Ilford Dia 200 - Singing the Blues

Once I laid eyes on that offer on eBay I was instantly stunned. There was a slide film of Ilford. The British film producer came out with their own branded color transparencies? I made sure to win the bunch and tried the Ilford Dia 200 myself. One of the reasons I liked it is because it used the German name for slidefilm: Dia.

I mean, most of us are pretty much digging in the dirt of the past when it comes to photographic film. We only have an idea how the heydays of analogue photography were like, with full shelves, with hundreds of different kinds of emulsions. Now we are the keepers of an idea, and we are trying to keep it alive. And we are happy with what we have, and once in a while we will find a rare gem that makes our day.

To say it upfront, the sizzling excitement of a discovery beyond belief was not met with likewise results. The results are rather abstract, the pictures are grainy, and the contrast is low, and everything is blueish. And I have to say there is something with blue, most expired slide films have this tendency to go blue. But my explanation is, that just everything else, all the other colours vaporize, and the blue stays.

I might have been a bit disappointed about the results this time. But anyway, I would always do it again. I would always hunt films, that I have never heard of. And once in a while I will be treated with the little magic of incredible photographic results.

written by wil6ka on 2013-04-30 #gear #test #blue #expired #ilford #review #grainy #x-pro