120 Film for 120 film cameras comes in a variety of styles and options. I’d like to share my experiences with the Lomography color negative film which is 120 size and optimized for ISO 100 usage.
First, what is Lomography? Lomography is in essence a corporation in Europe which formed from art enthusiasts who wanted to explore film photography. I talk about their history in my What Is Lomography article. Their group makes both cameras and film to help support artists around the world.
So Lomography film is an inexpensive option to the other film makers out there like Kodak.
The 120 is the film size. IT IS NOT 120mm!! It is 60mm. It’s just called 120 :). This is the size that the Holga medium-format 120 film camera takes.
Next up, the ISO 100. ISO is a measure of how quickly or slowly the film absorbs light. ISO 100 is generally used for sunny days and is less sensitive to light. That gives it a very crisp image and also allows you to maintain some dark areas in your image. Otherwise if you opened the shutter on a sunny day, the entire film would turn white in an instant.
The color part is one most of us understand – it will show the colors in the scene. Compare this with black and white film which would not show the colors.
And for the negative part, there are generally two types of film. One is negative film, from which you make prints. The other is slide film, from which you make slides. I talk about that in my Slide Film vs Print Film article.
The film itself is marked with the word LOMO (for Lomography), a heart symbol, and then CN100 to show it’s a color negative ISO 100 film. So if you find film with those markings, that is what it means.
So to summarize, this Lomography Color Negative ISO 100 120 Film is made by an artisan group to provide inexpensive color print film to enthusiasts who have 120 film cameras and who want to shoot in fairly sunny conditions (ISO 100). How well does the film do that?
Here’s an image I took at the River Bend Farm canal in Uxbridge, Massachusetts with my Lomo film. It was a sunny day in May. The image came out fairly bright and crisp.
Here’s a double-image from that same day. That is, I didn’t wind the film fully and it ended up overlapping the two images. Still, you can see each image is bright and clear. It exposed well.
Here’s a bench along the canal. You can see the Holga’s traditional vignetting around the edges. The film does well in the light.
So in general I’m pleased with this film. Note that it comes in a blue box. That’s just how they package it. It is NOT some sort of a blue-tinted film, like they had a violet-tinted film. It’s normal color film. Normal traditional 120 film. It provides normal colors during processing.
Ask with any questions! And check out these articles:
What Is Lomography
Slide Film vs Print Film
Buy Lomography Color Negative ISO 100 120 Film at Amazon
All photos here were taken by Lisa Shea. This film was developed by https://oldschoolphotolab.com/