Svema DS 4 – a test
click image for larger view, huge scans are of course available.
- Soviet Svema Russian DS-4 pears and red wine
I am going to copy what I wrote in the flickr post although I will add a few more images of the packaging.
Here is the look of Svema DS 4 scan (as is) – developed in related Orwocolor chemistry.
The experiment began in an improvised manner, I made a Communist salad (meaning I made it without any intent of selling it or leasing it to other human beings who can’t afford it at a usurious rate) which was something of a deficient salade niçoise to begin with that suffered a Mongol or a Germanic invasion or, worse, was liberated and democratized . Messy. The salad was deficient as I had no capers, no olives, and no anchovies to put into as I was supposed to. Non tuna either. Total flop. But there were enough colors on the pallet to test this ancient film.
Communist salad on Svema DS 4 a Communist crime
This Soviet film (I won’t call it Russian or worse Ukrainian as the only films produced there nowadays are of pornographic variety) was much abused, physically and verbally, in the by gone age when it was made (available to the ungrateful masses which had since then defected to digital en masse).
Svema DS 4, a frontal view
A test of Svema DS-4 film, made in the glorious Soviet Union.
A blog post comes soon as a follow up to its relative the Orwocolor.
This was the first occasion I shot old Soviet negative film – not that I remember that I had any before.
I only have seven 120 rolls in my possession, all at different places, but perhaps would buy a few “bricks” as I happen to like the film quite a lot though not as much as Orwocolor NC19 – though Svema DS-4 could be used for different artistic purposes. It is an unusual film.
another view of the Svema DS4 packaging
As I know in Russia before Russia, Svema color film was considered somewhat inferior (though it was cheapest, not that you get what you pay for, you usually don’t)
DS-4 was made from late 1950s until 1990 without changes.
Mine expired in 1992 / made in 1989/1990 – likely the very last batch ever made
The film cost 95 kopecks per roll (that is less than a rouble) versus – if you were lucky to get – Orwocolor that cost four or five times as much.
Свема ДС 4 / Svema DS 4
It is essentially the first generation Agfacolor but re-developed in the Soviet Union to work with locally produced dyes.
It has had a 1950s predecessor, a Russian version of the Agfacolor transformed to a negative film use (the original proto Agfacolor was a transparency film), that species was called DS-2 but I never saw a specimen alive (in fact I never saw an empty box). .
colors are not natural
not saturated
a bit water color-ish or water color-ly look
watery is the word
Experiment conducted – Kiev 60 camera
Developed in Orwocolor chemistry (described here <a href=”https://photoroobit.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/orwocolor-nc-19-an-historic-test-sacrifice-of-a-historical-film/” rel=”nofollow”>photoroobit.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/orwocolor-nc-19-an-h…</a>)
Svema DS 4 and a Kiev 60
Scanned as Agfa Optima – actual scan is 6000 x 6000, and I reduce it for the web but not to 1000, so the actual scan can well be seen.
A good scan
Software – Lasersoft light version that came together with my cheapo Canon scanner.
photoroobit 