It's not a re-badged film.

I hadn't heard of the film. So I went out on the net and include a review and a product blurb. Here's the review. http://www.thephoblographer.com/201...nter-street-pan-400-film-review/#.WGFjPGfru1s

And the sellers website. http://www.japancamerahunter.com/shop/jch-streetpan-400-film/

It is what it is, higher than normal red sensitivity and high contrast from the reviewer. It is a discontinued surveillance film on a polyester base. Surveillance films have been discussed previously on APUG. They are designed for low level work where getting any kind of image is the primary concern. They are not general purposes films and do have some short comings.

Thank you for the post. It does appear to be high in contrast and I will just have to shoot it to determine if it works for me. That is a nice link you posted. I like that camera also.

An additional tip. Surveillance films have no anti-halation coating. Avoid shooting towards the sun and bright lights as they will produce a halo. Some people like the effect while others find it distracting.

but I still want to know why it is "the real deal"?

Hi - its currently my favourite film for 35mm - I set up a flickr group here for it : https://www.flickr.com/groups/3096091@N22/
I dev in Rodinal 1:25 and like it a lot

The flickr photos are really great. Low grain and very contrasty. It should prove to be a great deal of fun learning about it with my 10 rolls. Thanks for the link.

nolanr66 said:

It's not a re-badged film.

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I knew exactly what you meant from the context in which you said it.
Usually this site is very low on snark but sometimes it does rear it's ugly head.

pdeeh said:

but I still want to know why it is "the real deal"?

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It's just a figure of speech...life is too short to spend time arguing over semantics don't you think?

Nice guy and great effort, but I wouldn't shoot that film. It takes quite a bit of time to really get to know a film. While I am not 100% sure about Kodak's future either, Kodak is a bit more certain than a one man effort.
If he offered a color film I'd try that. Much less variables go into that than B&W.

One person's flavor may not be yours..let's be here to encourage people to come folks otherwise you'll just be judging yourselves
It is The real deal if he sys it is!!!

It's kind of expensive and the chances are I will not shoot a lot of it but If there is something about it that I find exciting I will keep some on hand. I enjoy trying out different films, things and such.

Gerald C Koch said:

An additional tip. Surveillance films have no anti-halation coating. Avoid shooting towards the sun and bright lights as they will produce a halo. Some people like the effect while others find it distracting.

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Not so sure about that in this case Gerald, it is called "StreetPan 400" in the name, so I would assume that there is an anti-halation layer as I assume one is supposed to walk the streets and take pictures. As opposed that is, to whacking it in a fixed surveillance camera. The last film I shot that had no Anti-halation layer was some Lucky film, that was real fun shooting into the sun.

I scrolled down through the images as presented, until I got to the one where there was a fella with an Afro hair-do playing a guitar, his hair doesn't seem to be picking up any halo. Neither does the older fella with the grey/white hair writing on his note pad. With Lucky film, that doesn't have an anti-halation layer, I would have expected to see some fringing, around the Afro hair do and certainly around the old fellas hair.

By the way, thanks for the links, they were great.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this film was on sale at the last Melbourne Photographic flea market in October this year. I remember the price put me off as it was just under AUD$20 per roll, I think. Which is way worse than the AUD price from the link you gave.

I note after checking that this film has been reduced in price in Melbourne from AUD$17.00 to AUD$12.75 a roll. Might pick up a few rolls and have a bash.

Things must be tough out there as one can apparently pay $3.18 in four payments, interest free, to get one roll of this film. Thereby reducing the outlay to $12.72 This could be something I could bring up when I visit the store and they ask for one payment of $12.75.

Dead Link Removed

I would assume this film may be a bit like Tech Pan in cutting through haze; I liked Tech Pan for that ability, apart from it's virtually grain free structure.

In the past I have gone through around 5 x 30m rolls of Ilford Surveillance 400 P4 film. I used it a teaching aid as it was so cheap. I bought the tins for $5.00 each and got 36 tolls of 18 exposures at $0.14 a roll from each bulk roll. It doesn't get much cheaper than that.

Mick.

The specifications say that the film is on a transparent Estar base. I quote from the seller'"The emulsion is coated onto a transparent polyester base providing excellent dimensional stability." "Born out of discontinued surveillance film made from [sic] Agfa." Which means that anything that is back lit or contains a point light source such street lights, etc are going to have halos. You may notice that most of the sample photos are taken on overcast days. This is not an accident. If you look carefully at those few with back lighting you will see halation.

Considering that the film is being re-purposed the asking price is certainly no bargain. I easily found fresh Kodak 400TX for $70 for 10 rolls. Ilford HP5+ would be even cheaper. On all these so called deals you have to really read the fine print.

pdeeh said:

but I still want to know why it is "the real deal"?

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some films -- foma, for one -- claim that they coat film the old fashioned way, with thicker single layer of emulsion, i think, instead of thinner multiple layers? Or T-cell technology?

In any event, it is an effort to make you think that this is like the film that grandpa used to shoot grandma on their honeymoon to niagra falls, with all the amazing tonal range and depth and so on and so forth blah blah blah. It's mostly marketing hype, although different types of film technology obviously do exist, and if you like their look, well that's the sort of look you will like.

Now, if someone were to revive Verichrome Pan, I'd say they had something.

If being "the real deal " is not being a "rebadged film" , and this film is not a new film specially manufactured for the amateur/pro market - a new product to market -then while an odd way of putting it, it might apply.
But this seems to be some other commercial grade film marketed under a different name by JCH.
In which case, it is "rebadged" in some way.

it's not the film i object to (I used a lot of the much derided Polypan F in 2014 and got some great results) but the vacuity of the description.

Gerald C Koch said:

The specifications say that the film is on a transparent Estar base. I quote from the seller'"The emulsion is coated onto a transparent polyester base providing excellent dimensional stability." "Born out of discontinued surveillance film made from [sic] Agfa." Which means that anything that is back lit or contains a point light source such street lights, etc are going to have halos. You may notice that most of the sample photos are taken on overcast days. This is not an accident. If you look carefully at those few with back lighting you will see halation.

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Yep, should have read the fine print more closely, thanks for that.

Thinking out loud here, if the base is transparent, would there be any chance of piping happening, like that on Kodak IR film?

I telephoned the Melbourne bricks and mortar store, they have stock and are open from 1200 to 2000, so I might catch the train into the city and pick some up. I'll run a roll of Lucky film side by side, could be interesting.

Mick.

Gerald C Koch said:

Considering that the film is being re-purposed the asking price is certainly no bargain. I easily found fresh Kodak 400TX for $70 for 10 rolls. Ilford HP5+ would be even cheaper. On all these so called deals you have to really read the fine print.

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Using what is currently available is too easy... Let's pay more for less, it is sooo exiting.

Well I am looking forward to trying it out. The film is a gift from my son who has ordered it from JCH. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift but it did not show in time. He said he will bring it over on New Year's Eve. I do not know the cost of the film but it may be around $8.00 a roll. I doubt I will shoot Street Pan that much even if I like it because of the cost. But it will be fun to check it out for sure.

Lately I have been shooting Arista 100 edu from Freestyle. It's cheap enough to shoot quite often and it fits my needs in a number of ways. I like the 100 speed films for 35mm. I do also like HP5 and shoot it with my FM2n as it has the shutter speeds needed to open up outside if I wish to. I am heading out to Point Lobos in an hour and will shoot a roll of Arista out there. I am not a landscape guy but if you go to Point Lobos or a place of great beauty and your a photographer then you take photos. My wife and I go to Point Lobos quite often and purchase a state park pass each year. I am also going hiking tomorrow at Pinnacles National Park and am going solo on that one. I have the Senior National Parks pass which is a lifetime pass.


At Freestyle I can buy Arista 100 edu for $42.00/100ft, $72.00 for Delta 100/100ft and $64.00 HP5/100ft. If StreetPan is $8.00 a roll and not in bulk then it would be approximately $160.00 for 20 rolls or equivalent 100ft in bulk. So it would have to be very special film as Arista is only 25% of the cost. However 10 rolls is coming to me and I will shoot it. If there is something very special about it then I will keep a few rolls around for that special moment. If it is not very special then the 10 rolls will be the end of it.

The JCH guy is pretty great but in general he is selling very high end products which is out of my budget. Not that I would not enjoy the very expensive and nice stuff he has but I just cannot afford it. I shoot a Nikon FG and a FM2n. I use AFD lenses as I owned a F100 for a while but gave it to my son because it is heavy, noisy and ugly. It was a very capable however. I used it in conjunction with a Nikon D200. I no longer have a digital camera but I gave it a try. Actually I gave my son the D200 and the F100 and he sold it all and bought a Contac G1 and 3 lens kit. He loves it.