Typically Dutch: HEMA 400 CN 35mm Film

There is one thing I remember quite vividly from my childhood: Saturday afternoons in which my mom and I picked up our printed photographs at the local HEMA. As soon as my Diana CMYK arrived, the first thing I did was return to that trust old HEMA to, they should still sell film there right?

For non Dutchies (or Belgians), HEMA is one of the oldest Dutch chain stores that you can find. Chances are that if you ever come to the Netherlands, you will have walked past one or two of them. After this article, I’d advise you to go inside and buy some film!

REJOICE! The HEMA does indeed still sell rolls of film! They have 200 and 400 color negative and as expected from HEMA the price isn’t that high either. For a 3-pack you pay € 6 (for 200 ISO), or € 7.50 (400 ISO). Included with that purchase are 3 coupons for free development if you have your photos printed at the HEMA.

After filling up 2 rolls of film with images, having them developed and scanning them a few things caught my attention.

The first roll of film was shot with a lot of colorful subjects in it. Main focus was a graffiti wall near the Sloterdijk train station. With my Diana F+ CMYK, a few different lenses, and some experimenting, I managed to make a cute series of images. The result of which you can see down here.

The effect of the 35mm Back on my Diana and the visible sprocket holes combine very well with the tracking codes the HEMA rolls have on the sides. It gives the images a industrial feeling in my opinion.

The film roll has a schizophrenic way of handling bright colors. It sucks up the color pretty fast and manages to show them harder and brighter then they are in reality. Personally, I love this effect, as it gives a great ‘lomofication’ of the images.

After shooting the other roll in my Diana Mini in half frame I noticed something completely different. I was on vacation in the Czech Republic and with bright, but sunless weather the pictures ended up being a bit ‘grey’. The images come out looking very much like Soviet Russia. I love the vibe that comes off of it.

The image below really shows you the 2 main things I noticed with the HEMA film. On the left side you can see an image of a Czech farm, it’s a bit grey and flat. The right side however displays a crochet project of mine. Which is done in lime green and bright purple. The colors on that side of the image pop like crazy!

I haven’t had any film developed by the HEMA yet, I’m too scared something will go wrong cutting the images, but I heard that the HEMA in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam is pretty good with lomographer’s rolls. I’ll have to venture into that experiment soon.

All in all, if you are in the Netherlands (or Belgium) and have the chance, pick up some rolls of HEMA film. And get some stroopwafels while you’re there!

Wikipedia page on HEMA

The Diana F+ CMYK is splashed with the four important colours in offset printing. Packed with the same features are the original Diana F+, this colourful clone will surely catch everyone’s attention. See it with the rest of the Diana Clones here!

The Diana Mini is the ultra-compact, petite version of the Diana F+. This camera takes soft-focused, lo-fi images in 35mm and allows you to change between half-format and square shots with a flick of a switch. Get your own Diana Mini now!

written by pretletterp on 2011-08-24 #gear #film #35mm #review #cn #400 #400iso #lomography #netherlands #nederland #dutch #holland #hema #user-review #nld