Orwo NP15 a roll of film from GDR times- I am back for the analog photography community

avatar

I found this ORWO NP15 film roll in a vintage photo shop in Budapest. The Hungarian capital is my to go location if I am looking for analog equipment. One can find real treasures if they know where to look for them.

Information of the ORWO films can be found on analoguephotolab.com and this is the original description I found on that site.

Manufactured by ORWO factory in Wolfen, NP-15 was cheap and available alternative to western unavailable brands. NP films (Negative Panchromatic) were sold in many formats and speeds, from 135 to cut sheets and from 15 DIN (ISO 25) to 27 DIN (ISO 400).

So I loaded that roll in my Nikon FE2 camera and first I had to determine what DIN15 would be in ISO since the dial wheel for setting your film speed on the Nikon is in ISO.

So it turned out that DIN15 is 25 ISO which is a super low speed for photography. I knew I needed a lot of sunlight or long exposure times to see an actual outcome in the end.

Of course you never know how your pictures will turn out when buying a roll of vintage film. You don't know how it has been stored and to what it was exposed. It even could be that it had been exposed at some time and rolled back to look as new...(happened only once but it happens)

We where on set for my exam movie where you can read about in this post that I posted in the CINEtv community.

I really like to take behind the scenes photography and generally documenting the progress of movie production.
Film lights are awesome! They are strong and at that day we where imitating sunlight coming in through the windows. I thought that this might be a good point to try to shoot a pic of my main actors.

F4060014.JPG

You can see Angelina Kamp and Jan Krawczyk in one of the breaks during takes. In the background you can see the time machine that we built of scrap metal and cables.

One can see that the turnout is pretty grainy but still we have a picture where the subjects are visible and we have a good balance in contrast.

The next picture is @tinty.art my wife in Steyr this was taken 4-5 years before we got married in the same city we would marry later.

It was a super sunny day so I could try to shoot without artificial lights.
This is the photography

F4070004.JPG

A lot less grain the in the previous one which is obvious since the light was super strong. Yet the image looks like it could have been taken 50-60 years ago.

I hope you liked my comeback to the analog photography community.
Let me know in the comments below!

Cheers solymi



0
0
0.000
18 comments
avatar

Love it! Behind the scenes photos and with such an old film. It really is super, super grainy but who cares - still looks great. And the photo of Tinty is perfect.Today people get these effects through filters. Sometimes I do too, emulate old b&w film grain and such. It's fun. But I bet it's much more fun to actually shoot the photos.

0
0
0.000
avatar

thank you for posting here.
love the stories behind the scenes and how special they look on this film.
it's why we love this look and the use by film :-)

!LUV

0
0
0.000
avatar

It was long overdue :) have not posted here for a while but I will get back to it.

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

I love this!
Had forgotten that you were a filmmaker.

Was also curious about that thing in the background. Awesome to hear that it represents a time machine.

This is my favorite kind of content. Hope you've got more to come...

Sending you a creative hug from a filmmaker on a break, located in Portugal

0
0
0.000
avatar

I posted some BTS non analog work in the CINETv community.
Glad you like it, I hope I can take more analog pictures. It is harder and harder to find some I did not publish yet.

0
0
0.000
avatar

You just triggered the urge to watch those amazingly bad black and white sci-fi movies !CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh yes, the product is in color though you can watch it on 3speak

0
0
0.000
avatar

Im a sucker for old photoshoots and these are pretty darn cool

Keep on snapping :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks a lot! I really love to shoot analog, it is such a slowdown compared to the digital

0
0
0.000
avatar

I liked your comeback to the analogue photography community.
And I like analogue photography with its grainy look.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @solymi! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You distributed more than 43000 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 44000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

0
0
0.000
avatar

That really is very grainy for ISO 25 but it's nice that you found a gem in a vintage shop. Several months ago I found a fully working 6x9 camera with a coated lens for 30 euro. How did you develop the film?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes indeed it is super grainy, I think it has to do with the film being super old probably bad storage.
I always let my rolls developed at the same photoshop in Budapest. You can check them out here:

https://cafeanalog.hu/

Drop a picture of your 6x9 please, would love to see it.
!LUV

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hungarian is an interesting language. At least the important words are clear 😉 Probably the grain is from the storage. I don’t know what chemicals are usually used at a mass scale. I process my rolls at home. I’ll share a couple of 6x9 frames later.

0
0
0.000