Analog.Cafe

663 Reviews, Guides, and Essays

Film Photography News — April 2025 Recap
New Polaroid Camera, Fujifilm Prices, Sissi Lu, Greenscale Aerochrome, 420
April 29, 2025
The new Polaroid Flip instant film camera makes its debut, Fujifilm announces price hikes, I interview Sissi Lu about her DO NOT X-RAY pouch, Bad Film Simulator and cannabis-based film developers exist, a new article series about redscaling/bluescaling/greenscaling colour film, spring photo dump, and software updates to Analog.Cafe’s negative inversion tool — film Q. Plus, ORWO may be releasing multiple new films this year.
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Redscale, Greenscale, Bluescale + Spring Photo Dump!
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
April 25, 2025
Last month, I hinted at my very expensive Aerochrome redscale experiment. This month, I realized that we can also “greenscale” and “bluescale” certain colour films, too. More on that below. Members: next month’s articles are already in the works, and I’ve got a bunch of photos of an early Vancouver spring I’d love to share with you!
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“Bluescaling” Lomochrome Turquoise
Going Beyond Redscaling for the Rare, Unseen Colours on Film
April 23, 2025
Lomochrome Turquoise is a false-colour negative film designed by Lomography to render freaky orange, cobalt, and marine palettes. Out of the box, this emulsion is already incredibly unique, but it can be pushed even further for a rare and wild look.
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Redscaling Lomochrome Purple
What Happens if You Shoot False-Colour Film “The Wrong Way?”
April 17, 2025
Redscaling means exposing the backside of colour film, which usually makes moody, red-dominant photos. But that’s on regular film. Lomochrome Purple isn’t regular — it’s a false-colour film, which means it behaves differently when redscaled. In this article, I’ll share some thoughts and samples from my week-long experiment shooting Lomochrome Purle loaded “the wrong way” with a dense green filter.
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Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000ED Film Scanner Review
Small, Fast, Impeccable Colour, Batch Scanning — 23MP Scans in 20 Seconds!
April 15, 2025
Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED is Nikon’s fastest dedicated 35mm film scanner, manufactured in the early ‘00s and ‘10s. It is one of the few vintage devices that connects with modern computers via USB 2.0 without issues or modifications. In this long-term review, I’m taking a closer look at what it’s like to digitize film with this scanner and compare the results to other popular tools: PrimeFilm XAs, a professional film lab, and Sony a7III digital camera with a macro lens.
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Analogue Photography Notebook
Stationery Review
April 10, 2025
Analogue Photography Notebook is a follow-up and an accompaniment to Andrew Bellamy’s Analog Photography: Reference Manual for Shooting Film.
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“Greenscaling” Aerochrome
The World’s First and Attempt to Redscale Colour Infrared Film¹
April 8, 2025
Aerochrome is one of the most expensive and difficult films to shoot. This may be why few have experimented with this stock. Today, I’m challenging those boundaries with the world’s first attempt to redscale a.k.a. “greenscale” this colour infrared film.
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The Redscale Film Guide
A Simple Analogue Technique for Styling Your Frames in Red + More Colours
April 1, 2025
If colour film is inserted with the emulsion side facing away from the lens, it will create darker, red-dominant images. That’s redscaling. This guide explains how this works, where to find redscale film, how you can make your own, and a special trick to get even more colours.
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Film Photography News — March 2025 Recap
A New Film Inversion App, New Film, Lomography’s DigitaLIZA, and 4x5 Rolls
March 25, 2025
Lomography’s new DigitaLIZA rigs make scanning film easier 🤝 film Q is a new film inversion app from Analog.Cafe. Cameradactyl invents a new “film” format, plus ORWO teases a new ISO 200 colour film (and we know what it looks like!)
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Can You Scan Film Without Changing Its Look?
And Other Film Digitization Questions Answered
March 24, 2025
The opaque nature of scanning software makes comparing film stocks and understanding the results of different exposures, colour filters, and film brands unreliable. This guide introduces a technique for consistent and predictable film negative inversion. It also answers a few questions about scanning film, starting with an explanation of why it may not be possible to create an image from a film negative without interpreting/changing the colours, whether one film stock can be digitally edited to look like another, what may be the technical advantage of shooting film if it’s going to be scanned with a digital camera, and whether it’s possible to tell if an image was shot on film or digitally.
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“Greenscaling” Aerochrome + New Film Inversion Tool
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
March 21, 2025
In this newsletter, I’ll share my initial results from the ongoing experiment of redscaling Aerochrome and talk about another project that’s been occupying most of my waking time this March: film Q.
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VueScan Professional Review
A Scanner App & Driver for Legacy and Modern Film Scanners
March 11, 2025
VueScan is an app that works with over 7,400 scanners, many of which were manufactured over twenty years ago. After switching from SilverFast, which I felt was cumbersome, expensive, and frustrating, I’ve stayed with VueScan for over five years. In this review, I’ll go over the interface, capabilities, drawbacks, my workflow, and the reasons why I think VueScan is indispensable for any photographer who scans film at home.
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Film Q User Guide / Help Docs
Invert Film Negatives in Batches Online
March 6, 2025
film Q is a web app that batch-inverts film scans (TIFFs, JPEGs, camera RAW files, and more) using histogram equalization. This document explains how to use the app, how it works, its advantages and limitations, and how to troubleshoot common issues.
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Film Photography News — February 2025 Recap
February 25, 2025
New colour film from Harman, film prices are lower than they’ve been in years, Lomography releases two new instant film cameras, their (and Ferrania’s) accounts get hacked, and ONDU Pinhole stops making pinhole cameras.
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Film Prices, Aerochrome, and the Members’ Handbook
A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members
February 21, 2025
Now is a good time to buy film as the prices have actually lowered worldwide. A new market report breaks them down by type, currency, and availability. Speaking of prices, I’ve got plans for the most expensive roll of colour film you can buy. I’ll share them right after I introduce the new Members’ Handbook and update you on my progress with Film Q.
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Members’ Handbook
What You Get With Your GOLD Membership
February 20, 2025
Thank you for joining the Analog.Cafe GOLD membership program! You are supporting a small, ad-free, privacy-friendly independent publisher. This handbook summarizes all the things you get in return for your patronage.
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Kodak Vision 3 250D 5207/7207 Film Review
Shot as Stills and Developed in C-41
February 18, 2025
Kodak Vision 3 250D is a colour-negative film made for motion picture cameras. Its image quality is on par with Kodak Portra 400 and other colour-accurate fine-grained low-contrast emulsions when developed in ECN-2. But for this review, I’m processing it in C-41. I also compare my results to CineStill 400D, which has been claimed by many to be 250D w/o the remjet. (It is not.)
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Nikon AI-S Nikkor 50mm 𝒇1.8 Lens Review
And Its Five Siblings
February 11, 2025
Nikon AI-S Nikkor 50mm 𝒇1.8 is a lightweight normal manual focus lens for Nikon F cameras. In this review, I’m sharing my experience with it on my Nikon FM2n and FE cameras, a bit of history, and identification for the SIX variants. Plus: my thoughts on whether the Nikkor is worth the extra ~$75 as compared to the cheaper Series E.
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Colour Film Prices Are at Their Lowest Since 2022!
As Long as You Have the Right Kind of Money
February 4, 2025
Film is a vital consumable for the analogue photography ecosystem. Whenever it becomes more expensive or less available, the community feels the impact. Lucky for us, the past twelve months brought us favourable pricing after years of steady increases. In this article, I will break down the latest findings from the annual retailer survey, discuss how costs may differ depending on where you live, and explore some of the best film stocks to buy today.
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Film Photography News — January 2025 Recap
New Lens, New Film, HP5+ @ ISO 100,000, Four-Ish New Cameras, and a New App
January 28, 2025
Nine new things have launched or were promised to launch for us film photographers: a fancy new Omnar M mount pancake lens, new cheap colour film, (maybe) four new film cameras — one of which is Fujifilm’s Instax WIDE Evo — two new gadgets from Reveni Labs, and a new chemical dilution calculator app. I’ve also performed two experiments and shared detailed notes about drastically altering the sensitivity of a popular film stock.
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