Analog.Cafe › News › 5 min read by Dmitri. Published on December 26, 2025. Updated on January 8, 2026. In these final days of 2025, I sifted through the Analog.Cafe data to identify the top 10 most popular films, implemented an early warning system in Chem Log, and released an article discussing the latest findings in aesthetic science, which details what contributes to the quality of our photographs. This also marks the last month during which I’ll be distributing free film! In this newsletter: Free film & Black Friday promotions. Early chemical expiration alerts. The top 10 film stocks, as determined by 293 photographers. What enhances photos? (based on scientific insights). Support this blog and enjoy premium features with GOLD memberships!
Free film & Black Friday promotions. If you’re not already a GOLD member, here’s a little motivation for you: I’ve been giving away 3-packs to random individuals once a month since summer — and you could be the last winner of 2025! All you need to do is subscribe and wait for the announcement in the next newsletter on December 30th, when the final draw for the current batch of hand-rolled films will occur!
Details. Early chemical expiration alerts. Don’t you find it frustrating to develop your film with expired or depleted chemicals, only to have it turn out with poor colors, contrast, or be completely blank? Even after testing your chemicals, it can still be disappointing to find out that the fixer, bleach, or developer isn’t effective and requires replacement. This often occurs after the film is already in a Paterson tank, and all the equipment is perfectly arranged. I created Chem Log to monitor mix dates and the total number of processed rolls for each chemical. The web application integrates with Film Log, meaning that you only need to select the chemicals you're about to use once you change your film's status from “Done” to “In Development.”
Chemical expiration alerts with explanatory notes. For color-negative developers, be sure to enable “C-41” in the Chem Log app! The applications are designed to be unobtrusive to the photographer, requiring only a film name and camera (with optional free-form notes). However, I recently found that they were a bit too passive: my fixer was close to expiring but there was no alert. While Chem Log contained that information (which is how I knew my fixer was a year old), it wasn't clear enough for me to pay attention.
So I dedicated a weekend to creating an early-warning system. Visually, it’s quite straightforward: chemicals needing attention are automatically highlighted in red or yellow (and this is visible in both apps). Nevertheless, developing the rules for these highlights required some consideration — you can discover how they function in last week’s Chem Log announcement.
Top 10 film stocks, according to 293 photographers. While researching the most popular film stocks, I encountered two distinct scam links and found no valuable information. It appears that such data is difficult to gather, as no single source can provide a complete overview. Film shops can only account for the films they stock, which doesn’t include all photography options; distributors focus solely on their service areas; and film manufacturers only know how many rolls they produced (but have no insight into how much was utilized or what their competitors made).
This leaves the readers of Analog.Cafe as the most reliable source for this information, particularly the several hundred of you who utilize the Film Log app to track thousands of individual rolls. To understand how I processed the anonymized data (which was no easy task!) and discover which stocks made the list, check out this article. The films mentioned above are not the top 10, although they all belong to the data set. The top-ranking film in this selection is CineStill 800T (#3), along with CineStill 400D, Kodak UltraMax, and Kodak Ektar appearing in the list.
What enhances photos? (based on scientific insights).
In the final days of 2025, I analyzed the Analog.Cafe data to identify the top 10 most popular films, implemented an early warning system for Chem Log, and published an article detailing the latest findings in aesthetic science, which explores the elements that contribute to the quality of our photos. Additionally, this month marks the last opportunity to receive free film!