Germany's Film Future Secured
Film coating machinery at an emulsion manufacturing facility: the kind of industrial infrastructure that Optik Oldschool has now taken under its ownership in Monheim and Wolfen.
Week of 9 August 2026
A single acquisition dominated film photography's news cycle this week. Optik Oldschool — the Belgian-founded German lab that released its first original emulsion only eighteen months ago — has completed the purchase of both InovisCoat and FilmoTec. These two Wolfen-based companies together form the core of European photographic film manufacturing. Alongside that, new disposable cameras from Fujifilm, a Chinese ISO 400 colour film arriving on the international market, and a wristwatch that doubles as a light meter all offered reasons to look away from the headlines, if briefly.
Film & Analogue
Optik Oldschool Acquires InovisCoat and FilmoTec
The announcement came via Photrio on 22 July 2026 and has since been covered widely. Chris Vandebroek — the Belgian entrepreneur who co-founded Optik Oldschool, having made his money in video game distribution — has acquired InovisCoat GmbH in Monheim and FilmoTec GmbH (trading as Original Wolfen) in Wolfen and Bitterfeld. The two companies are not simply suppliers: InovisCoat manufactures the emulsion chemistry, and FilmoTec coats and finishes the film base. Together they represent the last colour-negative film coating operation in continental Europe outside the Harman group.
The relationship between Optik Oldschool and these factories is not new. The lab began collaborating with InovisCoat in late 2024, and the first production run of OptiColour 200 — a colour negative film with a genuinely new emulsion rather than repackaged stock — followed in April 2025. Acquisition talks began during summer 2025 and concluded in July 2026. The announcement on the Optik Oldschool blog states the intention to expand across 35mm, 120 and sheet film formats, and to develop new photographic materials. The language throughout is about preservation as much as growth: safeguarding jobs in Wolfen, protecting institutional knowledge that would be very difficult to reconstruct elsewhere.
One point worth clarifying directly: ORWO is not part of this deal. ORWO is described in coverage of the announcement as a customer of InovisCoat and FilmoTec rather than a manufacturing entity in its own right. Ownership of the coating plants does not translate to ownership of the ORWO brand. Film Ferrania in Italy is similarly separate and unaffected. The acquisition does, however, bring Optik Oldschool's own films — including the new black-and-white OptiMono 100 — under fully vertical production, from emulsion chemistry through to finished rolls.
OptiMono 100 — New Black-and-White from Wolfen
Announced in mid-July and now contextualised by the acquisition news, the OptiMono 100 is Optik Oldschool's first black-and-white film. It is a panchromatic negative in 35mm, built on a new Filmotec emulsion manufactured in Wolfen. ISO 100, fine grain, moderate contrast and smooth tonal transitions are the stated characteristics. The announcement at Dodo Film Lab notes a pre-sale price of approximately $7.99 per roll. No 120 format has been confirmed yet, though the acquisition announcement specifically mentions an intention to expand across formats. The overlap between the OptiMono launch and the acquisition creates an obvious narrative: Optik Oldschool now manufactures the emulsion it put into the roll it is currently selling.
New film stocks arriving this week: Lucky C400 from China, pre-orders from 10 August, alongside a range of emulsions from European and Japanese manufacturers.
Lucky C400 — Chinese Colour Film Goes International
Lucky — one of China's long-established film manufacturers — officially released the Lucky C400 in China this week, with international pre-orders opening via Double Film at approximately $14 per canister. Shipping to international customers is expected from around 10 August. The stock is a C-41 colour negative, rated ISO 400, in 35mm. Lucky has been producing photographic film domestically in China for decades, but wider international availability has been limited. The Lucky C400 is presented as their contemporary offering for the international analogue market — at $14 a roll with included processing, it is competitive with mid-range stocks from established Western manufacturers.
Fujifilm QuickSnap Black and White and QuickSnap Active
Fujifilm announced two new QuickSnap variants on 30 June, both due to ship in early September 2026. The timing marks the 40th anniversary of the QuickSnap line, which launched in 1986.
The QuickSnap Black and White is the more unusual of the two. It loads an ISO 400 black-and-white negative film — the emulsion is not identified on the product page, and Fujifilm's own black-and-white production (Neopan Acros) runs at ISO 100, suggesting this is a separately sourced stock. The film is processed in C-41 chemistry rather than conventional black-and-white chemistry, making it compatible with standard minilab and postal processing services. It offers 27 exposures, includes a built-in flash, and is priced at $22.90 USD / $34.99 CAD. The QuickSnap Active replaces the current waterproof model: ISO 800 colour negative, rated to 35 feet of water depth, no flash, at $24.75 USD / $36.99 CAD. More detail is available at Broken Mount.
The Increment Labs LMW-V1 is a wristwatch built around a reflected-light meter — the first purpose-made watch designed from the ground up for film photographers.
Increment Labs LMW-V1 — A Light Meter on Your Wrist
The Pellica blog published a considered assessment in late July of the LMW-V1, the wristwatch light meter from London-based Increment Labs that closed its Kickstarter campaign on 4 June. The campaign raised £101,980 from 681 backers — roughly 353 per cent of its £28,875 target — making it one of the more successful analogue photography crowdfunding campaigns in recent memory. The watch is built around a silicon photodiode positioned at 45 degrees within the case; it measures reflected light and displays ISO, aperture and shutter speed alongside the time and date on the watch face.
The Pellica piece is measured in its assessment: the LMW-V1 solves a genuine irritant for film photographers working manually — the inconvenience of pulling out a phone app or a handheld meter — by moving the reading to the wrist. But it is a reflected meter, not an incident meter, which limits its use in certain lighting conditions. No published accuracy figure (in ± EV) exists as yet, and no production unit has reached a customer's hands. Delivery is stated as early 2027; the retail price is set at £185. At Kickstarter early-bird pricing of £119, it found a clear market. Whether it performs to the level its backers expect remains to be seen, but as a piece of purpose-built hardware for analogue photographers, it is a genuinely novel object.
Film Prices — The Regional Divide Widens
The Analog Cafe Q3 2026 film price report, tracking 37 stocks across 13 stores globally, found an average price rise of 2.5 per cent over the quarter. The headline figure, however, conceals a widening regional divergence: EU prices rose 5.7 per cent; Canadian prices 5.6 per cent; US prices around 1.9 per cent; while Hong Kong prices fell 1.1 per cent. The report describes this as the widest regional spread the tracker has recorded. The EU figure is partly attributable to a new import handling charge introduced on 1 July 2026 — though it is worth noting that the charge is €3 per parcel rather than per roll, meaning the per-roll impact depends heavily on order size.
Against this background, one price movement goes against the grain: Ilford HP5 in 35mm is reducing from $9.99 to $8.99 for a 36-exposure roll in the US market, with 120 format settling at $9.99. Film price reductions are unusual enough to be worth noting.
Light Lens Lab — APO 35mm Confirmed, Film Camera Still Distant
Light Lens Lab confirmed this week that its APO 35mm f/2 lens is now in production. The camera maker — known for faithful recreations of classic Leica-era optics — has separately acknowledged that a new film camera remains in "extremely early development", with a realistic release window somewhere between 2027 and 2030. No further technical details have been released on either front.
Negpy / Knokke Film Scanner — Speed Update
A video published on 2 August covered a notable update to the Negpy / Knokke compact film scanner project. The current iteration uses a 4,064 DPI sensor to produce approximately 22-megapixel files from 35mm negatives. It claims to scan a complete roll in under three minutes — a significant speed improvement over conventional flatbed alternatives. For photographers running high volumes of film through home processing, time per roll is often the practical constraint rather than resolution; under three minutes per roll at this resolution would represent a meaningful step forward if it holds in real-world testing.
Also This Week
In digital gear, the most significant news from the week concerns what did not happen: FujiRumors reported on 7 August that the Fujifilm X Summit planned for early September — widely expected to bring the X-T6 announcement — has been cancelled, with no new date set. Fujifilm has made no official statement; sources suggest the delay may relate to the camera's autofocus system or film simulation software. The X-T6 remains the most anticipated camera in the Fujifilm range, and the postponement will disappoint those who had been watching its approach closely.
On the arts front, the RPS International Photography Exhibition 167th edition opened on 7 August at the Saatchi Gallery in London, running through 11 September. One hundred and thirteen prints from 48 photographers were selected from more than 5,200 submissions. The exhibition then tours to Taunton Museum (24 October 2026 – 9 January 2027) and the Royal Geographical Society London (5–28 April 2027), with a one-night showcase at theprintspace in Shoreditch on 20 August. Catherine Opie's retrospective To Be Seen opened on 8 August at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, running to 1 November. The World Press Photo touring exhibition arrives at MPB Gallery in Bermondsey, London, from 21 August to 30 September.
In software, Adobe released Lightroom Classic 15.5 and Lightroom Desktop 9.5 on 4 August. The headline addition is Generative Expand — previously available in Lightroom CC — now arriving in the desktop and mobile apps, with Feather and Edge controls added to the Masking panel. Camera support additions include the Sony RX10 V and Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG A026, alongside new lens profiles for the Laowa 65mm and 90mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro APO.
Looking Ahead
The Optik Oldschool acquisition story will continue to develop over the coming months as the new ownership structure takes effect and the first post-acquisition film ranges are announced. Whether OptiMono 100 reaches 120 and sheet film formats — now more plausible given the Wolfen connection — is a question worth watching. Lucky C400 begins shipping internationally from approximately 10 August, so the first independent assessments of the emulsion should follow within weeks. The Fujifilm QuickSnap Black and White arrives in September, at which point the mystery emulsion inside it may become clearer. For those following the LMW-V1 story, no additional news is expected before delivery begins in early 2027.
