Slow Down -- FPP LOW-ISO Color 35mm Film

FPP's LOW ISO Color negative film

If you have been reading Random Camera Blog for any length of time, you have undoubtedly seen some of my posts on slow b&w films, or maybe you read Issue 1 of Monochrome Mania on low-iso film.  Part of the fun with these films is that many were not made for your everyday still-camera shooting.  Some of them have uses in the cine industry that are definitely not what we are using them for.  So it is with the Film Photography Project's COLOR Low-ISO negative film.  Designed to be a color digital intermediate film (whatever that means), it has an ISO of 1.6, which I'll round out to ISO 2, because that's what I shot it at.

This is an ECN-2 film on an Estar base, but does not have a remjet layer, so it can be developed in ECN-2 without using an alkaline pre-bath to remove remjet.  It can also be developed in C-41, which is what I did, as it was sent out to The Darkroom lab to be developed while I was on the road out west in October. It is a Kodak Vision 3 film, and is still in production.  I'm sure that the low ISO rating would put most people off from trying it, but as I said, I like playing with super slow films that were not necessarily designed for still photography.

I shot a roll of this in Arizona, with some shots done on a tripod, late in the day at Saguaro National Park East.  The rest of the roll was shot in downtown Tucson while walking around on 4th Avenue.  I know how I have said that these films are best on a tripod, so it was a challenge shooting handheld.  You can do the math - if I were using sunny 16, it would be 1/2 sec at f/16 in full sun.  To shoot it handheld, I should strive for 1/15 to 1/30 sec. That's f/4 at 1/30 sec - completely doable. (1/2 sec to 1/30 sec is a change of 4 stops, so. f/11, f/8, f/5.6, f/4. - see, you don't even need a meter. Sure, if you want to shoot at f/11 or even f/8. you'll need a tripod.  My shots in the desert late in the day were at f/8 at about 1/2 sec.   I used my Nikon FM2N, because it's completely manual, and I just set the aperture and shutter speed where they should have been, because, the ISO only goes to 12, so metering is out.

When I got my film back and then scanned it, I was amazed at the colors. It definitely has an Ektar kind of look, and overall, I was pleased with what I got.  Sure, it's slow and colorful, so what's not to like? I do wish the FPP would offer these films in 36 exposure rolls, though.  Since it is rem-jet free, you can take it to any lab or do it yourself.  

Here are some examples from Arizona. The first set is from Saguaro National Park East.

And now, from the streets of Tucson the next day!

I really like the look that I got with this film, and I would definitely shoot it again.  If you are looking for some different color emulsions to work with, give it a try!