More fun with Soviet-era Свема (Svema) Film

When I purchased some Soviet-era Свема (Svema) film, I was unsure about the quality of film I would receive.  I previously shot some rolls of 120 film, and wasn’t totally impressed with the results.  But in that purchase of 120 rollfilm, I also purchased some test rolls of 35mm Svema 64 film.

The boxes of Svema 35mm film seemed smaller than the boxes that would normally hold 35mm cartridge film.  Oh well, I thought.  There must be some different packaging requirements in the Soviet Union.  I opened one of the packages.  And at that moment, I understood why the boxes were smaller.

Svema 35mm film is shipped WITHOUT a cartridge to hold it; the photographer must load this film into a bulk cartridge.  Yep, kids, the only thing keeping this film from instantly exposing in my very fingers at this instant was a black paper wrapper.  Yikes.

I thought quickly.  Without unwrapping the black paper, I put the Svema back in the box.  Then I searched for a previously used 35mm film cartridge – one in which I previously removed the film for a splitfilm or Swiss Roll photo project.

Because the Svema film was a slow film – 64 GOST is approximately 80 ISO – I couldn’t use it for any of my experimental shots.  But I could use it for regular photography – as long as I could get it into a cartridge.  Which I finally found a few minutes later.

On Monday, July 4, I took a trip up to the north country, and photographed some scenes along Route 9N.  On Tuesday morning, I took the film to McGreevy Pro Lab, and let them know that although the cartridge said C-41 Rite Aid film, there was actually black and white film – shot at an ISO of 50 – inside the cartridge.

On Thursday afternoon, I received my film back.

What you see on the left is a shot of Svema film, complete with the sprocket hole branding on the upper right edge.

This batch of 35mm film has a good tonal quality to it.  I’m actually quite impressed.  So much so, in fact, that I’m thinking of getting some more rolls of it – and using it as some 35mm B&W stock (along with my Croatian efke film and American Kodak and British Ilford stocks).

Here are some more pictures I took with this B&W film.  Let me know what you think.

Oh, and when I was on the rooftop photographing the 4th of July fireworks last Monday, I saw some chalk drawings that were created by some young children.  I assembled them together as a four-image tribute.

So I’m liking the Svema film – at least the 35mm version – better than the 120 version.  I’m going to get some more of this stock.  I think I have some ideas that might benefit from this type of film.  We shall see…