Adox Color Implosion

for the past 3-4 years, i haven't been picking up new rolls of film as much as i used to back in my heyday of film photography. the most i've purchased in said number of years were a roll of the LomoChrome Purple XR and a roll of CineStill 800 - of which i've yet to expose. a very spontaneous purchase of the Adox Color Implosion film was the result of a few random shots discovered on Flickr, which led me to ebay and ultimately punching the purchase button for not one, but three rolls! i was mostly attracted to the warm yellow hue that reeks of film nostalgia, but little did i expect that this was one tough film to crack.

most users recommend over-exposing the film to obtain the desired warm colour cast characteristic of the Adox Color Implosion film. out of the two rolls i shot, only one frame came out with the yellow colour cast - the rest features a gloomy and dull blue tint that were incredibly underexposed for some reason. i was mostly baffled and disappointed after viewing the scans, initially. had i not metered the shots properly? did i not adjust the ISO setting appropriately? weren't the scenes in London and Paris generally bright and contrasty (to a fault)? or was my Canon AE-1 finally giving up the ghost? considering the last time i shot with it and came away with a mixed bag of results, i was inclined to believe that the AE-1 was running on fumes. it'll probably take a fresh roll of film to confirm the camera's shutter accuracy, but for now i'd like to believe that the AE-1 is still functioning, albeit not being used as frequently as i would like. even then, i still love my cameras to bits, despite how they're not always the easiest (and cheapest!) to use lately.

after weeks of denial, i've come to terms with the results of my usage of the Adox Color Implosion films - i need to experiment with my final roll. while the present resulting images lack the yellow tint i sought after, one could argue that the blue tint served some of the photographs well enough - particularly the shots of Hyde Park and London in general. it does convey a sombre and gloomy mood (like how most Londoners like to describe themselves as). the photographs from Paris fared a little bit better, although the subject matters are nothing to shout about as i wasn't in the best of mind frames to be taking photographs at that time (a story for another day, perhaps). what i could salvage, i'm rather happy with. it's a shame, because film photography isn't getting any cheaper, and my batting average has significantly dropped over the years. perhaps it's time to rekindle my affair with film photography, maybe challenge myself and hopefully resharpen my skills along the way. perhaps.

Canon AE-1

Adox Colot Implosion