Dear Film Community,
We would like to update you fully on the latest situation of our WOLFEN photographic film range and the release of NC500 in motion picture formats.
Confectioning - Current Vendors and a Brand New Machine!
We have been working with our Shanghai facility over the last months to complete the confectioning of the 36 EXP, DX coded steel canisters. There has been much back and forth due to shipping, logistics, and the country’s dynamic zero-COVID policy. However, after our latest meeting, we are expecting a new delivery date of November.
Due to these unacceptable continuous delays, we are also exploring the possibility of confectioning with two local vendors, to keep the whole manufacturing chain inside of Europe.
Since our last update, our team has been actively working on the design of a brand new cartridging machine to be installed at our plant in Wolfen, Germany. After many meetings and research & development work, our engineers have now informed us that this machine can be built and ready for use within a few months! This would eliminate the need to use outside companies for cartridging. Of course, we want to maintain and expand our friendly cooperation with partner companies in the development of new products. We look forward to building and installing this machine at our facility, which will allow us to control the entire finishing process in-house, ensuring a solid future for the continued release of photographic film.
Sample Rolls - New Shots by International Photographers
As you may have seen on social media, we have sent sample rolls of our NC500 to a selection of photographers and companies. Every week, we will be sharing these photos, as well as our own, across our social channels.
Below we have featured two shots by NYC photographer, Ribsy, from his official ‘first look’.
Review Video: https://youtu.be/41O6oIiRwiw
NC500 Cine - Formats, Camera & Processing Tests
NC500 is the first negative motion picture film designed and manufactured from scratch specifically for C41 processing - to be clear there is NO remjet layer! Ahead of the release in 16mm and 35mm, we have received requests from filmmakers for examples of results using ECN processing, the standard for negative motion picture film – ECN processing of this stock will give a flatter colour scheme and hopefully bring another interesting tool to the photographic palette. Our team has sent sample reels to a major laboratory and we will publish the results on our channels as soon as we receive them back.
Aside from this – we are also now running our own C41 motion picture tests on our new C41 motion picture processors - which are now installed at Black Hangar Studios in the UK and also installed at our Wolfen site - ready for the first feature film to be shot on this brand new stock. There are two feature films positioning to use the new cine stock in November and December of this year.
Orders for 16mm and 35mm will launch on www.orwo.shop very soon. This stock is currently being cut and perforated at our Wolfen facility and our team is working through the final details to ensure that we can deliver this immediately to you once released online. 8mm and 65mm will launch at a later date.
New Colour Tungsten Film - Entering Production Next Month
We are extremely excited to announce that next week (26th September), we are entering the production of our brand new tungsten colour cine film, at our facility in Germany. This stock will be made available for photo as well as motion picture. We can’t wait to share more details with you! Early tests look fantastic!
Thank you for your Support
We would like to thank everyone who has pre-ordered our colour and black & white photo films. NC500 is now sold out in 36 EXP!
We are extremely grateful for everyone’s patience and support during this new process and hope that this update will be helpful to better understand our current situation. Rest assured we are ironing out these kinks permanently. Once we start, we will not stop!
Best wishes,
The ORWO Team