Haven’t heard of the Kodak LPD4 ISO 4 film? Here’s a peek that will definitely get you even more curious!
Once in a while, we come across some films that are rare, discontinued, often times obscure, and definitely very interesting. The folks of the Film Photography Project have been keeping tabs on some of these prized emulsions, as we’ve seen previously in their top 5 unique and ultra cool 35mm films to try and experiment with. They’ve recently shared another ultra rare film to try, and we’re sure many film photographers out there would be curious to experiment with it!
In one of their Thanksgiving Podcast Marathon 2018 episodes, the folks of the Film Photography Project talked about the very first film in their Weird Film Club series: the Kodak Precision Line Duplicating Film LPD4. This 35mm film is a low-speed (ISO 4!), high contrast, orthochromatic (blue-sensitive) black and white film. While it’s not designed for pictorial use (we’ll get to that later), the sample snaps shared by FPP in the video below could very well pique film photographers’ curiosity:
In the video above, Mark Dalzell shared some the snaps from the roll of Kodak LPD4 that he developed along with a roll of Orwo UN54 using Kodak D76. The fact that you could develop the Kodak LPD4 along with other regular black and white films with the same developing times and chemicals isn’t the only cool thing about it. It also produces some cool positive images!
As mentioned earlier, the Kodak LPD4 was not for taking photographs. According to FPP, it was instead meant for creating direct-image duplicates of printed-circuit masters, engineering drawings, and line negatives generated on photoplotters. Kodak also has more info about this film, in case you want to learn more. If you’re after the look of very contrasty black and white images, you might want to give it a try. You can grab a roll of the Kodak LPD4 at the Film Photography Project Store for $9.99, while stocks last!
Kodak LPD4 photos by Mark Dalzell
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