Positive News: Ne55 Film kickstarter project!!

This is great. I was occasionally checking out their blog and wondering if something would come of it. It will be pricy, but it is great to get a print as well as a negative. Shame I sold my polaroid holder.
 
Even at $6/sheet it is probably more than I'll ever want to spend, but then, no one said LF was cheap.

I hope this works out. I love the idea that you get an initial print and a negative for later enlargement (or just more contact prints).
 
On the original film the film and negative speeds didn't match, to get a good neg you sacrificed the print or vs.

Pretty nice negative though ;-)

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Frank Petronio said:
On the original film the film and negative speeds didn't match, to get a good neg you sacrificed the print or vs.

Pretty nice negative though ;-)
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I think the idea of the new film is that they are matched, which is quite nice.
At $6 it is not competitive with home processed b+w, but given that most places in NY charge $3.50 for processing, getting an instant print plus neg is not bad at this price.
 
defconfunk said:
Even at $6/sheet it is probably more than I'll ever want to spend, but then, no one said LF was cheap.
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When it was first announced at that target price on the LFP.info board, I did some math to see if $6 was fair.

The latest news (http://new55project.blogspot.com) is that they may be able to use Tri-X 320 as their film. From Freestyle, that's $94 for a box of 50, or $1.88/sheet.

To get 4x5 B&W processed near me, it's Gamma San Francisco, http://www.gammasf.com
$5.50/sheet to process in "standard developers" and $6.50 for an 8.5x11 RC contact sheet, which will fit 4 negatives. I know there are cheaper places out there, but that's what's available near me if I wanted to avoid developing my own film.

Not counting the cost to ship/drive your film to be processed, assuming you contact sheet 4 up on that 8.5x11, that's $9/sheet to get a negative and contact print, and you have to hope that all 4 sheets on that contact print are more or less the same exposure. New55 still requires clearing of the negatives, so I'll need some chemicals and to wash/dry my negatives, but that's still a lot less work than developing and fixing. With New55, your negative and contact sheet are equally exposed, correct or otherwise, which is a huge improvement over T55, where you generally exposed for a good negative and had a washed out print.

Currently, I develop 4x5 Delta 100 at home in Rodinal, which is a lot less than $9/sheet, but I really liked the convenience of Type 55, enough to pay a bit more. If the cost comes down to $10/sheet, I'll likely still buy it. If it ever gets close to the target of $6/sheet, and it's a good product that gets me evenly developed negatives, I'll probably use it exclusively for 4x5 work, which is why I contributed to the kickstarter campaign.
 
Remember that when it was sold fresh, T-55 was about $4 per sheet, so $6 for a small-run film seems realistic. Of course, if photographers start using it in volume, the price will go down...

If you are interested in having any chance at all to shoot this material, you should jump in and support the kickstarter. http://new55project.blogspot.com
 
They made it! Over 100% funded with a few days still to go. I was only able to pledge a small amount, but I'm very happy that this looks like it is going to happen.
 
This is terrific. 51 hours to go and they are fully funded. It looks as if my film order will actually arrive this time.
 
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