Film Photography News — January 2026 Recap

☞ This is the 82nd monthly Analog.Cafe Newsletter with the latest film photography lore. Sign up to get it via email on the last Tuesday of every month (it’s free).

The world’s first photo was taken in 1826. Happy 200th, photography! 🎂

In this year’s first issue of the Analog.Cafe newsletter, photographers recall shooting film in 2016; I hold a conversation with Sissi Lu about ethics, wabi-sabi, and her silver jewelry made from film fixer; film prices 📈; a new Instax camera; the return of Film Ferrania; and what to do when you’re short on chemistry.

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In this newsletter: Lifetime GOLD membership giveaway. Happy 200th, photography! Shooting film in 2016. A conversation with Sissi Lu. Film prices 2026. Call for submissions. A new Instax camera. Film Ferrania. How to use a C-41 fixer with black-and-white film. Download and print this newsletter. Latest on Analog.Cafe. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Lifetime GOLD membership giveaway.

If you aren’t yet a GOLD subscriber, here’s a little incentive for you: in celebration of the 200-year anniversary of photography, I’m giving away forever-free lifetime membership passes!

To enter, you just need to be an existing member or sign up.

This month’s winner of a lifetime GOLD membership on Analog.Cafe is:

Pharo!

Congratulations, Pharo. I’ve applied a perpetual 100% discount to your account. 🎉

The next winner out of the 12 this year will be announced on February 24th.

What does GOLD membership offer? Invert film negatives without altering the colours or crushing shadows/highlights with film Q. Track your film and chemicals with the least effort and avoid disasters with Film Log & Chem Log. Download and keep any article as a printer-friendly PDF document — especially handy with book-length ones, like “A Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography.” Learn how I pushed HP5+ to ISO 100,000. Access all 700+ articles on photography. Etc., etc.

Happy 200th, photography!

Photography was invented in stages over centuries, with the first photochemical effects documented in 1717 by Johann Heinrich Schulze. But it was in 1826 when Nicéphore Niépce etched the world’s first evidence of photography permanently into a piece of metal, which you can see for yourself at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.

Read more about the history and find all references in the members’ newsletter (the history part is not paywalled).

Shooting film in 2016.

My partner and I have a photo album full of Instax Mini frames, which was tremendous fun to browse a decade later. 2016 was the year when I was becoming more active in online film photography communities; I remember it fondly. So I asked my photography friends how they remembered shooting film in 2016.

A conversation with Sissi Lu.

🎙️ Listen on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Overcast.

Speaking of creative veterans, I recently had a chat with Sissi Lu, a prominent film photographer from New York known for her disarming approach to street portraiture on film. Sissi uses her visual, technical, and interpersonal talents to create beautiful memories and stories with strangers, friends, family, and prominent clients, such as Vogue and SEGA.

Sissi and I spoke about shooting film full-time, the art and science of making compelling images, working with large clients, the ethics of street photography, photographing an older generation, scanning film, wabi-sabi, a ring made of silver recovered from fixer, and her DO NOT X-RAY film pouch (which I used on my recent trip to Mexico).

Our conversation was recorded in late December 2025.

But it’s 2026, so Daren and I got together to record a pre-show. Not only is this the first episode of the year, but it’s also the first episode of Season 2 of the Analog.Cafe podcast! Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to yap some more about film.

To kick off the new season, we shared our predictions for 2026, including the “Ilford Portra” bet by Daren, talked about our imagined Polaroid film products, and discussed plans for the year.

You can skip our pre-show (🥲) to hear Sissi Lu speak at 29:15.

Film prices 2026.

Early in January, The Find Lab announced upcoming price hikes of up to $1-3 per roll. However, that message only named Alaris films — a portion of Kodak products currently available for sale at that one store.

I’ve since updated the Film Price Trends app, which tracks current and historical film prices, to see no substantial change in film prices compared to summer 2025. However,

…I have since heard from a local film store employee that prices will be going up shortly, and that might cover most film products.

Additionally, some of the prices snapshotted on Film Price Tracker on January 16, 2026, have already changed (my recommendation is to get yourself a pack of Kodak Pro Image 100 — it’s on sale at B&H and is an excellent deal for an ISO 100 colour-negative film).

For more tips on saving money on film in 2026, read this post.

Call for submissions.

Soft Grain Books is now accepting submissions for lens-based photo book projects. Soft Grain Books specializes in long-form documentary photography and is looking for submissions that tell a story of a place or people from start to finish. Successful projects will have between 30 and 80 photos and a 250-word description that explains the meaning and impact of the project.

To learn more, visit Soft Grain Books.

A new Instax camera.

I wrote about Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini Evo Cinema camera here.

Film Ferrania.

Film Ferrania made a post early this year, hinting that they are working to restart P33 film production. The Italian company has recently bought by a German film manufacturer after a troubling period of interrupted communication and manufacturing. More info.

How to use a C-41 fixer with black-and-white film.

If you find yourself missing a fixer for your black-and-white film, you can replace it with a regular C-41 fixer (can not be Blix). Do not share your fixer between black-and-white and C-41 chemistry: bleach contamination can cause issues.

I did exactly that, and so far, everything looks good!

Download and print this newsletter.

GOLD members can download this newsletter as a high-resolution PDF file. Open this newsletter in your browser and click the “Download PDF” button at the top.

Hope you found this email a helpful and fun read. Feel free to add a comment or reach out anytime. 👋