Photographic film doesn’t last forever, poor storage, gamma rays, and discontinuation continue to plague the film photography community. While many keep their film in their home fridge, taking over the crisper drawer (who needs to keep veggies anyway) or having a dedicated fridge or a chest freezer dedicated to keeping their films. But even in your average fridge or even the freeze won’t be able to keep that film forever? What if you could have your film stored like the major film manufactures who can seem to pump out fresh rolls even after production has ended? Well now you can!
Project lead, Matsuura Rika, spoke to us from their R&D facility in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The AF-100DFP is the perfect match for those photographers who want to keep their hordes of Fuji Acros 100 (the Original Stuff, not the new Acros II) and Fuji Pro 400H fresh for an entire lifetime so that they can use their favourite film forever. Westinghouse had been working on the technology since 2019 along with Eastman Kodak (who famously kept miles of Technical Pan in storage and kept selling it fresh long after the production ceases) and Fujifilm who continues to dodge claims that they have been doing the same for years.
Now the average photographer doesn’t have room for such a large stash of film or have the need for a massive room-sized storage unit. That is what makes the Westinghouse AF-100DFP handy, the size of an average mini-fridge and running off standard household current, although they do recommend a 20A socket. And hope to have these devices on the market for Q2 in 2021.
Alex Luyckx
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