One Roll — July 2026

I mailed a roll of Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D on 26 July 2026 for true ECN-2 processing. Sixteen days later, on 11 August, their only status email arrived: confirmation of receipt, plus the standard “allow 1–2 weeks from this email” turnaround. By that estimate, I should have had negatives by 25 August at the latest.

Instead, nothing further arrived for almost four weeks. An emailed shipping estimate finally surfaced in early September, and the negatives themselves arrived on 9 September — 29 days after that first confirmation email.

By comparison, my regular C-41 lab, Boutique Film Lab, typically turns a roll around in under two weeks, with three distinct status emails along the way — arrived, processing, shipped. A recent Reddit thread suggests this isn’t a one-off: other AFC customers report similar month-plus waits and unanswered ETA inquiries.

The film itself is fine. The silence isn’t. I won’t be sending true ECN-2 rolls their way again.

Some of the images are from the car show in Ithaca, New York which is the annual Classic Cruisers: A State Street Car Show held in downtown Ithaca. The most recent event took place on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at West State Street (between Cayuga and Geneva Street), right next to the Ithaca Commons and in front of the State Theatre. Around 30 to several vintage vehicles on display, closed off safely from street traffic. Vehicles spanning multiple decades of automotive history, including Brass Era cars, 1920s classics, post-war showpieces, hot rods, restomods, and modern electric specialty vehicles. Hosted in collaboration with The History Center in Tompkins County and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance. I don’t know anything about the cars in the photos.

Many of the images are from my attempt to take long-exposure photographs of the South Branch of the Raritan River, which flows through the Ken Lockwood Gorge in Annandale, New Jersey. However, owing to the ongoing drought conditions in New Jersey, the water level was quite low and the flow was rather sluggish. There was not much water movement to photograph. I was also struggling with exposure: the XD-11 has a maximum exposure time of 1 second, which I doubt was sufficient. In retrospect, I should have brought a cable release and used the Sunny 16 rule, or used a more sensitive film stock.

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Burnt Orange 1956–1957 Chevrolet Corvette C1 · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Black Triumph TR250 Convertible Roadster · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Blue 1910s Saxon Roadster · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ford with Stars and Stripes · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 1910s Brass-Era Maxwell Tourer · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 West State Street Car Show, Ithaca · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Ken Lockwood Gorge · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Montgomery Farm Museum · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Montgomery Farm Museum · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8 Montgomery Farm Museum · July 2026 · Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Minolta XD-11 · ISO 50
MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm F2.8

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One Roll is a monthly film photography series. Each month I load a single roll of 35mm film into the Minolta XD-11, shoot it across whatever presents itself, and mail the exposed cartridge to Atlanta Film Co. for developing. The best frames from the negatives end up here.

During the pandemic I bought considerably more film than I could shoot. Most of the stockpile has since expired. A few cartridges remain usable through 2026 and 2027, and One Roll is how I am working through them — one roll per month, one lens per roll, whatever I happen to find in front of the camera. It is also a reminder to expose at least one roll of 35mm film each month, even after the existing 35mm film is gone.

1970s SLR camera in pencil linework. Created by Gemini..

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Shooting Notes

Film	Atlanta Film Co. Hand-Rolled 50D
Rated ISO	50
Exposed ISO	50
Lab	Atlanta Film Co.
Processed At	Not specified in the export or supplied details
Developer	True ECN-2 (Eastman Color Negative 2), via Dunwoody Photo, using the Kodak Motion Picture Film Lab Atlanta
Camera	Minolta XD-11
Lens	Minolta MD W.Rokkor-X 28mm f/2.8
Notes	30 frames exposed over three weeks, 20 June–11 July 2026, no filters used, not expired stock. Frames 1–6 (20 June) were shot near home in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, in aperture-priority mode at f/8. Frames 7–22 (21 June) were shot at Ken Lockwood Gorge, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in shutter-priority mode at 1-second exposures — the location is explicitly noted on frames 7 and 22, and GPS clustering confirms the same location for the frames in between. Frames 23–30 (11 July) were shot in Ithaca, New York, in aperture-priority mode at f/8, coinciding with the Classic Cruisers: A State Street Car Show.
Scanner	Epson Perfection V600 Photo
Scanning Software	VueScan
Scan Format	DNG output
Processing	Negative Lab Pro
EXIF Editor	Exif Editor by Martin Novak

#filmisnotdead #ecn2 #35mmfilm