NoColorStudio No.99 Satellite – The good stuff just keeps coming!

NoColorStudio No.99 Satellite - The good stuff just keeps coming!

We all know that I covered the beautiful NCS No.5 a while back. While it is some beautiful stuff, I recently put through another order, and got my hands on every film that NoColorStudio has to offer (spoiler alert?)

The No.99 is the complete opposite of the No.5. It has a very coarse grain, a fairly high ISO, and somewhat low resolution, as we’d expect for high speed films. The only thing they have in common is the high contrast, but the 99 is a bit more mature in that regard. You see what I mean soon.

If you’re looking for the closest equivalent, I’d say Delta 3200 (which, if you don’t know, is really ISO 1000 film designed to be pushed to infinity and beyond). But even then, it doesn’t really have that same character, the grain is much coarser and it has more character, as you’ll see soon.

The images you’ll see have been shot with a Nikon FE, Helios 81N 50mm f/2 (I’m using Euro film, might as well use an Euro lens!) and a motor drive. While it is NOT recommended to shoot film that uses recycled canisters, playing with fire is one of my passions, and since I do my own development, how bad can it be?
As I still know how to count to 29, I figured it was no issue. Everything went as smooth as butter, as usual.

Development times.
This is really pertinent for lab techs and people who develop themselves. If it doesn’t apply to you, well you’re already here, so you might as well.
I’ve used Kodak XTOL for 11′, hand agitation, water stop, and I’ve succeeded in getting good scans. I haven’t really tried pushing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.
NCS specifies that it is more resistant to temperature changes that the average film. So now I’ve got to try to reticulate this film. It might work, it might not. You can also find their tech sheet, which lists times for the most common developers.

Just like last time, there are no border writings, which can make the film’s archival a bit confusing. The base is about what you’d expect from the likes of TMax films.
It can be a bit tricky to archive the strips in PrintFiles, but if you look hard enough you can tell how it goes.

I think you’ve read long enough. Let’s see some photos!

To be honest, I had high expectations for this film. While it may not be my stock of predilection for most things I do, it was still a blast to shoot, especially at night, where I’ve had that luxury to stop down a few times. It is a highly experimental film, just like the No.5, so it’s even more gratifying when you pull the roll from the soup to see the results you’ve pictured from the moment you pressed the shutter.

As I’ll say time and time again, if you expect perfect results every time, get a digital camera. You won’t get every single shot with this, but I can guarantee that it’s gonna be a fun ride from start to finish.

Once again, special thanks to Arnas Špaka, owner of NoColorStudio, for creating this stock.


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Julien Ducharme

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