Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! Do you feel like there are days when everything you see looks yellowish? I don’t, but I have heard of some people who do. Apparently, some people who suffer from internal disease will see things with a slight yellowish tint, as if wearing a pair of yellow lenses. It can be fascinating but it isn’t a joke or something to look forward to. The good thing is you don’t need to have this condition in order to see the world differently, I will show you something that will help give your photos a touch of yellow. It’s interesting so please read the whole article and click on the photos see what I mean.

Introduction:

The Reflx Lab 100 is a film that’s respooled by a company in China, which I try my best not to support if I can help it but I have already spent my money so here it goes. The good thing is at least they tell us what film they use, in this case it’s the Kodak Vision3 50D. Most companies that respool film won’t even tell you which stock their products came from so this is something good for the community.

It comes inside a metal canister which you can use to store weed or anything else, I don’t think that it’s necessary because it just adds to the cost of this product. The price is not so bad, in fact, it costs much cheaper compared to its rival.

For decades, people have been respooling cinema film and shooting it just like regular photographic film. It’s cheaper because they’re only sold in bulk and they have very interesting qualities that’s tailored to the special needs of shooting motion pictures. The biggest difference in use is you will not be able to process these films with a regular laboratory machine, that’s because it has a black layer to protect the emulsion from reflections coming from the pressure plate. Motion picture cameras have shiny pressure plates since it shoots at several frames per second and film will rub them to a shiny finish, sometimes even rubbing it down to bare metal. This black layer is called rem-jet, it can be removed before you process the film. This process is laborious and not profitable for film laboratories and if you did not strip the layer completely it will ruin the chemistry and cause the machine to jam, which requires an expensive overhaul. This is why it is mostly confined to individuals who are really into this aspect of photography. There is definitely a need for this and so a market has formed which is being dominated by one brand for some time, but that isn’t going to be the case for long.

The company also produces several other stocks, you can try them out if you want to. I personally do not buy these “specialty” films, I only do this for my readers. If you’re curious about the results that you’ll get from the Reflx Lab 800 shown here, read my article about it. It’s basically similar to the Cinestill 800T, but sold for a lower price.

The quality of the canister does not inspire confidence, not only is it looking cheap it also feels cheap as well. Thankfully, my roll turned out fine.

The substrate has a unique dull purplish color, I can’t recall seeing anything like this before.

For those who shoot with cheap cameras where you can’t adjust the sensitivity manually you have this for a solution, just like what other smaller companies do.

I never knew what to expect from it because I wasn’t aware that it’s just respond cine film. This only made sense when I saw the photos and read the company’s website. I noticed that halation is prevalent in every photo where I have overblown highlights and sources of light.

It can look trippy when using it in broad daylight. I personally don’t like this look what it adds something unique to your photos. For some reason, I noticed a very slight yellow-greenish tint to my photos, this is something that you will notice throughout this article.

This turned out to be overexposed by as much as 2-stops, I would assume that it would look richer if the shutter speed is faster. At least now we know how it looks like when highly overexposed.

This is a very difficult shot in terms of exposure but it’s good for analyzing how it handles shadows. I am not sure what to say but I feel like I’m losing too much details in the shadows.

This is more manageable, I was able to retain details in the shadows better in this photo. I love how rich the orange looks like but not so much as to make it look cartoonish.

I am finally realizing that this film tends to render with a little bit of desaturation, and I like it this way. It’s something fresh, a little break from your usual daylight film.

The grain looks reasonably smooth, it’s almost like it was shot with a digital camera. You can still see hints of the grain if you look really close but you’re not able to see the structure as clearly as you would with a film that has a larger grain structure.

Lowlight photography isn’t something that I would use this film for, I’m just curious as to how it looks if I shot it like this.

Artificial lighting is something challenging for daylight-balanced film, it doesn’t look too bad at all here. If you look at the whites you won’t see any strong hints of color-shifting.

The slight greenish tint is evident in this photo specially if you look at the framed drawing of a cat above. I am not sure if that came from fluorescent lamps but I doubt it because it appears to affect the entirety of the photo.

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I really like how it renders vibrant colors, it has a slight pastel-like quality. I guess this is the best use case for this film, it’s kind of refreshing.

(Click to enlarge)

The dull tones of concrete doesn’t look as good and the slight yellow-greenish tint makes it look worse in my opinion. I’m just commenting based on my taste, some people may like it though.

(Click to enlarge)

Notice how skin looks more yellowish, even more so compared to some Kodak films. I don’t think this will be a good choice for portraiture because I prefer the skin to look a little bit more pinkish. The results kind of remind me of the look that I get from some of Lomography’s hipster films, but not as dramatic. This is a special film that you shoot for giggles, but not too much.

This turned out to be more interesting than I thought, I personally do not mind shooting with it again but I would definitely pick up more normal-looking film over it. It may be something that will work for you, it is not a bad film at all especially if you underexpose it a little bit. I don’t know if I can recommend this, it’s up to you and your creative vision. I do not want to support this company for personal reasons but do not let my opinion of it prevent you from enjoying shooting with this film. It may be a good fix for some who are into these hipster films and it will not cost you a lot of money. I guess that is the best reason for using it over some of its rivals. As a full disclosure, I am not sponsored by this company so I can say whatever I want, and I will never kowtow to anyone because I have you guys to answer to since you support my work and help spread the word about this site.

That’s all for today, please share my work with your friends. That will help keep film alive, it will also help this website stay alive for more years to come. If you love my work, please leave me a little tip. I am only earning a few cents a day from unique views, every help from my readers is welcome because you are all helping me offset the cost of purchasing, processing and scanning film. This site would not have lasted a long time without your help, we are approaching almost a decade’s worth of quality original content. It’s all thanks to you. See you guys again in the next article, Ric.

Help Support this Blog:

Maintaining this site requires resources and a lot of time. If you think that it has helped you or you want to show your support by helping with the site’s upkeep, you can make a small donation to my paypal.com at richardHaw888@gmail.com. Money is never my main motivation for this blog and I believe that I have enough to run this but you can help me make this site (and the companion facebook page) grow.

Helping support this site will ensure that it will be kept going as long as I have the time and energy for this. I’d appreciate it if you just leave out your name or details like your country’s name or other info so that the donations will totally be anonymous. This is a labor of love and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. Ric.