Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It’s called Bertha, it’s a gigantic camera built out of a desire to find out what photography can reveal beyond certain limits.
From the first moment I started experimenting I sensed that there are still many ways to go, past and present can merge, just as old and new technologies, historical knowledge can find new contemporary interpretations.
Understandably, I was very excited to hear the news of Fujifilm bringing back NEOPAN 100 ACROS in the form of ACROS II earlier this year. So, when a second announcement came with details of a November 22nd Japanese release date, I started making calls to see if I could buy some. I got lucky and $190 dollars and a week later, I received my shipment; a brick each of 35mm and 120 ACROS II.
Fujifilm’s recently released Acros II starts shipping in Japan this month, but it looks like it’s possibly being manufactured by Ilford, and not Fujifilm themselves. The big clue comes via the Twitter feed of eto_silversalt who posted photos of Fuji’s new Acros II box in 120 format roll film, which clearly bears the mark “Made in UK”.
Well, the only commercial film manufacturer in the UK is Ilford. We’re not suggesting it’s any kind of rebranded Ilford film, something which Ilford categorically denies they do, but it is certainly possible that they might be manufacturing Acros II for Fuji. And it’s not like the two companies haven’t worked together before.
It looked like it was the end for Tetenal. At the beginning of 2019, Tetenal went into liquidation but was rescued by a management buyout, including all photochemical formulas, the Tetenal brand name and the production facilities. Now, they’ve announced their first new developing kits, the “MagicBox”, for C-41 & E-6 film and RA-4 colour paper, under the new brand name TETENAL 1847.
Fujifilm Acros 100 was pronounced pretty much dead in March of last year, during what appears to have been a mass cull of their film over the last few years. But then, just a few short months after its demise, the announcement came that Fujifilm was going to reintroduce some of their black and white films, due to an overwhelming demand from film photographers.
In June of this year, Fujifilm announced that the first black and white film to come back was going to be Fujifilm Across 100II. Technically, it’s not a rerelease, but a new version, to get around the availability (or a lack thereof) of raw materials in the original. Now, it’s set for release later this month.
Kodak has reported its financial results for Q3 2019. They have announced that their film business has grown by 21% in the last quarter over the previous year. This looks very promising for Kodak’s future in film, although they report that overall profits are down, noting a $5 million loss on revenues of $315 million.
Designed as a technical high-resolution copy film, Ilford Ortho film has thus far only been available in sheet film formats. Now, Ilford has expanded the formats to add 35mm and 120 medium format roll film. The black and white film is rated at ISO80 in natural light and ISO40 in tungsten.
Harman Technology, who owns the Ilford brand, has also announced the 5th generation of Ilford Multigrade paper. Multigrade V RC Deluxe replaces the Ilford Multigrade IV RC papers released 25 years ago.
It looks like Ilford is about to make film photographers happy in about ten days. On its official Twitter page, the company has announced a recent release of new film stock in several different formats, with the launch date of 24 October.
When it comes to weird lenses, the first name that springs to many minds is YouTuber Mathieu Stern. So, who better to go visit the weird lens paradise at Camera Rescue? So, that’s exactly what Mathieu did. He hopped on a flight to Tampere, Finland, to check out their huge collection of kit. Fortunately, he shot a video so the rest of us could see some of the cool lenses he got to play with and tell us more about the Camera Rescue project.
September 21st, 1979. Forty years ago, British rock photographer, Pennie Smith immortalized the destruction of a Fender P-Bass guitar by Paul Simonon of The Clash on the stage of The Palladium in New York City, on gorgeous B&W 35mm film.
Her soft-focus, grainy image with its blown-out highlights and development stains has been dubbed by numerous publications and music fans, “the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Photograph of All-Time.”
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