Out of the frying pan and into the hands of film photographers flies WonderPan 400, a 35mm black and white treat. The culinary creation concocted by fictional character Chef Ambrosia celebrates Analogue Wonderland’s 5th birthday by delighting your imagination with its playful backstory and debunking the complexity of pushing film.
Cooked up from a best-selling base emulsion, WonderPan 400 changes the ISO, producing images with strong contrast, deep blacks, and medium grain levels. Typically shot at a lower ISO, WonderPan 400 aims to introduce photographers to the effects of pushing film by working itself out to be naturally pushed 2 stops. Analogue Wonderland emphasizes this is not a new emulsion. The aim is to open a conversation about pushing film for anyone who hasn’t tried it yet and explore this technique which yields a different aesthetic from the original film.
Analogue Wonderland’s mission remains true to when the mother-and-son duo opened the store in 2018 to make film photography fun and accessible for everyone. Pushing film might be confusing or daunting for folks that aren’t familiar with the technique. However, with the help of Chef Ambrosia, the protagonist in WonderPan 400’s imaginative backstory, the team at Analogue Wonderland hopes to make pushing film easy to understand and exciting to experiment with.
“What we wanted to do with WonderPan is bring a technical technique (pushing) that is traditionally thought of as ‘advanced’, and package it in a way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This will allow us to demystify the process for folks, and hopefully unlock another creative option for a new generation of film pushers!” – Paul McKay, co-founder of Analogue Wonderland.
To meet Chef Ambrosia, head to this blog post on Analogue Wonderland’s website titled ‘Grain Never Tasted So Good’. It’s a joyful tale inspired by the Nintendo classic ‘Cooking Mama’ that will put a smile on your face.
Expected to go live in late June, WonderPan 400 can be found at this link here. On the same page, you can sign up to receive email notifications when it arrives in stock. Only 1,000 rolls will be produced, making this a collectable for which you’ll want to save the packaging. WonderPan 400 is available only in the Analogue Wonderland online store with a limit of 10 per customer. The retail price will be £8 but look out for discounts on launch and deals for developing the pushed film at the Wonderlab, Analogue Wonderland’s in-house film lab.
Happy Birthday to Analogue Wonderland!
This wonderful that people have options I never shot black and white before but I think I’m going to do both color and black and white new films are coming out
black and white is definitely worth trying! and yes, there are so many good options 🙂