I started film photography at the end of 2018. I was Lucky, for a moment - film prices were at their lowest - but I did not know that at the time. We still had plenty of choices. We didn't know how good we had it. We didn't know how unlucky we would become.

With cancellations of multiple film stocks (especially from F*ji) and year-on-year price hikes, photos of basketball hoops and gas stations became scarcer. Fujicolor disappeared and became rebranded Kodak; slide film easily doubled in price and I never liked Portra anyway; so I pivoted into B&W for a bit. I got tired of it though, and in recent years luckily there has been some development for the film resurgence.

While the mainstream has moved onto CCD cameras (bringing that market to overpriced levels) and FTL (faster-than-light factory-to-landfill) hardware such as Charmera, Fuji X-Half, etc., some have stayed. Pentax released 17 which, while baffling at first on the spec sheet, turned out to be a great product. Adox released Color Mission, which was some old frozen stock, in an innovative kickstarter campaign: you as a customer have been coerced to pay a ransom for developing an actual new emulsion - which hasn't exactly worked out yet either. Harman - Ilford's parent company - has followed suit with Phoenix - a completely new, albeit subpar- pardon, a "full of character" emulsion with dynamic range worse than slide film, at a price luckily not as bad, but still higher than perfectly fine ColorPlus/Gold.

There was also Orwo, which didn't promise anything, but released their NC500 and NC400 color negatives. They also had low dynamic range, huge grain and a muted palette; not particularly fun to shoot unless you live in an ex-Soviet bloc country where any extra color would go to waste. Although - supposedly, NC200 is better; haven't tried.

Film market in the Far East

How about in China, where the laws on paper may be similar, but moral attitude is uh, different?

With Cineshit being beyond overpriced for what it was, around 2022 we have seen a surge of respooled, de-remjetted cinema film. First under the brand "Cyberpunk", with 800T and 400D, then tens if not hundreds of brands, selling the same thing at different prices, and 320T and 100D joining the team. That was the cheapest way to shoot color - at about 45CNY at first, then going up slightly. However, it was only available in 135. It was also pretty bad and I never fully enjoyed the results - either the cine film was expired, or something else in my process was off.

The nicer option was respooled Aerocolor IV, available in 135 and 120. That was alright, although the colors were quite muted still - no wonder, it was a low contrast film for surveillance.

But that was it. The cheapest, reasonable color film I could get my hands on was only ColorPlus. I tried Phoenix II, and while it was better, it still wasn't exactly close.

In early 2025, a manufacturer from China teased a new film. It looked alright on the samples and the official price of 59CNY with development included was incredibly tempting. Not that I could make use of the free development with "one country, two systems" thing being an incredible stretch of the actual truth, but even with that in mind it was quite cheap. I was definitely excited, and kept track of the news not to miss its release.

Of course, when it did come out, I wasn't the first to shoot it or review; first batches available in September 2025 were sold out immediately. Market fully embraced the luck around November of that year, and that's when I ordered mine.

Luckily we're finally getting to the Lucky review

There's more to the packaging than you'd think.

A bright red box, looking like medicine, just like any other film. Nothing really special; reminded me of the older boxes from the 90s or early 2000s. No promises to be never kept. All you need to know - the expiration date, ISO of the film and the company logo, 乐凯 in simplified Chinese.

If you ever wondered, the pronunciation is similar to "lucky" (Lè kǎi in pinyin) in Mandarin; Cantonese is not so close with lok6hoi2 in Jyutping - and in traditional characters it would look a bit more complex - 樂凱.

That aside, once you open the box you are greeted with a transparent canister holding the film. Simple as. The film canister itself has a similar design to the outside, with DX coding for all the point-n-shoots that need it.

The mildly interesting part is the text on the inside of the box. Yeah, it's the generic sunny-16 guide and storage instructions, but in simplified Chinese (understandable) and Spanish. huh? The box is simplified Chinese or English. What's Spanish doing there?

The 135 boxes I ordered in early 2026 came in a special edition for Chinese New Year, fairly simple, but it's a nice touch. Film boxes - and canisters - should be customized for events more often.

Let's ROLL!

I grabbed a roll, slapped into my trusty Minolta XD and went to town with it. First thing I noticed was it was just... not so bad. Film base was maybe not clearly as orange as it would be on Kodak or Fuji offerings, but far closer to "normal" than other alternative stocks. The promises started to pop up - this could be actually alright...?

On 135, the grain is quite reasonable. The pictures I got, mostly snapshits, left me wanting more. So I went on Taobao again.

Not too soon after the initial release, the film was also released in 120. I shot one roll in the Bronica EC, and I took another with me to mainland China, to shoot in my Fuji GS645S. If sharpness of the film was ever in question, it would not be limited by these lenses.

These shots are stopped down, from the Nikkor 75 2.8 on the Bronica. I can't complain really about the sharpness.

I'd certainly say that the colors are shifted a bit towards red, at least by default white balance set against the film's border - at least by grain2pixel. The warmer tones seem to be consistent though from other examples; basically anything that's not popping up with any other color will be visibly redder. You can try to shift the white balance based on something on the picture (teeth, eyes, sidewalk) - or by shifting a bit towards blue and tint towards green; but I found that it's better to lean into that color palette.

Blues in particular seem to suffer here, often subdued; reds however have insane saturation, with green shifted towards yellow. See the ancient town picture above especially. While that day was hazy, the sky is of a rather light shade, and the tree leaves are more yellow than green. However, the roof line and fence are nicely emphasized by their orange or red shade. It reminds me of Aerocolor in its palette - I'd like to shoot both of these films side by side at some point.

For latitude, it's quite good. It can keep a surprising amount of detail in the shadows, if you desire to pull it out. Sure, in this example the highlights may be blown a bit, but overall detail is quite decent. That means you can adjust contrast in post if you wish to.

While I shot this particular picture at night, it was hand-held at 1 or 1/2s. I can't see any reciprocity failure from it at these values - but of course it may be more apparent at longer exposures. Similarly, the flowers picture had a long shutter speed of maybe few seconds - as it was macro with limited light and it seemed fine too. Still, be aware; as Lucky has no datasheet it's a completely experimental territory.

I enjoyed the experience of shooting Lucky. It's a nice look on its own, but you can also mold it into something more realistic, or more stylized. I will shoot it in the future - for casual street, daily carry, maybe backup while traveling or traveling to places I've already been to (important shots would be done digitally or with slide or Kodak/Fuji C-41 film).

Definitely better than the alternatives.

So, how is that possible?

How can, a relatively unknown (in the western world) Chinese factory, make half-decent film, basically on the first try?

Supposedly, they used to coat film for Kodak back in the 90s. That's... quite incredible to think of, if that's where they based it. No way that Kodak shared the recipe, right...?

Ilford used to make Ilfocolor or Cibachrome, Orwo (as InovisCoat) coated film for Lomo, Polaroid and other companies. Adox had the frozen film they made themselves. The experience does not seem to map onto a quality product by itself.

Regardless, you can buy Lucky C200 for about 45CNY in either 135 or 120 format - without the development of course. That's the cheapest color film on the market, and it's pretty good. What an achievement. They were quite Lucky with timing the market as well, neatly fitting in the surprisingly empty niche of "good film for a good price". Sure, it wouldn't be my first (or even 5th) choice for landscapes or commercial work, but to have fun, to work on your artistic vision, if that allows some flexibility? It works great.

An acquaintance of mine who shoots Agat 18(K)s almost exclusively purchased 100 rolls of Lucky, that dedicated. And I'm not surprised either - for the price it's a completely workable product.