Last Updated on 10/09/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
When I made that title about SILBERSALZ35, I said it with all due intention and good faith.
To really explain what SILBERSALZ35 is, I should state that they’re a combination of CineStill, true cinema, and what a few other companies have been/tried before but ultimately failed. After meeting with them personally at Photokina 2018, I’m genuinely excited to talk about a company like theirs. If you’re excited about cinema and the look, feel, and texture of that gorgeous film grain that you see on the silver screen, then I’m positive that you’re going to share my adoration and excitement about SILBERSALZ35.
CineStill, who does a terrific job and is working to improve their product, takes cinema movie film and cuts it down for use in still cameras. They also remove the Remjet layer so that the film can developed standard C-41. But in contrast, SILBERSALZ35 is taking various Kodak movie film emulsions at different ISOs and white balances, selling you a pack of film, then asking you to ship it back to them in Germany so that they can develop it in conjunction with true cinematic film development processes.
Here are some sample images from their film!
The cinema film development process is called ECN-2–and it’s much different than C-41, E6, etc.
That’s right; the same unmodified and pure KODAK VISION3 film that so many cinematographers create masterpieces with can be loaded into your Leica M4p with a Summilux 35mm f2. Then you can get the film developed and scanned, and after some time you’ll feel your own jaw drop while knowing that you are the one who created those sweet, sweet photos.
Now, this concept isn’t at all new. There were a few companies that tried to do this with Fujifilm emulsions like Velvia, Eterna, etc. But Fujifilm doesn’t make cinema film anymore and those companies died pretty hard. But with SILBERSALZ35, the analog film community genuinely has another chance.
At the moment, they have a 50 Daylight, 250 Daylight, 200 Tungsten, and 500 Tungsten film. Tungsten film was used to create that Blade Runner look, but the rest of the film is also just stuff that looks gorgeous and that you’ve probably seen in most movies.
You can check out more about SILBERSALZ35 on their website. And for the moment, it’s pretty damned cheap.
