Type-D Photos from Foqus Analogue Photo Store and Photo Lab
If you’re looking for a new film to try — perhaps something rare, like a handmade black and white film — we have some interesting news for you. Foqus, an analogue photo store and photolab based in St. Petersburg, Russia, is carrying a handmade black and white film called Type-D. According to their blog post, this 35mm film was introduced in 2016 by a group of film photography fans in Russia, making it possible for their fellow analogue lovers to enjoy more fresh black and white films. And so we’re telling you all about it because we’re positive most readers won’t know what it is.
As far as the technical specifications go, Type-D is recommended for exposure at ISO 200 – 250, yields 35 photos, and can be processed using standard D-76 developing for a consistent tone or Pyrocat HD for higher contrast. The downside, however, is that the emulsion was coated on a Mylar substrate of only 70 microns. According to Foqus, this can be fully compensated by the right film development.
The resulting photographs are actually impressive: punchy contrast, fine-grained, and with a very good resolution, just as they described on their blog. Given that this film pretty much works best for outdoor and brightly-lit shooting conditions, it was interesting to see a couple of low-light shots thrown into their mix of sample photos. As you can see, the blacks are nice and inky–which is a very popular look these days that a few films like Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400 can give you.
Now, all this info is just what we could gather based on the English translation of the Foqus website, so there could be some other details we need to know. And yes, we definitely want to know more.
Further research has led us to a post by Israeli photographer Avital Nathansohn, who got information that it was created by a guy named Denis Korablev. Avital shot a couple of rolls and developed them in HC110, and his results are also amazing.
Type-D is currently out of stock, but be sure to bookmark the Foqus website and be on the lookout for when they restock! You can also visit this Flickr group to see more photos shot with this enigmatic film.
