This article brings together news items regarding analogue photography from across the web, including new cameras, new film and a new take on an old problem:
- Leica has announced a new black-and-white film stock, the Monopan 50 — a high-resolution 35mm film, which has been released to coincide with Leica’s 100 year anniversary, since the release of the Leica 1 in 1925. The stock boasts “an ultra-fine grain and super-panchromatic sensitivity. The film can be processed in all black-and-white developers. Its ultra-high resolution produces shots with extraordinary sharpness and remarkable tonal value reproduction”.
See examples of the film quality, and read more about the stock, at Leica’s website here.
- Mint Camera, the innovative camera company that produced the world’s first twin-lens instant camera, is back with another vintage-inspired new camera. This time, it is a modern 35mm film camera inspired by the much-loved classic Rollei 35 series. The camera has been in the works for a few years as the team carefully crafted the finished result.
Autofocus and autoexposure are the key assets of the point-and-shoot camera, along with all the essential features including ISO and Shutter Speed options, tripod socket, and self-timer. The Rollei 35 AF is a timeless model evoking all the best qualities of the point-and-shoot cameras of days of old, but with modern conveniences, most notably its 242g weight, making it the perfect travel companion.
Unsurprisingly, after high anticipation, the pre-order release was met with such demand from across the world that the company paused pre-orders so they could continue to deliver ‘without compromising quality’.
If you want to join the queue in owning Mint’s Rollei 35 AF, you can sign up to the waiting list at Mint’s dedicated website here.
- Cindy Sherman is addressing one of photography’s age-old concerns about deteriorating prints by providing owners of her works the opportunity to replace their old, fading prints with fresh, artist-approved prints using modern archival methods.
Old chromogenic and gelatin silver prints have a knack for fading and becoming damaged over time, dramatically diminishing a print’s value in the process, but since the turn of the century more has been learned about the importance of proper processing, fibre-based paper (instead of traditional resin-coated papers), museum-grade framing, and archival storage, in order to lengthen a print’s lifespan.
Sherman launched the Cindy Sherman Legacy Project to address the issue as “a mechanism that will ensure the integrity of my work is protected in perpetuity”.
Read all about the project at the dedicated website here.
For more analogue photography news, tips and information, visit the RPS’ Analogue microsite or the Analogue Group’s Facebook page