Autumn has arrived but I was thinking about some photographic experiences earlier this year. In these photos, snow had mostly molten, though there were not many signs of grass coming out of the ground. Spring arrived nearly two weeks later than usual.
I was testing an unfamiliar film, the JCH Pan 400 that I had bought almost 2 years earlier, yet for some reason it was not leaving the fridge. I had seen some sample photos with deep blacks and good contrast but I had no expectations about what the results could be like, so I tried some fairly easy subjects. I used my foldable medium format camera, so this meant landscapes only. (If only I had a medium format SLR...)
There are some weird streaks in the sky, which I suspect are issues with the agitation during development. I was using a new tank that was leaking chemicals when turned upside down, so I had to limit the motion to mostly moving and swirling it back and forth.
The amount of grain was higher than expected. I was suspecting that this might be an expired re-branded film but JCH, aka Japan Camera Hunter, used an Agfa surveillance film formula and manufactured it anew by them.
As they mention, the film has a good exposure latitude and there is detail in the sky. I have not used a filter.
I was very pleased with the tonality. The grain is a bit high for my taste, but the large 6x9 frames are hiding some of it. I would personally avoid it in 35mm format, but I know that some people do not mind granularity.
Have you used JCH yourself?
| Camera | Belca Belfoca I |
|---|---|
| Lens | Meritar 105mm f4.5 |
| Film | JCH Pan 400 |
| Format | 6x9 |
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First of all - you got such beautiful results and the grain is not high at all, very fine and the contrast is lovely. The scenes you found are absolutely amazing and everything turned out very well.
I never used this film. i really wanted to try it and spoke with Bellamy about the luck of shipping from his site to my country. Lately, i lost interest to try every new film that comes to market. As I understand the film was made mostly for street photography, so the high grain and contrasts should be the best fit
Thank you for the kind support! It was a nice surprise after a hectic work trip.
There’s a level of excitement of trying out new films, though many new brands are either old stock or inspired by old formulas. I can’t think of an emulsion developed in the past 15 years if not more. So to an extent, eventually one has tried them all. Maybe 10 years from now my curiosity would go down.
💚💚💚
One of the interesting results of film photography (for me, at least) is the grain and the sometimes unexpected streaks that result from developing. Personally, I think they add a lot of character to the picture. Nicely done!
That’s true. Each combination of film + developer is unique.