A few weeks ago, someone asked for volunteers to try out a new film in a WhatsApp group I am part of. I put my hand up and said, “Yes, please”

So here we are, a new post about something I have never tried before, a black and white reversal film in 120 format.

The film came from Aperture Printing in London, which is where you can buy the film. I don’t have a photo of the packaging as it wasn’t quite ready when I received the early edition. Camden 200 will be their second offering of reversal monochrome film after Euston 400. Just like it says in that article, the new film…

…is a repackaged black-and-white negative film produced by Rollei that can be turned into positives thanks to a new development process created by one of the lab’s staff members.

In my eyes, that made it a new film as it is something I haven’t seen before apart from Scala, which they can also develop.

I wanted to get the film back to them quickly, as I was entrusted with it in the first place. So, I loaded it into my Mamiya C2 and immediately took it to Leeds for a wander. I tried to get a wide range of images in different lighting conditions. The information I had said to expose it at ISO 160 for low-light situations. I mostly followed that advice but also ignored it. I even took a double exposure without making any adjustments. I wanted to use the film in real-life situations. As it was a lovely day, I knew I would have enough shots at the correct exposure to experiment with a few shots, just for curiosity’s sake.

Then I sent the film back the next day and waited. Very quickly, I got an email with a set of scans. Now, the scans looked just like regular black and white shots. I liked them, but I didn’t see anything ‘special’. Then I got the negs back, and wow. I hadn’t seen anything like them.

I wanted to add some videos as the scans do not show the reversal process in its true light. The tape at the end was me trying to squeeze an extra shot at the end of the roll.

I immediately bought another roll of Camden 200 and a roll of Euston 400. I asked why they chose Rollei-based films for their process, and the simple answer was, “It has a clear base”. For a reversal process, a clear base is very important.

Here are most of the scans from the film.

I love the results and have an idea for the extra films I have bought. It must be good, I bought two more rolls.

Can you buy this film online? Not at the moment, you have to go to their shop. The film is really a clever process, so you need to be able to send it back to them to get it developed that way.

But it is another exciting ‘development’ in the analogue world.