A Podcast, Polaroid Film Test, Reviews, Guides, Apps

A Monthly Newsletter for GOLD Members

4 min read by Dmitri.
Published on June 20, 2025.

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Polaroid B&W 600 frame shot in unmodified SX-70.

The 73-page Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography is now live on Analog.Cafe! And it’s available as a PDF download you can keep, print, or read offline. I am also working on the audiobook version — details below.

June has been a very busy month for film photography, and July’s looking even livelier. In this letter, I’ll cover the upcoming film tests (including a well-documented DIY pre-processing attempt with local photographers), talk about the new camera reviews, article and app updates, and a fresh survey of the film price landscape.

Thank you for supporting this independent, ad-free publication for and by film photographers! ❤️

In this newsletter: Free film. Analog.Cafe Podcast. A Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography. Next month on Analog.Cafe. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

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Free film.

Reminder: I’m giving away three rolls of Cinema Shorts (Kodak Vision 3) film every month! Details.

Analog.Cafe Podcast.

Daren and I got together last month and recorded a pilot episode about the new Polaroid Flip camera. You can listen to it on Spotify (and I’m working on getting it published on more platforms).

This is my first podcast episode as a host. I’d love to hear what you think!

A Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography.

Film photography isn’t particularly difficult; anyone can get started with a point-and-shoot camera and a local lab. But knowing a little more can open up a world of creative opportunities.

I’ve selected essential concepts and a few advanced film photography techniques, and laid them out in simple but complete terms on 73 pages or in 10,000 words — with lots of illustrations.

The guide includes a printable PDF version (works with A4 and Letter paper sizes) for easy offline reading.

View this image in HD with GOLD

An audiobook version is coming soon (maybe July). I’m looking for ways to package everything so that it’s easy for you to listen and skip to chapters; if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Next month on Analog.Cafe.

I’m now working on a write-up and am editing the images for an in-depth experiment that took four people, a lot of candles, and a hairdryer to complete. The results of this experiment changed my understanding of what it would take to make certain “rebranded” film stocks.

The experiment and the results aren’t yet ready to be shared, but I can tell you that it has something to do with remjet and halations.

I’ve also (finally) made all the test exposures needed to calculate the dynamic range of the latest Polaroid B&W 600 film. This data documents the impressive progress the company has made recently; I’ll discuss its implications in detail, but in short, there’s now a way to shoot unmodified Polaroid SX-70 without flash or any tricks.

Two film cameras, both under $50, will also get reviewed in July. One is the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super B (it has one of the nicest lenses I’ve ever used), and the other is RETO Pano, a very compact and pretty plastic toy cam.

Lastly, I’m hoping to catch up on some technical maintenance and act on the recent feedback I received about Chem Log and Film Log apps. If everything goes as planned, they should get easier to use in a few weeks. And if there’s time, I’ll push more updates to film Q.