In this post, I will review and blog about my thought on this China brand black & white film: Lucky SHD 100.

Lucky SHD 100 乐凯

First of all, Lucky SHD 100 is a 35mm 36-exposure black & white film. I bought mine from SNAPPP for about SGD 7-8 when I was in Taipei. Later on, I realised Taobao sells it at only SGD 3-4! Argh!

I’ve heard about the cassette of Lucky film being quite fragile. Since I developed my own black & white film at home, I needed to open the cassette myself. Trust me, it’s so easy. It look me less than 5 seconds to crack the cassette open with a can opener.

Results

For this batch, I developed with Kodak Tmax Professional Developer (1:4) for 4.5 minutes in normal temperature condition. Negatives scanned with Epson V600.

Anti-halation layer

After scanning, I see that some of the pictures look quite ‘dreamy’. Like lack of contrast and sharpness, and more of a fading effect. Then I remembered reading about ‘anti-halation layer’ in a film guidebook.

This is the definition I quoted from Wikipedia “An anti–halation backing is a layer found in most photographic films. It is usually a coating on the back of the film base, but sometimes it is incorporated between the light-sensitive emulsion and the base. The light that passes through the emulsion is absorbed by the anti–halation layer.”

Without anti-halation layer, the light is reflected back to the emulsion and result in halation- the spread of light to form a fog.

Some people may like the halation effect while some do not. I am neutral about it, depending on my vision. That’s why some films come without the anti-halation layer for those who want to create ‘dreamy’ pictures.

So, Lucky SHD 100 is a black & whiet film without anti-halation layer. I got the answer from a forum where people were discussing about how to create dreamy effect. Furthermore, the negative feels physically thinner than other types of films.

Look closely for the halation, you might have the impression that my lens was oily:

Conclusion

Overall, Lucky SHD 100 is just a simple ‘non-halated’ film that has fine grains. It’s good for people who love the dreamy effect.

Maybe it’s also a good film for dreamy portrait? You decide.

However, this film is not for me because I find the tones to be slightly faint. Personally, I prefer a more contrasty dark picture with high shadow, such as Tri-X. Nonetheless, I encourage you to give Lucky a try if you happen to get hold of it.

I’ve uploaded almost the whole sample shots onto Facebook.

 

 

If you are new to this film photography blog, Start Here. Or head over to Film Look to see samples of each film.

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