Three New Films to Shoot - Lomography Turquoise, Film Washi X and Flic Film Elektra 100
Despite the continuous complaining by photographers about a worldwide film shortage, there’s actually an expanding assortment of types of film to shoot. So, while you're waiting for your special order of Portra 400 to come in, be adventurous and maybe try something else from your local store. This post will give you a little overview of three colour films I have tried out recently.
We do have one film related thing we can complain about though. Despite the popularity of film soaring, Victoria has another problem. The only place to get black and white film developed locally, Prism Imaging, is going out of business. This means that shooting in colour is pretty much a necessity unless you want to develop at home or send away for your negatives. That makes this post just that little bit more important, because all three of these films can be developed on-site at London Drugs. The three new (to me) colour films I have tried out are: Lomography Turquoise, Film Washi X, and Flic Film Electra 100. While I may not have gotten the optimal results out of any of them, all three were fun to shoot and I think had their benefits. And as I said, all of them is that you can buy them now and they can all be developed in C-41.
Lomography Turquoise
This will likely be the most controversial film on the list. This is another one of the colour shift films from Lomography and perhaps the most jarring of the ones I have shot. You can look at my previous attempts here and here. This film shifts your blues to orange and your greens towards blue. It is pretty wild. After my first roll, which included some family shots, I would say that I would keep it to scenes and landscape. People come out looking a little too alien and so not that great. For places though, this film is awesome. One of the things I really love about colour shift film in general is that it will take a place you look at everyday and make you see it again. I can really see the impact of this in the photo of the Atrium and of St. Andrews cathedral here. There are a few from a Mayne Island trip that I took recently, that I really like as well. Turquoise is an ISO variant film so you can actually shoot it at different film speeds and get different results. The photos below were all shot at 400 ISO.
Film Washi X
There is just something about Film Washi as a company that I love. There is a playfulness to it. Their films are not going to win any awards for sharpness, but they are also not just making coloured film. Each film is usually being brought from another use. I have shot a few rolls of Film Washi F before and I have a few posted on my photography page. That film creates just amazing images as there is no halation layer in the film which leads to some pretty magical scenes. This film, Washi X, is a colour film and it is missing the orange masking layer that almost all colour films have. I would say that it was a little unpredictable but when it worked, it really worked and created a nice warm look. According to some of my reading online, this film is usually used for traffic management filming, whatever that is.
Flic Film Elektra 100
Flic Film is actually a Canadian film company. They are located in the impossibly small town of Longview Alberta. If I am ever in that part of that province, I will definitely try and drop in. While they do make their own films and also developing chemicals. The film I shot, Elektra 100, is actually respooled Kodak Aerocolor IV. For those that don’t know about respooling, it is basically taking commercial film used for other purposes like filming movies or in this case aerial reconnaissance filming, and spooling it onto smaller 35mm rolls. Like Washi X, this is missing the masking layer so it produces a similar old film feel. I think that this one is much sharper than the Washi F and it seemed to be a little higher in the cool tones too. It is also almost half the cost of the Washi X at least Camera Traders.
After such a long time with colour film being hard to get your hands on, having choice feels good. That it comes right when, at least in Victoria, we are being restricted in shooting black and white seems strange. Still it forces us to work outside our comfort zone, which for me, is a big part of why I love film photography.
Let me know which roll you liked the best in the comments!