Film Friday - March 5th, 2021. Lomography Orca 110
In the running of this series of Film Friday features, we could be probably be easily forgiven, or at least it would be understandable, if we only featured 35mm and 120 films, with maybe a large format emulsion thrown in for good measure. But if you look up the history of film formats you will see that it is by no means a short list. The history of photography is rich with variety when it comes to the various sizes and shapes of film we have run through cameras. In acknowledgement of that variety we wanted to make sure that these Film Fridays really did cover everything we had to offer. And thus, with the first Film Friday of November we are going to feature Lomography Orca 110 film.
Lomography introduced Orca to the world in May of 2012. Prior to that 110 film had been out of production since about 2009. At first Orca had a bit of an iffy launch as the initial batches of the film were lacking any backing paper, but Lomography quickly tied up that loose end and subsequent batches looked and operated like 110 film of old.
Orca is an ISO 100 black and white emulsion (true b&w, not chromogenic). Perhaps its greatest feature is simply the fact that it exists at all. Not only is it a bit of a miracle that in present times we still have fresh 110 film available to us, but the Orca (as far as we can tell) is one of only 2-3 b&w emulsions made in the format (Kodak Verichrome Pan being the original and the b&w film distributed under the Fukkatsu name being the other). Having a fresh, b&w option for 110 cameras today is a gift that shouldn’t be under appreciated.
A portrait made at work by Jackson Keller of his co-worker Young David.
The Lomography Orca film has more going for it than simply being in existence though. The film is surprisingly fine grained and sharp considering how small the source negative is (roughly 1/4 the size of a 35mm neg) and how much enlargement needs to happen to print or digitally display a 110 frame. Are your results with Orca still going to visibly show grain? You bet. But the film gets you off on the right foot with relative fine grained characteristics.
One of our staff, Jackson Keller, is our resident 110 aficionado. He has tried just about every 110 camera we have had pass through the store, so he has shot a lot of Orca over the past couple years. We asked him what some of his other favorite elements to this film were and after its fine grain he mentioned that he really appreciated it tonal scale. Jackson remarked that the Orca film has really nice grays and good latitude. Jackson routinely carries and uses his 110 cameras in low light and he says the Orca has often held up really well for him and been very forgiving of tricky exposure conditions.
Over the years Lomography products have earned a bit of a reputation for hit-and-miss quality but Jackson states that he has been quite happy with the quality of the Lomography Orca cassettes and actually counts it as one of the film’s strengths. He says the cassettes are pretty robust and in all his time using Orca film he has never had any issues with either cassettes jamming cameras or leaking light once removed from the camera. He did mention one pro-tip that he employs though, which is to tape of the rear window in the back of the camera. The backing paper Lomography uses in their 110 cassettes is prone to leaking light or allowing bleed under bright conditions. A quick piece of gaff tape over that rear window of the camera fixes this issue and if you are ever curious to see which frame you are on, simply peel the tape back and check!
So a quick recap. You should shoot Lomography Orca because:
You can. Really. Who knows how much longer this film will be in production. With Lomography we really never know for sure, though they have kept in on a remarkable run of seven years now and counting. It is an opportunity to use a film that may not be around in five years. Who knows? Seize the day.
Because it lets you use 110 cameras, which themselves are great pocket cameras. There are also some incredibly well made 110 cameras out there that are gems to track down and use. Look for models made by Pentax, Minolta, Minox and Rollei for starters.
The film itself is quite good. Fine grain, sharp, good contrast, nice grays, good latitude. If it wasn’t so small and available in a larger format, we would all probably be going crazy over it (and who knows, maybe it is available in a larger format under a different name).
And if you are reading this, you already know a lab that can develop, optically print or digitally scan your 110 film. So no need to worry about that.
And that is our brief review/pitch for why you should try the Lomography Orca 100 film. If you have any feedback you’d like to add, feel free to add it in the comments below.
Meanwhile, here is a link where you can jump straight to the Orca film on our website.
