Another 366 days have passed. I’m not the usual film shooter, in the sense that I have a few films that we love and probably will keep shooting them, and the rest of the time I will continue to be a connoisseur of a smorgasbord of various expired films. To give you some examples, Fujifilm has barely trickled out any film this year, but I have enough in my stash to continue consumption as usual. This also means it takes a little while later for me to experience the introduction of the new film. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, Harman Phoenix, a 200-speed color film, was introduced in late 2023, but I only got around to shooting it in 2024.
Going by brand, no surprise, Kodak is the king again while Fujifilm got second. Earlier in the year when it was still dark and cold, I decided (and also there is a community campaign) to shoot more black and white film, especially Ilford FP4+. As a result, Ilford, a huge brand I rarely touch, inched to third spot. Lomography with its crazy color film came in 4th, and the others are just all the one-off film brands that I could find in my fridge.
In total, I’ve shot 182 rolls of film in 2024, a mix of medium format and 35mm. Again, if anyone has watched me shoot, the top three will not be surprising – Ektar, Velvia 50, and Provia 100F are the films we bring with us when we travel. The unholy trinity, because we still think it is notorious difficult to shoot, and we are still too lazy to bring a tripod to help with that. And I did some travels this year, which resulted in such high numbers. Here are the top 9:
17x Ektar
14x Velvia 50
10x Provia 100F
9x Ektachrome 100
8x Pro Image
8x FP4
6x Phoenix
5x Ektachrome EPL 400X
5x Gold 200
4th place is surprising because it isn’t something I choose to shoot consciously. This is not the fresh Ektachrome E100 that people can buy (though it costs more than 6 packs of craft beer, such is life). These are expired films that I bought some time ago, and I found that the Fuji GA645Wi can expose the film pretty darn well, so I kept loading it into the camera if I didn’t have any specific thing I wanted to shoot. Pro Image made it to 5th because it is a film that I love but I prefer to use it in the heat, as it is much more resistant than traditional film. FP4 was mentioned previously, Phoenix is starting to be my favorite color film – extremely saturated, with very little latitude, i.e. just like the unholy trinity, except, I might like this more than Kodak Ektar. I am waiting for a huge price drop and sweep in to grab more.
7th and 8th places are medium format films that I shot locally. I snagged some rolls of Ektachrome EPL 400X some time ago, and they came out amazing. As a result, I started to stalk eBay and try to get as much of this as I could. I have got two separate batches now, a good and a bad batch. Been experimenting with the bad batch to try to see what I can do with it, and saving the good stuff for future trips! There might be a film renaissance in the 2020s, but not all films are created equal. For example, black and white film does not do as well, (which is possibly why Harman came out with color film) and there are just not enough medium-format shooters. I highly suspect that Kodak and Lomography overstocked on medium format film and tried to recuperate some money by having a permanent discount throughout the year. As a result, I ended up buying some cheap Kodak Gold for medium format, definitely not a film I would shoot, but it is so cheap there is no reason not to. That’s why, it showed up on 2024’s top 8 list.
Moving onto the cameras. Caveat, all cameras shoot different numbers of shots per roll. The two medium formats shoot a lot less than 35mm camera – Makina 67 shoots the least, at 10/roll; then it is GA645Wi at 16/roll, though I did shoot some 220 films at 32/roll. Both panoramic cameras shoot around the same number – Xpan averages at 20/roll and Horizon at 22/roll. Finally, the very normal Nikon 28Ti and Konica FT1 both get 36/roll. With that out of the way, you can see why Makina 67 is so far. It is the camera I bring out when I can.
65x Makina 67
57x Xpan
26x GA645Wi
20x 28Ti
9x FT1
5x Horizon
My to-go travel film combo is a panoramic camera and 28Ti as a backup. Originally, it was the Horizon as the main camera, but even after a few visits to the ER, it still cannot be fixed, which is why, I’ve decided to retire the camera at 5 rolls. As I was hunting for an Xpan, I was shooting the 28Ti, thus resulting in more rolls than expected (but fulfilling its goal). Once I found a copy of Xpan, I shot it nonstop. I did realize (much later) that the shutter was broken and had it repaired. It came back into service once the shutter was repaired, and I used it as much as I could. Finally, the FT1. It is the only “manual” camera that I own now, so any weird experiment goes onto that camera.
So, what did we feel about 2024? I want to shoot more Phoenix; and I ought to shoot more BW film, as I have a bucket load of random assortment of film. After my first solo backpack trip, I’ve decided to pivot towards more multi-day hikes in 2025. It is also time to save up some money for the next major travel year (2028/2029?), so there will be less traveling this year. I’m not exactly sure if I’ll have much opportunity to shoot panorama for the rest of the year, but I do have the dream camera now. I have to remind myself, that this is the end game camera. Shoot it while there is still a chance.