KONO! Color 400 Film

Several months ago I stopped by my local camera store, Ball Photo, in Asheville.  I purchased some different color films since they were there on the shelf, and of course, they were something that I’d not tried before.  One of the films was a two-pack of Kono! Color 400, which has been described by the manufacturer as:

“KONO Color 400 Color Negative Film is a modern interpretation of a classic German color negative film and provides excellent tonal range, as well as a wide exposure latitude. This versatile film has a nominal sensitivity of ISO 400/27° and can be developed in any lab using C-41 chemistry.”

I loaded a roll into my Chinon CS-4 and used a Vivitar 35-85/2.8 zoom, which is a rather rare lens these days.  It definitely weighs more than the camera, pictured above with a Yashinon DX 50mm/1.4 lens.  I spent a few hours over in the River Arts District of Asheville, photographing around the French Broad River, back in March.  A week ago I finally got around to developing all my exposed color films in an FPP color chemistry (ECN-2) kit.  So, now it’s time to discuss my results.  I scanned the negatives with my Epson V700 scanner.

The greenish film base looks like Orwo NC500

I-240 bridge

Waiting for the Kudzu to burst forth

railroad trestle over the French Broad

White Duck Taco remains closed since Hurricane Helene

I-240 bridge

any vertical surface seems to attract graffiti

the old Asheville Paper Recycling facility

Now, in the past, I’ve shot a couple of different Kono! labeled films and the current ones in their catalog are certainly interesting, due to their range of color implementations.  This film, however, is awfully similar to the Orwo Wolfen NC 500.  Since it’s stated that the film is made in Germany, I am pretty sure that’s what it is.  The greenish base of the film certainly looks the same. The muted colors are also obvious.  If you were expecting something like Kodacolor 400, this film isn’t it.  Much like Lomochrome Metropolis and NC 500, there is a muted look to most of the colors.  Now that’s not a bad thing.  In our current era of everything being super-saturated, maybe being somewhat muted is a good option.  The film isn’t exactly fine-grained, and that can be a plus with the right subject, but the grain isn’t bad, either.  

I think it’s a film worth trying out if you are looking for something different.  I’ll shoot the second roll this summer, with different colorful subjects and see what I get. I’ll know what to expect though, and that will affect my choice of what I shoot.

Hi-Wire Brewery

Hi-Wire loading dock

Building the covered pickleball courts at Hi-Wire

If you like the muted color palette of this film, then it certainly could be the film for you.

An old Kodak folder lens on 4x5

Last November, I acquired an Intrepid 4x5 camera from my fellow photographer, Russ Young. I’ve already written about my re-acquaintance with large format back in April.  A month or so ago, I found an old Kodak Kodex No. 1 lens/shutter assembly in a drawer. I’m pretty sure that it came from a Kodak Pocket 1A folding camera that was in bad condition, so I just saved the lens from it.  I never thought about putting it on another camera until recently.  My first thought when I looked at it was, “Will it work with 4x5?”

Lensboard with 32mm center hole.

It needed a lens board though, before I could do anything with it. My buddy Bill Pivetta cut a lens board with a 32mm center hole for me from a sheet of gray plastic that I had in my garage. After some final sanding and trimming, I mounted the lens and attached the lens board to my Intrepid camera.    When I looked at the ground glass, it appeared that the lens does in fact, cover 4x5.  A few shots with the lens confirmed that. The photos below were taken on Arista Ultra 100, at apertures of f/22 and f/32, with a time of 1 to 2 seconds.

This lens is a 111mm Meniscus Achromat, with numbered aperture settings of 1,2,3,4.  The shutter speeds of T, B, 1/25 and 1/50 are sufficient for low ISO film.  Now, what are those numbered apertures?  From what I’ve found 1= f/11, 2= f/16, 3= f/22, and 4 = f/32. This is NOT a fast lens, and was likely found in the least expensive version of the camera.  At the maximum aperture of f/11, the image on the ground glass is quite dim, and even more so at f/22!  Of course, this lens was used on the original camera with a reflex viewfinder (which are not bright, either), and the camera had set positions for subject distance.  Using this lens on a bight day isn’t too bad, though.

Yes, it covers 4x5!  f/22 @ 2 seconds

The whole point of this exercise was to see if I could use this lens on my 4x5, and I was successful in that.  There are better lens/shutter combinations available on those old Kodak folders that may yield better results.  This lens, at 110-111mm is on the wide end of 4x5, and I’m looking at my Kodak Vigilant Six-20 with its 101mm lens and Kodak No. 1 Supermatic shutter and maximum aperture of f/4.5 and I think I’ll have to try that one next on my 4x5.  In fact, while writing this, I took a half hour to remove the lens from the Kodak Vigilant Six-20 and mounted it on the same lens board. It fit perfectly, and now to do some more testing.

Now, to try this one out. Stay tuned.

The fun thing with 4x5 is that I am able to easily experiment with old lenses, and it takes just a sheet or two of film to see the results.  There are a lot of old folders out there with beat-up bellows and extinct film formats. Why not give it a try?