Single Roll Review - Orwo Wolfen NP100

In the past, I have felt that ORWO was not very good at their marketing.  They have a suite of very decent 35mm film stocks - most are cine-oriented,  and all were black and white emulsions.  The purchasing of their film in the US was complicated by the rather obtuse distribution methods.  That appears to have changed in the past year or so, with the release of their color film stock NC500, and the Wolfen NP100 films.  I’ve shot with both, and will deal with the C-41 film in a separate post.  

The box, but my roll was from the unboxed first run
(image from Orwo site)

Orwo’s film naming has of course,  been one of their odd quirks.  I’m sure people on the cine side of things know what films they are buying and their characteristics -- that’s not the case for a lot of 35mm still photography people.  A lot of photography hobbyists are swayed in their purchase decision by how cool the naming/packaging is, and there is ample evidence for that. Orwo, however, has kept on with their stodgy naming until the past year.  If you go to their site, it’s a big improvement over what I saw several years ago.  They are taking 35mm still photography more seriously, and have released some updated films as well as “new” ones.  If you look at the four Lomography branded kino films as well as the - ISO 13 and ISO 8 -  those are all Orwo cine stocks, which I have previously reviewed here.

So, I think the folks at Orwo finally realized that with the proper branding, their unique cine stocks were getting sales that they were not when it was just plain old Orwo branding, which was like no branding at all.   Now, with their Wolfen brand, they are making their way onto the shelves of stores (both brick and mortar and online) for enthusiasts to try out. That’s a good step forward.  From the promotional information - “Wolfen NP100 100 ISO 35mm x 36exp. Black and White Film from ORWO is an exceptionally fine grain 100 ASA film. This is one of the first brand new and professionally finished photo films launched by the company in decades, proudly still produced in Bitterfeld-Wolfen on the original site where film manufacture has been a tradition since 1910. 

NP100 differs from WOLFEN UN54 in that it has an additional dyed antihalation layer. This layer is positioned between the base material and the emulsion layer and has the task of preventing the formation of a reflection halo. This improves image sharpness.”  

The initial run of this film was said to be 36,000 36 exposure cassettes.

I purchased this film in February from the Freestyle Photo online store, and I finally got around to shooting with it in early May on our trip to Murrells Inlet, SC.  Loaded into my F3HP, I shot the roll late in the day along the beach at Huntington Beach State Park.  I mostly used the 35mm f/2 Nikkor, but also the 28mm f/3.5 Nikkor, and as the results show, there was a bit of vignetting with the polarizing filter attached to the 28mm. 

Developing  

It was a definite adventure finding out what developer to use for this film, compounded by the relative newness of the film and that Orwo hasn’t fully embraced the non-German speaking world, as attested by the online documentation.  Somewhere, I saw D-96 mentioned, so as a big fan of that developer, that was good news.  I developed it in D-96 for 8.5 min at 20°C, and the results are excellent.  It’s a fine-grained film on a polyester base - which is great news as the film lies completely flat for scanning.  

Results

Overall, it’s certainly a good 100 ISO black and white film.  As indicated above, the main difference from the NP100 and the UN54 (also ISO 100, and sold by Lomography as Potsdam 100) is the addition of another anti-halation layer.  It may be more than that, but whatever the changes, I liked the results from this film.  With more users, I am sure there will be more reviews with different developers.

The scans from my Epson V700 speak for themselves.  Ultimately, it’s best to shoot this film and decide for yourself whether it fits your style of photography.  There are a plethora of ISO 100 black and white film stocks as I have previously posted here, and over the years, my favorite has been Kentmere 100.  Now, if Orwo were to sell the NP 100 in 100 ft bulk rolls at a reasonable price, I would likely use more of it.  While it’s currently selling for $11/roll, it’s among the more expensive b&w films. Still, I applaud Orwo for now promoting their films in a more crowded field of 35mm black and white films (imagine that!).