For this week’s installment of Film Friday, we’re taking a closer look at ‘no.5,’ a new film stock from NoColorStudio, an independent film photography company that focuses on large format film camera accessories and, now, specialty film stocks. We posted a first look at this new film last month, but since then our friends at 35mmc have taken a deeper dive, and interviewed Arnas Špaka, creator of NoColorStudio.
As with many ‘new’ films nowadays, this isn’t a new formula designed by NoColorStudio, but a repurposed film that’s recently gone back into production. According to Špaka, the experimental ‘no.5’ film ‘is [an ISO 5] black and white negative orthochromatic specialty film yielding high contrast, high resolution, continuous tone and small grain.
experimental no.5 developed in D-11
Špaka says ‘This film was originally used to store archival documents which could be viewed with the aid of special machines found in libraries.’ After getting their hands on some and experimenting with it in the lab to see what development methods offered the best results, Špaka is ready to share it with the world.
experimental no.5 developed in perceptol
NoColorStudio’s ‘no.5’ film stock is available to purchase on NoColorStudio’s website as a single roll (€5.50), a five-roll pack (€25.00) and a special ten-roll pack (€50.00), which comes packaged in a ‘hand-made origami box.’ In an update to our original coverage, we can confirm that the film will be shipped to North America, Canada, Japan and all of Europe. Each roll comes with 29 exposures and includes a data sheet with development times. Špaka says its their goal to get the no.5 film stock available in other formats as well in the future.
You can read Špaka’s full article on 35MMC, where he details the story behind NoColorStudio and its new ‘no.5’ film stock.
The Birth of The NoColorStudio Experimental No.5 High Contrast Film
About Film Fridays: We recently launched an analog forum and in a continuing effort to promote the fun of the medium, we’ll be sharing film-related content on Fridays, including articles from our friends at 35mmc and Kosmo Foto.