Received from AW in the monthly subscription box and took it to London and a nature reserve over a weekend

Really happy with the results, the ISO 100 meant it needed to be lit up hard but at the same time it pull through some gorgeous detail

Would buy again

A great experience for my first adventure in black and white photography: loved the classic look and the grain is beautiful without being distracting. Highly recommend!

I have previously shot Orwo's Wolfen NC500 and found it a mixed bag but there were a few good keeps so when I saw this film I was a bit hesitant to give it a go - but as you can clearly tell in the end I did.

Before I go any further I will declare I did develop it myself and I am still relatively green at this (not that anything went awry as far as I'm aware) but more on that later. Also for full transparency my sample images are scans of lab done prints done on a home printer scanner, which do look slightly better - possibly just for being bigger.

For me the exposure was just never quite right, often looking underexposed and hence lacking contrast and definition - an issue I also had with NC500 (which was lab developed). The heavy grain I am definitely a fan of and the general 'feel' is great but overall I am underwhelmed. It also doesn't respond particularly well to even fairly mild red filters - not that I brought this film with the impression it was red leaning but I have had good results with an R25 and Ilford Delta, which isn't advertised as red leaning either.

On loading the film I found the film itself to be very curly, which proved to be an issue when loading it onto the reel for developing as it took seven or eight increasingly frustrating attempts to load - it not wanting to do anything bar unfurl from the reel into its own spiral. I developed it in Ilfosol 3, although the packaging recommended a particular developer (unfortunately I can't remember what) that I didn't have and I wasn't going to buy a developer for just one film. If this had a negative influence on the photos I don't know but as it is not sold as saying only ever use this developer I'm doubtful.

Other's sample shots are much (better and) more like I was expecting from this film so I am fully ready to accept the issues I have are mine and not the films but having had similar disappointment with NC500 I doubt whether I'll shoot this or other Orwo films again. It could just be that it needs more careful exposure than I gave it (I shot it on a Canon AE1 Program) and more practiced or expert developing but when I can get better and more consistent results on other films in the same price range, like Adox CHS 100, I'm not going to rush to try again.

Personally, I think it's perfect for landscape and architecture photography. It nicely highlights the shadows and contrast. So soft yet gives this old and timely look. My type of grey-ish photography.

Analogue Wonderland did not lie - it made my family vacation photos looks so retro, chic and cool! It's appropriately grainy, can play around with shadows a bit and looks amazing while shooting in broad daylight. Will buy again!