They say that good things come in three, and this past week has proven that point. A day after the back-to-back announcements from Kodak and CineStill. Bellamy Hunt, of Japan Camera Hunter, posted a tease to the JCH Social Media Channels, the tease a 400-Speed slide film. Something the photography world hasn’t seen since the discontinuation of Fujifilm’s Provia 400x. While people scrambled to check what day it actually was (time doesn’t have too much meaning still today), but this was no April Fool’s joke.
The initial details were vague and speculation abounded about what could this tease of a fast slide film be? Many speculated that it was simply a cold-stored master roll of Fuji Provia 400x or the older consumer Fuji Sensia 400. But in a recent article Bellamy indicated that the film was in fact a brand new emulsion. The process of creating a slide film is a difficult one, FilmFerrania is still working towards that goal and hasn’t provided any update. According to the article, the original plan was an early 2020 release of the new stock, and test rolls have already been shot and developed (you can see sample images on the linked article). Of course, in 2020 everything went sideways and delays, continued troubles around the global community delayed the release and announcement until now. And probably what makes this even better is that there’s no crowdfunding, it’s entirely supported by JCH. So who is making the film? Well, there’s only a handful of producers who have the capacity to produce a colour film, and most indications point to an EU producer which is a shortlist. I guess we’ll have to see when the film actually starts hitting shelves.
Alex Luyckx
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