Commodity fetishism lands Leica in hot water on Threads.
The brand drew fire to its social media account of over 96 thousand followers today with a post that romanticized ownership of their gear more than their followers were willing to take:
“Leica is not just a brand — it’s a lifestyle.
“It’s the reason why people love to take our cameras out on the town.
Update: Kodak issued a statement regarding “Misleading Media Reports.”
The news of Kodak’s financial report that dunked their stock price 25% scared not just investors but also others who depend on their product. Here’s Kodak’s response in full (also found on kodak.com/en/company/blog-…):
For a deeper dive into Kodak’s complex business structure and financial solvency, check out Daren’s 2023 video, when the company’s future still remained in question: youtube.com/watch?v=xf1vFv…
The company’s shares plummeted 25% today after their report revealed a half-billion-dollar debt due within a year with an unclear payoff plan, along with hits to profits and higher costs.
The report (published in full here: finance.yahoo.com/news/kod…) demonstrates lacklustre growth and some considerable slowdowns in parts of the business. Pull quote:
“We expect to have a clear understanding by August 15 of how we will satisfy our obligations to all plan participants, and we anticipate completing the reversion by December of 2025. For the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on reducing costs today and converting our investments into long-term growth.”
Getting ready to develop film at home just got a little faster if you track your chemical use and expiration with Chem Log.
Analog.Cafe v3.30.84 adds a handy Dilution Calculator button to the Film Log app (analog.cafe/app/film-log) to help figure out precise chemical ratios and shows all selected chemicals’ stats/reuse calculators front-and-center when you need them.
Though you still should test your chemicals (here’s how: analog.cafe/r/how-to-test-…), Chem Log (a plugin for the Film Log app) can help you avoid issues by giving a quick reference to mix dates. If something’s very old, you’ll know to avoid using that bottle.
Lomography refreshes their experimental LomoApparat camera with the silver Alexanderplatz edition.
Though I haven’t tried either, the LomoApparat cameras generated a lot of positive feedback at launch and years later, thanks to their ultrawide 21mm lens, appealing design, and a generous pack of experimental filters.
The “Apparat” part of the camera’s name likely originates from Russian use in reference to cameras (spelled “аппарат,” short for “фотоапарат”) — although the origins of the word itself are in Latin and German languages. Alexanderplatz is a square in Berlin named after a Russian czar (this I learned from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex…). In case you didn’t know, Lomography got its name from another Soviet camera brand, LOMO (short for “Ленинградское Oптико-Mеханическое Oбъединение,” romanized: “Leningradskoye Optiko-Mekhanicheskoye Obyedinenie,” or translated “Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association”), which was the source of their first commercial sales back in the 1990s.
CineStill’s new calibrated light source — CS-LITE+ SpectraCOLOR™ — for digital camera scanning rigs.
A poor light source can cause issues when scanning film using a digital camera. The colours may appear muted or show a colour cast that isn’t easily or completely correctable. Best results come from sources that use a fine-tuned combination of colour LEDs to render light as close to the natural, full-spectrum illumination as possible.
Today, CineStill is offering a new light source design, which they have rebuilt from the ground up to produce an improved colour specifically for film scans made with digital cameras:
“The CS-LITE+ transforms the light from ultra-bright single-band LEDs into specific multispectral wavelengths, powered by a standard 5V/1.5A USB cable with a single dimmable on/off switch, and can be used in three different modes: for Color Negative, Black & White, and Slide film.”
10ARTCC is working on a foldable Instax Square film camera based on the iconic Polaroid SX-70 design.
The Polaroid SX-70 camera is a holy grail of instant film that was akin to the first iPhone when it was released in the 1970s. The world’s only foldable SLR with a high-quality glass lens, a unique aperture and unsurpassed image quality on a nearly 4x5 integrated film format. Several manufacturers tried to replicate the success of this camera — around the time it was released and in recent times — but they always came short.
Even Polaroid’s I-2 camera, with all its modern technical advances, does not fold and has a range of issues that the company has only recently solved (analog.cafe/comments/z0ow).
Fifty-five years later, there’s still nothing that can match the SX-70. If you want that experience, you’ll need to find a vintage copy and load up some SX-70 film — an emulsion the new company is making specifically for those remaining old-stock cameras (film review: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-sx-…, vintage SX-70 review: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-sx-…).
Jason’s early review of the Harman Phoenix II is a strange but captivating video essay that criticizes the product while showing some of the best-looking photos on the channel.
It’s not easy to break free from the influencer curse, where early access to a free sample entices the author to give a positive review. It’s not just the free sample, it’s the privilege to lead the conversation in a way that brings attention to both the product and the author as a cohort.
To be fair, being perfectly objective when talking about anything other than straight facts is impossible. Even with all the technical details and edit-free scanning techniques, I review film and film cameras from the position of a person who loves this medium. This means I’m excited about films like Phoenix, their potential, and the wild experiments you can do with these technically imperfect emulsions today (like developing them as a slide with Rodinal: analog.cafe/r/harman-phoen…).
But in this video, Jason is being straight with the viewer: the new film is grainy, with hard-to-control colours, despite the massive improvement over the original (review here: analog.cafe/r/harman-phoen…). That said, you can still expect the millennial deadpan humour and outstanding photography from his new upload, along with something new: an ironic use of extreme slow-mo.
Updated: Fujifilm Neopan Acros (I & II) Film Review.
Fujifilm Neopan Acros is the only film that the company has brought back from discontinuation in recent decades. Based on what we know, it’s still manufactured in Japan and packaged in the UK (presumably by Harman/Ilford).
Acros II, which is the current name for the film, extends its sensitivity range to panchromatic (from the original orthopanchromatic) but retains its remarkable reciprocity characteristics and consistency across developers. The new version also renders a bit more contrast, but overall, today’s Acros is nearly identical to the product we’ve been using since the year 2000.
I wrote about this film three years ago. Today was the time to update that review (I completely rewrote it, added new samples, and corrected all the mistakes of the previous post).
That’s true, they’re all different! Kodak’s latest remjet is particularly tough to remove (I compared it to Fujifilm Eterna, which is much easier to rub off).
About 1989, I got a roll of Kodak cine film, I don’t remember which type. I was developing C-41 at home and had read an article in Modern Photography magazine on developing cine film at home. It recommended just rubbing off the remjet layer with a finger after fixing (or after the stabilizer, it’s been more than 35 years). The obvious: remjet is short for removal [water] jet, so the layer is meant to be mechanically removed by a strong water jet…or a finger will do. I tried it and it worked. If you use a light through the film while rubbing, you can see any leftovers. The layer is just tinted gelatine, so no problems. On today’s cine films? It’s a matter of testing.
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