Lomography Earl Grey 100 Black and White Film

September 29, 2021

This past summer, I was shooting photos for Small Stage and their #LoveBubble Project. Small Stage features live dancing, music and fun interactions with the public. This is exactly the kind of action I love shooting.

When I was shooting the events that day, the light conditions varied from high contrast bright afternoon sun, to soft, slightly overcast diffused light. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try out the Lomography Earl Grey ISO 100 black and white 35mm film, and put it’s capabilities to the test.

From Lomography’s website:

This film produces deep blacks, bright whites and soft shades of grey even under low-light conditions.

When I developed the film and saw the results, I was so impressed! This film has so much range, especially in the mid-tones. It is perfectly versatile for shooting in changing light conditions. It’s got a nice, wide exposure latitude, showing plenty of details in the shadows, and in the highlights, and indeed, it’s got rich looking blacks. There is some noticeable grain, but it’s not unpleasant, it’s quite soft, small and uniform. It reminds me of an older, classic black and white film, but with decent sharpness. Thank you Lomography for producing yet another exceptional black and white film! I’m looking forward to shooting more, and also trying the 120 version of this film.

Lomography Earl Grey ISO 100 film comes in 35mm and 120 formats.

Here are some photos from my recent roll of Lomography Earl Grey 100 35mm film.

Small Stage dancers. The #LoveBubble Project. Lomography Earl Grey 100 black and white film. Canon EOS1 SLR. Developed with Kodak HC-110 (1+31).

And one more photo that I shot that same evening:

Boy with fishing rod at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. Lomography Earl Grey 100 black and white film. Canon EOS1 SLR. Developed with Kodak HC-110 (1+31).

All of these photos were shot with my Canon EOS1 SLR and home developed with Kodak HC-110 (1+31) developer. Epson V-850 Scan.

Ilford Ilfocolor Retro 400 Film

September 10, 2021

Recently, I purchased a few Ilford Ilfocolor Rapid Retro disposable cameras from Rocket Repro in the Gastown district of Vancouver. I’ll admit, the fun, sporty looking retro 1980’s packaging was the first thing that caught my eye, but mostly I was intrigued with the idea of Ilford colour film. To be honest I didn’t even know Ilford ever made colour film. After some research, I learned that Ilford did indeed make colour film called Ilfocolor, for a period in the 1960’s. Ilford also made a more popular reversal film, called Ilfochrome. Ilford’s final production of Ilfochrome was in 2012. You can read about the history of these films here.

Interestingly, this new film contained within the Ilford Ilfocolor Rapid Retro disposable cameras is not slide (reversal film), it is 27-exposure ISO 400 colour negative film. I can’t find any information from Ilford’s websites revealing exactly what this film is. Is its emulsion based on the original formula from the 1960’s? I would love to find out more.

If you look at the technical specifications of the new Ilfocolor Rapid Retro disposable cameras, you will notice that they are similar to most other disposable cameras.

Optical Lens: 31 mm – F=11, 1 element
Focusing: Focus Free – 1m – ∞
Shutter Speed: Shutter 1/125s

I could, of course, shoot with one of these cameras as-is, but I love to experiment, and so I decided to remove the unexposed roll from the Ifocolor Retro camera and loaded it into one of my 35mm film SLRs, in this case, my Canon EOS 1 SLR. This would allow me complete control over my exposure settings, and would enable me to perform a more accurate test of this mystery film’s capabilities, without the limitations of the fixed settings of the disposable camera.

Removing the film from the Ilfocolor Retro disposable camera was quite simple. Like most disposable cameras, the manufacturer loads the film unwound. If you try this yourself, it is very important that you know this, because if you open your camera without advancing the whole roll back into the canister first, you will expose all of the film, and render it useless. So you MUST advance the film into the canister first. To do this, you can simply cover the lens with your finger and shoot every frame until there is no longer any resistance when you wind it, or usually after the 27th frame in the case of this particular camera. I recommend doing this in the dark, or in a dark bag (changing bag) as to ensure no light is getting past whatever you’re covering the lens with. When you reach the end, all of your film is wound back into its canister.

To open the Ilfocolor Rapid Retro disposable camera, you need to locate all of the plastic tabs and open them. Most of them are hidden under the paper decals on the camera body. You can peel off the paper to find them. I used a small screwdriver to depress the plastic tabs and open the camera. If you have no intention of reusing your disposable camera, you can easily force the camera open. Just be aware that some little bits will probably go flying around in every direction if you do this. There is also a AAA battery in the bottom of the camera, which you can reuse for other purposes.

I used a film retriever to pull the film leader back out of the canister, so that I could load it into my EOS 1 SLR.

After I loaded the Ilfocolor Retro film into my camera, I checked the ISO setting to ensure it was set to ISO 400.

I took advantage of a nice, sunny weekend, and shot some colourful events with this film, and I am very impressed with the results!

This film seems capable of reproducing a nice, broad colour palette, with bold, solid reds and yellows. I find it difficult to compare this film with any of the Kodak or Fuji range of colour negative films, as its look is quite unique. It may possibly be similar to some Agfa films I’ve seen, such as Agfa Vista, but Vista 200 has a distinct earthy tone to its reds and greens. This film also exhibits some decent, noticeable film grain. Not too much, just the right amount of film grain for my taste.

The Ilfocolor Retro 400 film certainly has a retro look to it, with the slightly simplified, bold colours, and film grain, but it doesn't remind me of 60’s era film, it reminds me more of 80’s era film.

As far as dynamic range, this film seems quite good. It is capable of maintaining details in the highlights, even with bright white fabrics, and the shadow details are good too, in the shade. Overall, this seems to be relatively high contrast film, but in all fairness, I shot most of the roll in bright sunshine. I shall experiment further with more lighting conditions when I shoot my next roll.

Here are some examples of my results with the Ilofocolor 400 Retro Film:

Sam Chimes performing at the Small Stage Love Bubble Project. August 28th 2021 Granville Promenade. Ilford Ilfocolor Retro 400 35mm film. Canon EOS 1.

A first nations man performs an indigenous dance at the Granville Promenade. August 28th 2021. Ilford Ilfocolor Retro 400 35mm film. Canon EOS 1.

A first nations woman performs an indigenous dance at the Granville Promenade, August 28th 2021. Ilford Ilfocolor Retro 400 35mm film. Canon EOS 1.

A family enjoying a nice summer evening at the MegaBench in North Vancouver.

I developed these photos with Cinestill CS41 C-41 Film developer, and scanned the negatives with the Epson V-850. You can view these photos, and my other photos in their full resolution on my Flickr page. Please feel free to comment.

In conclusion, I really like this film, and I will certainly shoot with it again. At this point, I wish to shout out to Ilford and thank them for creating this new and fun camera. I do hope that Ilford will release the Ilfocolor Retro 400 roll film on its own too, so that people like myself won’t need to cannibalize the disposable cameras to use the film in our SLRs. As it stands, the price for an Ilford Ilfocolor Rapid Retro disposable camera costs about the same as a good quality roll of Kodak professional film. If Ilford does decide to sell the Ilfocolor Retro 400 film separately, I’m sure it would be less expensive.

Thank you for visiting, and be sure to check out my Instagram page, and my Lomography page, too!

Classic Chevy with Hula Girl

September 15, 2020

In my previous post, I did a review on the amazing qualities of Bergger Pancro 400 film.

There was another image from that last roll which I wanted to include. I’ll post it here.

Near my Sweetie’s old art studio there is a lot with some cars that are in various stages of repair and restoration. There’s one car in particular that I just love. It’s an old Chevy that’s slowly being restored. It’s a beautiful big old car, with so much character. The most charming thing about it is how someone left the interior as is when they brought this car in. There’s an old Mexican blanket on the seat, and other little articles reminiscent of a car that was well loved. When I look in the car windows, I get a nice, warm vibe, and I imagine the pleasant memories the owners of this car must have had.

My favourite thing about this car, is the little hula girl ornament on the dashboard.

I decided to shoot this from the outside in, with some outside reflections on the glass, and the focus on the hula girl in the centre of the dashboard. I shot this car from several angles, and I’m very happy with the way this photo turned out.

Bergger Pancro 400 120 film, pulled to EI 100. Home developed with HC-110 (1+31) 7:17 at 19.5°C. Shot with my Hasselblad 205fcc and Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2.8. 1/500th at f/8.0.

I’m currently shooting another roll of Bergger Pancro 400 film in my Hasselblad. This time I’ve pushed the film to EI 800 (exposure index). I think it will work well being pushed, and should have slightly greater contrast than it exhibits when shot at box speed. I’m excited to see the results.

Here are some older photos of that same car, but shot with Kodak Tri-X 400.

Vivitar XV-1 SLR on Kodak Tri-X 400 35mm film, pushed to 1600. Home developed in Kodak HC-110. 7.07 minutes at 30°C. Epson V-850 Scan.

Bergger Pancro 400 Film

March 31, 2020

A little while ago, I was in Kerrisdale Cameras stocking up on some film, when I noticed a brand that I hadn’t seen before—Berger Pancro 400 black and white film. I’m always keen to try new film, and so I bought a couple of rolls in the 120 format (also available in 135).

When I got home, I did some research about the Bergger company, and WOW! They are a very well established company, with a wide variety of photography products available, including film, film paper and even developing chemistry.

Bergger is the heiress of the much older film company Guillemot, the last French firm that specializes in making photosensitive surfaces.

Of course, one of the very first things I did was search for image examples of the film I had just purchased, and I was immediately blown away by the quality and uniqueness of this film! I’d have sworn I was looking at film with an emulsion base of platinum or gold. The examples I found were exquisite to say the least.

From their website:

BERGGER Pancro 400 is a two emulsion film, composed with silver bromide and silver iodide. They differ by the size of their grain. These properties allow a wide exposure latitude. Cristals are precipitated by double-jet process, under the control of a computer. The two emulsions are panchromatic, and are stabilized by high tech systems.
BERGGER Pancro400 in 120 is coated on a 100 microns PET base and includes an anti curling layer. It is designed with an undercoated anti-halation layer which clarifies during processing, and a anti-curling layer.

I loaded my first roll of Bergger Pancro 400 120 film into Apollo, my lovely old Hasselblad 500c, and I shot some photos around The Shipyards District in North Vancouver. Because this was the first roll, I shot it at box speed, ISO 400, so I would get a true sense of the nature of this film.

I developed the first roll with Kodak HC-110 (1+31) 6:30 minutes at **24°C.

Lovely Joanne at the Shipyards pier with her Leica R5 SLR. Bergger Pancro 400 120 film. Hasselblad 500c. 1/500th f/8.0. Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2.8. Developed with HC-110 (1+31) 6:30 24°C. Epson V-850 scan.

Notice the incredible midrange details, and the beautiful, fine grain. Bergger Pancro has an amazing dynamic range. With most film, a photo like this would have very strong contrast, because Joanne is standing in direct sunlight, yet there is so much lovely detail in the shadows. The highlights are not blown out at all. There is a perfect balance.

An artist painting a scene at the Shipyards pier in North Vancouver. Bergger Pancro 400 120 film. Hasselblad 500c. 1/500th f/8.0. Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2.8. Developed with HC-110 (1+31) 6:30 24°C. Epson V-850 scan.

As you can see, even though this film reveals so much detail in the midrange, it does not lack good contrast at all. It’s rare to see a film that can render both so well.

A man in The Polygon Gallery, with outside scene reflecting on the glass. Bergger Pancro 400 120 film. Hasselblad 500c. 1/125th f/5.6. Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2.8. Developed with HC-110 (1+31) 6:30 24°C. Epson V-850 scan.

So, after shooting the first roll and discovering just how wonderful this film is, I wanted to see how it handles being pulled a couple of stops. Pull processing a film simply means you are metering for a lower exposure index than the normal box speed ISO sensitivity of the film, and then adjusting your development time accordingly. So for example, if your film’s box speed is ISO 400, you can pull it 2 stops to EI (Exposure Index) 100 by adjusting your camera metering to the exposure settings as if you were shooting ISO 100 film. You are purposely overexposing your film, and then under-developing it. The main reason for pulling film is to decrease contrast, and to give you more details in the shadows. (Note that this is the opposite effect of pushing film.) This is especially useful on bright sunny days with harsh shadows.

So, I loaded my second roll of Bergger Pancro 400 film, into Legend, my Hasselblad 205fcc, and set it at ISO 100. I developed using HC-110 (1+31) 7:17 at 19.5°C. Here are the results:

Joanne with one of her Polaroid cameras at The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. Bergger Pancro 400 120, pulled to EI 100. HC-110 (1+31) 7:17 at 19.5°C. Hasselblad 205fcc. Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2.8. 1/500th at f/8.0. Epson V-850 scan.

The Bergger Pancro 400 performed wonderfully when pulled to EI 100. You can see in these photos of Joanne that there is a lot of fine detail in all of the shadows, and the highlights are not blown out, even though these photos were shot in direct sunlight.

In conclusion, it’s very clear that Bergger Pancro 400 is an exceptional film, with excellent dynamic range, and it yields beautiful images with fine, pleasing grain. I will certainly be shooting more of this film, and I highly recommend it. I may try some push processing on the next roll.

**My development temperatures sometimes vary from the standard 20°C, in which I adjust my development time accordingly. I may increase the developer temperature occasionally to speed up the development time, especially with push processing, as the development time can be very long. In some cases my developing temperature is less than the standard, simply to align with the actual room temperature. There are a lot of variables to maintain and control while developing film. I do not recommend this unless you are well experienced with the developing processes.