First Impressions: Kiki Pan 320

Back in March I was lucky to be given 3 rolls of Kiki Pan 320, a 35mm special limited edition black and white film by Camera Film Photo. In fact something like 74 film photographers around the world were generously offered this film by Dan K over on Bluesky. Massive thanks to Dan, who has supported the film photography community in so many ways over the years and I’m extremely grateful.

The film arrived and on first impression the packaging has to be some of the cutest I’ve ever seen. The attention to detail is wonderful – and I’m not even a cat person. But enough of all that… what is it actually like? 

I popped a roll into a Samsung Vega 140s point and shoot camera from the 90s. With family visiting from America we did an afternoon wander through Spitalfields and on to Brick Lane, London. It felt like the right film and camera combo to choose. The last few frames where then finished off on a local walk through the woods and churchyard.

I home developed the roll in Bellini Euro HC (a Kodak HC 110 clone) using dilution B, which is 1+31 for about 8.5mins. This time was decided using the Massive Dev Chart. On opening the Kiki Pan box. I actually discovered their suggested dev time for HC 110 was 10 mins. Opps. However, when I took the reel out and saw the emulsion I was surprised at just how dark the base was. Did I over develop? Did I mess up the fixing? I didn’t think so, and on hearing other peoples impressions it seems this is a natural trait of the film.

Here is a comparison with Kodak TMax and Ilford HP5. If you look closely at the rebate edges you can really see how much darker the film base is.

But I had images that seemed to contain a range of tones even though it all seemed a bit dense. Over to scanning – I used a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i using Silverfast with the ‘other, other standard, option in NegaFix.

Here are some of the results:

First Impressions

GRAIN!! I’ve not encountered grain like that since my days of using Rodinal 1+25 and Kodak Tri-X 400. Pass me the salt and pepper… Not quite golf ball size, thankfully, but now that I know this I’ll take a different approach on developing the next roll. Maybe a higher dilution and a little less agitation. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what method worked well for developing. 

That said – I do actually love grain in my pictures and these have worked well for the grittier street scenes.     

I was pleased with the range of tones and contrast. I didn’t have to do any major editing on the scans. Take the Mercedes car picture, that is straight out of the scanner. I’ve applied a little sharpening and that’s it. Sometimes that’s what you want out of a film, other times maybe you want more flexibility to dodge and burn. I feel like I’ve still got plenty to play with here but it’s probably not going to be as flexible as say Ilford HP5+. 

You’ll notice that the first few frames suffered with a deep scratch. Was that a bit of grit in my camera? Did it happen when I was loading onto the developing reel? Or is it a manufacturing fault? I’m not sure, it happens from time to time, that’s the joy of film.  

Will I use it again?

Well, I’ve got two more rolls to play with so definitely yes!! Will I purchase it in the future? Based on this first roll, yes I believe I would. But I would use it for subjects where I want that added ‘grit’, to create some moody ‘noir’ rather than my holiday snap shots.

What do you think of the results? Did you use Kiki Pan 320 yet? Let me know your experiences. It’s all good learning for new to me film emulsions.

Again – HUGE thanks to Dan K over on Bluesky, and to the good people of Camera Film Photo who distribute film supplies Worldwide. Check out their website – lots on offer. I’ve used their Colour Motion Films before with excellent results.

Final note: YES that is a cat being walked through Spitalfields Market on a busy Saturday afternoon….