JCH Street Pan 400

For this roll, I wanted to try something a little bit different. When I was in the camera shop, dropping off my Ektar for development, I started talking to the store owner about film recommendations. He mentioned a few, but he spent a lot of time telling me about JCH Street Pan.

After that, I went home and did some research, as I tend to do about everything that I spend money on. A quick Google search led me to the Phoblographer’s review of the JCH Street Pan 400.

Their review was full of great information and amazing demonstrations of the film, and the type of photos you can expect to get from the roll. What I most appreciated from their review, is that the film is actually a relatively new film. Meaning that this company had recently made it and pushed it out into the world. Which is exciting since, many would believe that film is a dying medium. (Hopefully not)

The first thing that the blog pointed out was the first thing the shop owner mentioned. This film has a great contrast. The whites are white the blacks are black. Which to me creates a really dramatic, and at times, surrealistic quality to the pictures. The next big thing, was the grain quality, which, they found to be really fine. Lastly, the film evidently thrives in red light, which is indicative of sunset, or dusk, unless artificially created.

So let’s see how my pictures turned out and see if I agree with the Phoblographer’s take on the matter.

Here are my tape machines. This was shot mid morning on an overcast day in my living room and I really enjoyed to contrast. It’s definitely moody. Notice how dark some of the areas are but how balanced the brighter sections are.

This photo was taken in Kennesaw and it’s the only one that was taken when it wasn’t overcast. Again the contrast is so deep. However, I noticed how truly fine the grain is. Despite being a 400 speed film, the grain isn’t terribly intrusive, especially while managing to capture such a contrast of lights and darks.

This was probably my favorite picture from the roll. I did a handful of shots of various buildings around KSU’s campus. I found that the line work of the architecture, combined with the contrast of the film, really spoke to me.

So! Overall, I love JCH Street Pan. It’s the first black and white roll I have ever shot and I plan on shooting it again.

I agree with everything the Phoblographer wrote in the article. They really nailed it down, and showed the true ability that this film has.

My only regret, is that I wasn’t able to shoot it during a sunset due to the weather. Looking forward to the next one!