Svema Foto 100 Film

Svema Foto 100 is a fine-grained, medium-high-contrast panchromatic black-and-white negative film from Ukraine. I bought several rolls to try. My takeaway: this is quite a good film—a high-quality film, not an experimental budget film like some of the less mainstream “compromise” options. It has a distinctive tonality, with less blue and more red sensitivity than most panchromatic films, even extending into the near-infrared up to 750nm. It has good exposure latitude and retains plenty of shadow and highlight detail. It performs very well for general-purpose scenes and shines for portraiture and landscape, and its spectral response offers very real advantages. It’s well worth shooting for its own sake, and is an obvious choice for the tonality, detail, and contrast it delivers. If you want a film with good performance that looks different from the rest, this is one to consider. After using it I’m eager to shoot more of it, I can see it becoming a go-to choice in my bag, and I’m excited to try other Svema films.

Oct 5, 2025

Kodak Pony 135 Model C Camera

The Kodak Pony 135 Model C is the best in a series of basic, no-frills, good-enough 35mm viewfinder cameras from the 1950s and early 60s. It is solidly made of Bakelite plastic and aluminum. Nothing about it is premium or high-spec, yet it’s handsome, a pleasure to hold, and easy to use with fully manual controls. It has a very capable lens that can deliver rich, contrasty, sharp images with a touch of nostalgic character.

Sep 18, 2025

Caffenol CL Film Developer

You can make a very high-quality “Caffenol” black-and-white film developer using instant coffee and a few other common household ingredients. There are many well-known recipes; I have been using Caffenol CL almost exclusively for years with a wide variety of film.

Sep 17, 2025

Caffenol Film Developer

Caffenol is an informal name for a category of black-and-white film developers made with coffee and other household ingredients. There are many recipes for developing film with Caffenol, but some common factors and knowledge apply to all of them. Getting great results with Caffenol is absolutely possible; you can match or beat some of the best commercial film developers if you know how. This article shares some of the things I have learned about Caffenol after using it as my main film developer for years.

Mar 2, 2024

Improving Catadioptric Mirror Lenses by Blocking Sensor Reflections

Mirror lenses and telescopes, also called reflex or catadioptric lenses (henceforth just “mirror lenses” for brevity), are a combination of curved mirrors and lenses. They are commonly used in reflecting telescopes and super-telephoto photographic lenses. They are known for being light and compact, but they have a mixed reputation for sometimes delivering poor image quality and contrast, creating a soft, washed-out look with poor colors. This effect is often attributed to various causes (diffraction, vignette, stray light, etc) that turn out not to fully explain the problem, and when these causes are corrected, the problem remains.