Today, at the annual ICS Antique Camera Fair in Matsuya, Ginza this afternoon, I noticed a new addition to the line up of booths: Kawauso Film shop. They are an online retailer offering a large range of black and white and colour films, as well as other goods for do-it-yourself film photography such as developing tanks and chemicals. This is probably the largest range of unusual films I’ve seen offered by any retailer in Japan. Suzuki-san explained to me that the owner is a photographer living in the Shiretoko peninsula, Hokkaido. Orders, however, are shipped from the Kanto area, so delivery charges are not different from what one would expect for Honshu. Here’s a photo of Suzuki-san with the range of films they were exhibiting at the ICS show:

Suzuki-san is also a film photography enthusiast. She explained to me that Croatian-made Efke films have a larger silver content than is common with current black and white films, so the tonal range is exceptionally good. I’ve used 127 format in ISO 100 in the past and found the film has a tendency to curl, but I decided to buy a roll of Efke ISO 50 in 135 and 120 and give it another try.  With enthusiasts like the Kawauso staff and the makers of Efke and Rollei stocks, the future of film photography seems assured. If you have any interest in photography, it is well worth looking at the Kawauso web pages.

Finally here’s this year’s poster for the ICS show, linked from the ICS web pages.