Light Lens Lab outlined ambitious goals for 2025 and shared more samples of their newly formulated black-and-white film.
“This emulsion reflects the heart of our film project: to create film materials without historial [sic] baggage, third-party patent entanglements, or manufacturer dependency. It is built from the ground up — powered by creativity and user feedback. Our prototype assembly line is set to begin operation in June 2025, with V3 emulsion production following shortly thereafter.” — @lightlenslab.com/blogs/upc…
Light Lens Lab (located in Shangrao, China) is on the cusp of releasing a newly-formulated black-and-white film which, according to their blog post, would feature “the widest colour sensitivity range among civilian black-and-white films, achieving a range of around 380-700nm.”
The new film should be available in 135, 120, and sheet formats. But there’s more:
LLL is working on peel-apart film, an ISO 400 traditional grain film (the emulsion that’s nearing production is an ISO 125 T-Grain; what is T-Grain: analog.cafe/r/ilford-delta…), motion picture formats, inc. 70mm, and researching colour slide films, including the possibility of resurrecting the K-14 process (a.k.a., the Kodachrome process).
Light Lens Lab has announced yet another new film emulsion just in time for the Lunar New Year.
Their current project is a T-grain black-and-white film — a modern-style fine-grained emulsion, the results of which Light Lens Lab shared on their blog: lightlenslab.com/blogs/upc…
The new film does not have an anti-halation layer (thus producing a similar effect as the CineStill 800T made popular — but in black-and-white). In monochrome, the images produced in this film look sharp, with a bit of haze around brightly lit objects. That, LLL said, will be fixed in the new batch.
The fact that a relatively young lab managed to produce a T-grain emulsion (which is the most advanced tech we have for producing small, tightly packed crystals — more: analog.cafe/r/ilford-delta…) is very impressive. Yet LLL’s ambitions do not stop there as their announcement lists all modern film chemistries (including colour films) in their future plans. Can they manage that? We’re yet to see.
One thing’s for certain is that the demand for film is now reaching a critical mass — enough to encourage well-resourced businesses to enter the market and attempt to compete with the likes of Ilford, Kodak, and Fujifilm.
Light Lens Lab was founded in 2018 by Mr. Zhou in Shangrao, China, “dedicated to optical research, development, and manufacturing of high-quality photographic equipment.”
Film Washi “E” is a new emulsion for photographers made from a film stock designed for PCB manufacturing.
This film is akin to orthochromatic emulsions (analog.cafe/r/ilford-ortho…), but instead of lacking sensitivity to red colours, Film Washi “E” isn’t sensitive to greens.
Washi “E” has an ISO sensitivity of just 3, and it has a similar sensitivity to printing paper with a similar process for development.
The first rolls and sheets of this film will be sold at the Bievres International Photo Fair on June 1st and 2nd — presumably, more will be available at the Film Washi website (filmwashi.com) and other retailers.
Two major photography manufacturers released new* film this month.
Foma Bohemia, a Czech manufacturer founded in 1921, made their fast orthochromatic Orho 400 film available in 35mm. It’ll come in beautiful vintage-inspired boxes.
Foma says: “It is characterised by good resolving power and contour sharpness, fine grain and high maximum density of the silver image… Its high optical sensitivity enables to take photographs even in adverse light conditions and using shorter exposure times. The nominal optical sensitivity of the film is ISO 400/27°, but its wide exposure latitude provides very good results even when overexposed by 1.5 EV (ISO 160/23°) and underexposed by 2 EV (ISO 1600/33°).”
Shanghai Jiancheng Film (Shanghai Shenbei) has been manufacturing film in China since 1958, most notably their Shanghai GP3 black and white series. But their latest release is an apparent rebrand (source: reddit.com/r/AnalogCommuni…) of ORWO Wolfen NC 500 (NC 500 film review: analog.cafe/r/orwo-wolfen-…). It’ll come in a metal canister with a DX code, which is a huge plus (here’s why: analog.cafe/comments/d0ur).
Dmitri Jun 2, ‘25
Dmitri Jan 30, ‘25
Dmitri May 24, ‘24
Dmitri May 15, ‘24