Earlier this year I went out and shot a day on film during a beautiful cold front in Florida. I’ve already shared the Street Candy MTN100 and ATM400 that I shot that day, but now I want to share the color film and a fat roll. This is a long one. That is why I split it into two parts, so please bear with me. It is worth it.
Two Horrible Fat Rolls
Last October I offered to do a review of Lomography’s Color ’92 film for their campaign to revive medium format. I was eager to try the new stock. However, I was told that it was new and limited, but I could review Metropolis. Honestly, I was disappointed because I had already tried Lomochrome Metropolis and did not like my results. However, I figured this would be the perfect chance to give the film another try.
After agreeing to test a roll of Metropolis, I just purchased my own roll of the Color ’92 film myself. I was never given a deadline or parameters for the review. I simply just said I would be willing to make a review of my results. However, 10 days later I started to get emails asking if I was finished yet. The pressure and a series of unfortunate events really got to me. Bad luck plagued me from the get-go with these two rolls of film.
Lomochrome Metropolis
I was told to wait for a sunny day to shoot this film, for the reasons I mentioned below. Unfortunately the weather was over cast and rainy for a long time before I could finally get out and shoot the roll. Even with the pressure to finish my review, I wanted to wait for the right conditions so I could give the film a fair chance.
Metropolis, shot at 400, has an almost nuclear war look to it. When under-exposed, like above, it has an olive green to it. It’s also a colder film stock. However, when shot in bright light, it has a really unique look that I actually really like.
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I finally shot this roll on a bright sunny day in Tradition, and was so relieved to get it done. As we walked back to our car, I opened my Fuji GF670 only to find that the roll was a “fat roll”!
I was sure that the roll would be unusable, but I had quickly closed the back of the camera and then once in the car, I wrapped it up and placed it in my camera bag. I’ll be honest, I started to panic a bit. The person at Lomography was already growing impatient with me and now on top of it I had to tell her that the roll is probably wasted. Then I remembered that I had the roll of Color ’92. I thought maybe this one will come out great and I can at least give her something.
Lomochrome Color ’92
Now for the Color ’92. The film that started this whole experience. I thought this film would be really nice at the beach so I brought it along with me when I shot A Day on Film. It is supposed to have that nostalgic 90’s snapshot feel of my childhood, and I spent a lot of my childhood at the beach.
It was a very windy day, so we couldn’t stay at the beach long. I did not want sand ending up in my camera. We stayed long enough for Alaina to see the ocean for the first time, and for me to shoot some photos. After a great time, we walked back to our car, This time I opened up my Mamiya 7 only to find that the Color ’92 was also a “fat roll”! What are the odds of that?!!! I almost cried. I couldn’t believe this happened again.
What is a “fat roll”?
I was so frustrated and upset at this point in this journey, and it was quite a journey. How could two different films, shot on two different days, in two different cameras both come out as a “fat roll”? I took to Instagram to ask this very question, and I was surprised to get a ton of answers all saying that this had happened to them a lot with Lomography film in particular. There were several theories, one of which is that the spool is too small. Either way, it was a bit of a relief to know it wasn’t just me and that I had something I could tell Lomography.
I also received a lot of responses from people asking me what is a “fat roll”? A fat roll is when you shoot through a roll of medium format film only to open the camera and find that it did not roll up on the spool tight enough to keep the light out. It rolls up loose and “fat” letting light leak in through the top and bottom.
The Results
I was convinced that my films were ruined and I almost didn’t develop them. I wrote to Lomgoraphy, telling them everything that had happened, letting them know I probably wouldn’t have any usable results for a review. She said she would close down our collaboration, and I was really saddened by the whole experience.
I was sure that the bright sun had to have leaked in and just ruined them. I went to go throw them away, but stopped myself. After developing them I almost cried as I pulled them out of the tank and found that they had photos!
I still didn’t think that the photos would be any good because the negatives were a strange color and looked almost like expired film that had color shifts. Then I scanned the negatives and was so excited at what I saw! I really like how these came out!
Despite this rolls coming out “fat”, I still was happy to find usable results. My favorite photo of the Color ’92 roll is the one below of the person sitting alone in the middle of the beach. You can see the moon in the sky, and I like how the blue sky is looming so large over this one person sitting lonely on the beach. It will fit in to a project of mine.
Final Thoughts
While I did have some really bad luck clouding my experience with these two rolls of film, I am still glad I shot them. It was such a thrill to find the useable photos, and I’m happy with them. Turned out the light had only leaked in around the edges, and wasn’t enough to really impact the frames.
The Color ’92 has a unique and pastel look to it that does mimic the colors of early 90’s snapshots. The Metropolis 400 also has a unique look to it that gives a cooler feel to your photos. It tilts towards the greens and gives contrast that makes even an ordinary tree look dramatic. The two films would definitely be for specific use cases. Hopefully now that you have an idea what they look like, you will know if or when you can use this film.
I hope that this long story has been entertaining or of some help to you. I wanted to share the whole story to hopefully encourage you to never give up. Thanks for making it to the end and reading about my crazy journey. If you’ve found this article helpful, please consider supporting my work by following any of the links below. Purchasing a zine or even just subscribing to get my articles in your email helps me keep this going. Either way, thank you so much for reading.
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
*Note Part 2 of this article will have a corresponding video with even more photos. Be sure to subscribe to my Youtube Channel for that.
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Last year, during the Frugal Film Project, my Agfa Clacks were both plagued with ‘fat’ rolls. This was with Fomapan Retro, though I did also use a roll of Lomochrome Redscale film which also came out fat. I suspected that the tension of the steel tabs might have been failing and ended up gluing a small sliver of sponge in the take-up spool ‘bay’. This worked a treat, and I’ve not had a fat roll since. It may not be everyone’s solution but for vintage cameras (like Jim’s Baldex), it might work.
I have been having a few problems with my Balda Baldax that I suspect could be fat Roll related. I curled up the spring steel tensioner a bit more as it looked a bit too far from the spool. and hopefully things will improve. It’s blummen annoying but we live in hope. 🙂