Washi D

Washi D is industrial aerial film repackaged for 35mm cameras by a one-man French operation in Brittany. The original stock was coated for Russian surveillance and cartography, which is why the rolls carry the unofficial nickname Sputnik. Lomig Perrotin started Film Washi in a closet of his Paris flat in 2013 and now works out of decommissioned French Army shipping containers. The catalog is salvage chemistry turned into something a photographer can load into a Pentax.

The emulsion is panchromatic with extended sensitivity all the way out to about 690 nm, which is the edge of the near-infrared band that surveillance stocks need both to defeat atmospheric haze and to pick out living vegetation from a painted camouflage net. Box speed is 500, but the data sheet specifies a working range from 500 to 2000 depending on developer and time. Resolution is high. Grain is moderate for the speed. Contrast leans steep.

Physical handling is the part to budget for. The base is 75 micron polyester, much thinner than standard 35mm stock, and clear rather than gray. Light pipes down the leader and fogs the first few frames. Load in the darkest light you can find and burn off six frames before you shoot anything you care about. Home development on Paterson reels is a fight; the thin base slips off the tracks.

Rodinal 1:25 for six minutes at 20C is the published time. D-76 1:1 for eight and a half minutes is the conservative alternative. Pushing to 1600 works in Rodinal with extended times, though contrast climbs sharply past that. The look sits between Kentmere 400 and JCH Streetpan, leaning Streetpan on contrast and surveillance origin both.

Available in 35mm only, in 36-exposure cassettes. No DX coding, so set the ISO manually.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A 30-second meter reading becomes about 90 seconds at the negative; a two-minute exposure stretches closer to seven. The aerial origin means the curve is calibrated for short exposures, so bracket past two minutes.