Ukrainian Film Factory? Svema lives!

Fotohuis, thanks for the photos! You know, many people here in FSU become very nostalgic about how great was life back then in the USSR. Your photos show how it really was: definitely not a paradise.
 
This is "my" Ukraine:

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Space on the beach. Black Sea area.

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Breakfast in the Dacha (holiday house).

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Back in time on the countryside.

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Just a car ...... here you see the contradiction in a country.

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The vegetable dept. of a market, everything you can buy.

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Heros of Afghanistan, an almost forgotten war. With all respect of NATO forces over there it is maybe a mission impossible.

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An old Sovjet train.

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Lady liberty (Kiev).

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The old center of the Christian belief (Kiev). Happy Easter everybody and for a few weeks later for the Orthodox Church too.

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Kiev, a very modern city.

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Odessa opera building. A city full of culture and history.


My view of the country Ukraine. Let's hope for keeping our liberty and freedom in Europe so that we can visit all countries without limitation and enjoy the hospitality of people over the world.

Sorry for hijacking this thread but sometimes it is necessary to give a more neutral opinion of a country.

Just a small warning: Do not expect people can speak English, German of French like in Holland where you can expect an answer back in one of those languages. Going over the Polish border most people can communicate in Ukraine or Russian language only. It is some habit of the former USSR and changing slowly to English.
 
I can only say: Enjoy your visit to Kiev.

A regular tip for a good beer:

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My favorite, the left one: L'vivske 1715 from L'viv.
And yes, of course I have also a USSR/FSU camera. 😀

Back on topic: The Svema film factory is not existing anymore so under this brand you can put in every type of film. In the last years before they went belly up the Svema cartridges were filled with Foma film from the Czech Republic.
 
I buy my beer in Ukraine. My traveling schedule is within 3 days from Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kiev, Rivne, Liviv, Krakau, Dresden, Leipzig, Kassel, Oberhausen, Nijmegen, Ravenstein in the Netherlands. In my portable fridge the beer is still perfect during this trip.
 
Hi James,

Yes, it's SVEMA film direct from the factory - the subject of this thread. I know because I'm the guy rolling it in the FPP Darkroom. Large reels are broken down for use here in the US.
 
Nice project and I'm glad to see the large variety of film. I'd be curious to try the Svema and Double-x, but it is hard for me personally to justify paying more than for Ilford HP5.

Now the beer might be a different story.
 
I've wanted to try some of the Svema films, they were always just too expired or in too bad shape to buy if they were affordable. And if they are in good condition, they are usually expensive. eBay is full of overpriced stuff like this.

So you are saying we can get these shipped to places like the USA from the Svema factory direct? I cou;dn't find any kind of pricing or info that indicated this. Anyone have any idea what the costs are for 100' rolls of the stuff in assorted flavours?
 
The Svema factory closed already many years ago. That Astrum/Svema company has only commercial structures and is putting all type of expired films in a fancy cassette.

Yes, it's SVEMA film direct from the factory
Click to expand...

That "factory" is almost in war zone now. Not so far where rests of dead bodies are picked up from flight MH-17.

Some people really want to believe every thing.
 
SVEMA factory is not working for some time now. Some people that were there recently say, that all the equipment for producing film was sold. As i have heard, Astrum (at least their reps in Moscow) are repacking some kind of old agfa aerophoto film. It is expired, cheap and the quality is somewhat lacking. They also sell some kind of clear base eastman kodak color aerophoto film.
 
I like the Astrum film very much. Plus it has the long leader and is Barnack-ready, and comes in reusable plastic cassettes. I pre-soak it for several minutes, it seems to have a water-soluble anti-halation layer that makes the pre-soak water as black as squid ink, but the 200 has very fine grain and lovely midtones. I just ordered 10 more rolls of 200, and 10 of 100, from this eBay seller:

http://stores.ebay.com/vintageandphoto/Film-/_i.html?_fsub=11065749016

And some photos taken with it

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=52538386@N08&sort=date-taken-desc&text=Astrum&view_all=1
 
Ukraine has a long history of work in the photographic field, maybe some young people could restart it, a new film would be awesome.
I bought my first and second batch of film cameras from AlexUkr on ebay who was as good as his word.
As far as I, a Texan, am concerned, I send my best wishes to the country of Ukraine, and to a prosperous future!
 
Just be careful with rewinding!

Just be careful with rewinding!

Greyscale said:
And a set of photos recently taken with Svema NK2-SN (exp. 1970)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/greyscale3/albums/72157674833250770
Click to expand...

I was hoping to post a batch of pictures taken with this film too, but the entire film detached from the cassette and is now ruined. It was held in the cassette only by a small piece of sticky tape and came loose when I tried to get one last shot off the roll.

Will try again soon, but if you are using this film, for safety just stop at 36 exposures and don't try to go further than that! 😀
 
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