Tag: film

“The New Era of Film Scanning”

From Soke Engineering: Knokke The New Era of Film Scanning.

Strips of slide film (positive) on a light table viewed in a diagonal orientation. The punchy colours brings joy to the photographer.
Strips of slide film on the light table.

The very short version: a new 35 mm film scanner with roll feed, not unlike the Pakon. But with modern parts, repairability, and open-source software to drive it. The software part is not negligible. You cannot use a Pakon without installing the software on obsolete Microsoft malware. Same for the very expensive Fujifilm Frontier, for for Nikon or any other vendor from decades ago. And without the software they are expensive bricks.

Their target price is €999 at launch, later €1599 (I do have questions). With an intent to scan a roll in 5 minutes at a resolution of 4064 dpi.

It’s still in a state of development, with a Kickstarter planned for Q1 2026, so it’s not available soon yet. But it’s good to see a renewed interest in that niche of equipment that the previous manufacturers have abandoned with their software no one can fix and that doesn’t run on modern computers.

I’ll make sure to post an update.

October 2025 Links

Kodak Colour Negative Film and Colour Print Making Materials & Processes – researched by Michael Talbert — A collection of material about early Kodak film processes. We learn that Kodachrome initially cost US$3.50 a roll in 1936 (this included processing) which is US$54 in 2009… and learn how complicated its development process was. And from there many other links. A rabbit hole.

The Leica M EV1 Just Entered a Spec War It Can’t Win and Destroyed Its Own Value Proposition — The headline itself is what I thought of this camera.

Flashes and Strobes

Photo Strobe Trigger Voltages — A list of flash strobes and their trigger voltage. It’s important to match it with your camera as some might have more than 100V.

Sam’s Strobe FAQ — Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of Electronic Flash Units and Strobe Lights (Archived) — Tips on repairing electronic flash units.

Analogue aF-1

Analogue announced the pre-order for the Analogue aF-1.

The aF-1 is a compact 35mm point-and-shoot camera designed by the Amsterdam company Analogue. It has 35mm f2.8 glass lens, LiDAR autofocus and built-in flash. All the features expected from the early 21st century point-and-shoot.

The pre-order price is 449€ or CA$790 (+ shipping) for a delivery Q1 2026.

Specs are not unlike an Olympus mju-II.

September 2025 Links

Polaroid Versus Fujifilm – How a Court Case Could Change Instant Photography Forever — Seems like a repeat of Polaroid vs Kodak. Just because of the square shape…

From Emulsive, How-to: Make DIY your own black and white transparencies (slides) — Apparently Ilford has an official process with Ilford FP4 Plus, and this article revise it by using a chemical inversion instead of a re-exposure. I always wanted to shoot Agfa Scala. And Adox Scala, its successor, doesn’t seem so easy to find here.

What is a color space? by Dan Hollick. — A clear explanation of what a colour space is. Despite this being part of a tutorial on writing software, it is really not specific to this craft.

Kodacolor is back

The year is 2025 and Kodak announces Kodacolor. Like this was 1942.

Old is new again.

This news has been all around the internet, Kosmofoto has some details: Kodak launches new films called Kodacolor 100 and 200.

The short version is Kodak, not Kodak Alaris, will be selling a C-41 colour negative film, 100 and 200 ISO, in 135 rolls of 36 exposure, called Kodacolor. We see them listed at US$9.75. At the moment it is unclear which stock these two films are made of.

Kodacolor was the name for the 1942 colour negative film Kodak release to the market. It was the first colours negative for colour printing and had a speed of 25 ASA and later 32 ASA. It was discontinued in 1963 to be replaced by Kodacolor X, at 64 and later 80 ASA, and then in 1974 by Kodacolor II which used C-41 process to replace the C-22 process previously used. That latter version was 80 and then later 100 ASA. The last version of Kodacolor was Kodacolor Gold…

Update: I see the Kodacolor 100 and 200 listed for CA$15.75 and CA$16.00 respectively.

Flying with film w/ airport scanners

Lina Bessonova, a Germany based photographer did put to a test airport scanners and how they damage film. Hint: they do. You can read the details:

Flying with Film: Airport Scanners Test.

Her costly methodology involved making test rolls of various type, going through scanners a few times, and also going through the new CT scanners that are unfortunately now installed in airports like Amsterdam (AMS).

The quick result is that these CT scanners are very bad for film, and that even lead lined bags don’t prevent the damage, even though operators seem to have more difficulties seeing through. Even 50 ISO black and white is impacted. Lina has a very detailed set of samples.

If you fly in Canada, I would recommend to print the page about camera equipment from CATSA that recommend requesting a hand inspection. English and French. I think I will avoid. It’s not that I fly much anyway.

July 2025 Links

Michael Nguyen from Japan Camera Hunter writes about the Plaubel Makina 67, an uncommon medium format 6×7 rangefinder of Japanese-German design from the late 70s, with its specially designed Nikkor lens.

From the colour-film-dept

Kosmofoto reports KONO! announces KONO Color 200 colour negative film, a made-in-Germany colour negative, rumoured to be ORWO NC200.

Also as a follow-up from a previous post, Kosmofoto tells us that China Lucky Film’s new colour film ‘launched in July at Chinese trade show’. Price will be around US$7 and a first batch of 10000 rolls will be produced initially.

Black and white slide

Kosmofoto tell Euston 400 is a black-and-white slide film from London film lab Aperture Printing. If you are in London this is a higher sensitivity film than the Adox Scala with the corresponding chemistry, and they develop it for you. It’s in limited quantity.

Sony RX1R III

Imaging resource: Sony RX1R III Review: A $5,000 Letdown in a Familiar Shell. Lack of IBIS, still the older lens, the lack of tilting screen that the previous iteration had, and the battery life. Because the camera is US$5000.