Exciting news for those of you that have enjoyed shooting Dragon Film No1 and enjoy medium format. Dragon Film Co are soon to release the film in 120 format and they sent me three rolls to dabble with!
Hasselblad 501c - 100 iso - 510 PYRO
Watch the YouTube Video I made on this film
What is it?
Dragon Film Co are a family run business that source interesting films and re-spool them for us film nuts to enjoy. Their Dragon No1 film was originally designed in the Soviet era by Svema in Ukraine as a motion picture cinema negative film, known for its fine grain, sharpness, and punchy contrast. When Svema closed around 2006, the legacy was kept alive by Astrum LLC in Shostka, Ukraine—who still slit, perforate, and package freshly sourced master rolls to match those classic Soviet specs today.
I've shot many rolls of Dragon No1 (Svema NK2-SH) and I love how punchy the film is, especially on bright days for street photography.
YouTube Video
If you are here after watching the SFLaB video featuring the 120 version of this film then you will know my intensions, to see how this film looked pulled to 25 ISO instead of the recommended 100 ISO.
I chose to shoot the film on a bright sunny day at a derelict Manor House on the Isle of Wight. Appuldurcombe House. I wanted to see how much shadow detail I could get from the film whilst keeping the highlights. So, I pulled the film. Basically I overexposed the film by +2 stops (metered at 25ISO). This would ensure detail in my shadow areas but my highlights would naturally be blown. To control this I then took time off my film development. A standard way of Pulling Film. And being such a bright day I was stretching the film to its limits I felt.
Using a Yashica Mat 124 G for the photo above I spot metered on the door, de-creased the metered exposure by -2 stops and took the photo. The scene had a brightness range of 8 stops! Notice how bloomy the window highlights are. I wasn't sure if a more modern lens would have controlled the highlights better to be honest. Or, maybe I could have knocked more time off my development.
My normal development time for this film with 510 Pyro is 9 minutes hand inversions. 1:100 at 20 degrees.
My usual percentage of time for pulling development is 15% per stop. So I should have developed for just over 6 minutes. But I went for 7 instead.
The above scene handles the pull much better. Well, it would! There is no bright window. And this is one of the negatives that I printed in the darkroom which came out really nice with split grade.
This photograph shows miles of detail and sharpness with a subtle hint of contrast.
This photograph below was taken when the sun was out. I am still pulling the film here. I then waited for the sun to go behind cloud for another shot of the same scene for a comparison.
As you can see without the super bright sun striking the brickwork the scene is balanced beautifully.
And below are two more of the photographs that were in the video. Considering the overexposure and brightness range of these scenes I think the film handled very well in the 510 Pyro.
Shooting normally
I shot another roll just as I normally would. 100 ISO (box speed) on the same day and as expected I was in classic Dragon No1 film territory. Punchy with deep blacks.
Hasselblad 501c
I had one film left. I decided, this time, to load it in my Hasselblad 501c and head to town for similar photography. Another bright day was in store! Again, I shot this film at 100 ISO.
Mostly the camera settings were f/11 t 1/125th but in some brighter scenes with white walls I stopped down to f/16. Even then, I felt I needed to be at 1/250th but I went with what my meter told me.
The following photographs I chose shade. You can see how well controlled the exposure and development is without the bright sun.
Final Conclusion
As I said earlier, I love this film for street photography. It gives a beautiful contrast (if you expose and develop for it). Inky blacks and deep shadow with bright highlights. Pulling the film did give me flatter negatives to work with in the darkroom where I could then choose to increase the contrast, but I found on bright days the overexposure is going to give you super bright highlights that development is hard to refine. Of course, there is a sweet spot somewhere and I will need a few more rolls to practice with to find it!
But in all honesty if I wanted low contrast and bags of shadow detail I'd choose a different film. I like the contrast this film gives at box speed so why mess around.
If you've never tried this film before then give it a go. If you google "NK2-SH Film" you may find other companies re-spooling so do compare prices. But I love how Dragon have jumped into the 120 format. I am not sure if anyone else is offering this.
This final photograph I took on the Yashica Mat was overexposed! I was shooting at 100 ISO and without metering used f/11 and 1/125th. I underestimated the scenes brightness! Still. It's all there with detail and super fine grain.
Thanks for reading and thanks for watching the video if you did do.