Charlotte Makes Photos

Sunday, November 1, 2026. I feel like I am going to remember the date well because as of Sunday, November 8, 2026, it’s more-or-less the last time we’ve been appropriately illuminated by that most magnificent of all heavenly bodies, the sun, the Daystar.

That’s right, we’ve officially entered into the season of wet and heavy gloom. A wet and heavy gloom that ushers in its even-worse counterpart whose palette is winnowed to shades of brown, grey, and whatever sensible earth tones Ottawa’s propertied class has preferred over the joy and whimsy seen elsewhere.

But I digress.¹

Like many of us #BelieveInFilm types on in the internet, I took notice in September when Ilford announced that they were releasing a special “Collector’s Edition” of its Delta 400 film that promised a clearer base and more antihalation. Since I am always happy to try a new (or new-to-me) film, I ordered four rolls from the company’s Canadian distributor and waited patiently.

Most seem to believe that the Collector’s Edition was Harman making lemonade from lemons: in other words, a manufacturing error that took Delta off-spec and instead of eating the loss (since it’s perfectly good film), marking it as special and selling it to consumers like myself, who are all too happy to give it a try.

For the more ambitious, the clearer base also meant that it is a good candidate for reversal processing, resulting in black-and-white slides that may be projected. I don’t intend to do that with my rolls, but it’s a whole lot of fun that it is an option!

I don’t think that I have any deep, considered, or technical thoughts about the results I got from the film. It looks nice and I will be more than pleased to use the remaining three rolls I have for making photos. Thanks to the greater/enhanced antihalation, I do find that it managed my exposing it to bright sunlight quite well. Not all films manage that as well as I would like them to.

What I won’t be doing, however, is collecting it. Film was born to record images and not sit on the shelf, adding another zero the eBay listing prices in hopes that a bored YouTube influencer or self-styled “Collector” takes the bait.

1. I am likely to be re-scanning older photos and posting on-this-days more often in the next little while. I have exposed three rolls in the week since, and one was short, one was inside the apartment, and one is of questionable and dimly-lit quality, so I think it’s safe to say that the photographic party has hit a quiet point and some of the most energetic have got their coats and boots back on. ↩︎