Orwo Wolfen NC-500 – A Contrarian’s Perspective

In my life, I’ve rarely been one to succumb to peer pressure. Whatever cool new thing everyone else has, you can be sure that Bob will find a different way. When I was a teenager, saving for my first guitar – all my friends were buying Fender Stratocasters. I had to buy a Telecaster to be different. In college, when people were choosing between Mac and PC, I built my own Linux machine. And today, in the film photography world, when people come to a meetup with a Pentax 67, Canon AE1, or a Rolleiflex, I pull an old Voigtlander Bessa I folding camera out of my pocket, and say “let’s go!” … as you may have guessed, I’m the green chat bubble in your group-text.

This background about me is to say that I have a tendency (personality defect?) to take people’s opinions with slightly more than a grain of salt.

Shooting Orwo Wolfen NC-500

The film that we’re talking about today is no longer considered new. In fact, you can find many reviews around the film blogs and on YouTube, but the majority of the reviews contain words such as “flat”, “inconsistent”, “too grainy” and “Muted”– unflattering terms for a film stock indeed. If we’re to consider something like Kodak Portra 400 as the standard of what film should look like, then, NC-500 is definitely miles away — but is that necessarily bad?

I loaded up a roll of NC-500 into my Mamiya M 35mm Point and shoot camera – I told you I have an affinity for unusual things… After a test shot of my bulldog — to make sure the film was loaded correctly —  I went out to the coast for a winter photo walk.

The Images:

This first frame of the roll was an old advertising sign. The way that the colors rendered I found to be quite pleasing. As with most films, a little bit of contrast and color temperature adjustment in Lightroom really helps. Given that this film has a greenish tint to the base, I feel that most conversion software doesn’t know what to do with the negatives, so it is on us to make the most out of the film.

The second image really only needed a little bit of added contrast in order to make my shadow pop a bit more. During golden hour, the yellows and reds in this film genuinely surprised me! The colors can be very punchy and pleasing.

This third frame really demonstrates how blue-heavy NC-500 can be. Admittedly, the film shows a lack of dynamic range when you compare the highlights in the sky to the shadows. The shadows really fall off rapidly, and the detail is almost completely lost. The shadows, however, have a very interesting detail, the grain picks up a reddish hue. For me, the big grain, combined with the crushed shadows creates a very nostalgic look.

This final frame shows, once again, the limited dynamic range, but also demonstrates how well this film renders pastel tones. The blue in the sky is a very pleasing shade, and the pink of the building is very nice. Once again, it rolls into shadows that are absolutely crushed, and we again see the reddish noise in the grain.

At this point, the reader may be thinking to themselves: “huge grain, low latitude, and almost no shadow detail… why would I ever shoot this?” Fair question! In my experience, I have yet to come across a film with such a specific look. As photographers, I feel that it’s important to have the right tool for the job. Sometimes we need the clean look of Portra, or the halation glow of Cinestill 800t. Sometimes, we even need to shoot digital (gasp!)

Pushing Orwo Wolfen NC-500

One day, while I was living in Ontario, my band had a show at an eclectic cold-war Soviet-themed bar. I asked my friend Rob (@robrobbob123) if he’d shoot some film during the show for us. He agreed, but said he didn’t have any high-ISO film. I told him “I’ve got just the thing!” I knew full-well that pushing an already grainy film such as Orwo Wolfen NC-500 2 stops in development was going to produce either something completely unacceptable, or something incredible.

I’ll be the first to admit that these images have a TON of grain, and that the shadows are crushed like a ‘78 Ford Pinto, but the look of these photos capture, to me, EXACTLY what it felt like to be there. I have some pristine digital photos of the evening, and they look great, but they don’t give me the same emotional response as the NC-500 photos.

When I look at the first image, I see my bandmates, and a crowd of people whose faces are completely lost to the shadows. Absolutely no amount of digital trickery, or AI reconstruction will bring their faces back… and that’s exactly how it felt to me from the stage!

The second shot shows our singer. I know that the spotlight was actually purple, but the Orwo film rendered it in its signature blue. So many film stocks tend towards warmer tones, so it’s really great to have a film that renders cold like this.

The last shot is of me on guitar. Once again, the shadows crush the details. Personally, I really love how whatever is in the light shows through, and there’s nothing extra to distract the eye.

At the end of the day

As you can see, Orwo Wolfen NC-500 is not a film that everyone will like. Sadly, if you believe the majority of reviews, most people seem to have a distaste for it. If you like your images clean, accurate, grain-free and flawless, this might not be a film to keep in your bag. However, if you’re just a bit alternative, and like to see things a little differently, keep a roll or two in your bag! You can thank me later!

I’ve also posted a video about my experiences with this film as a sort of companion to this article. Feel free to check it out Here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to enjoy this camera with me. You can follow my shenanigans on Instagram and YouTube.

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