Revolog Tesla 1: A Journey

This is the story of my first roll of Revolog Tesla 1 film.

What Is Revolog Tesla 1 Film

Revolog Telsa 1 film is a special effects film marketed by Revolog of Austria. In addition to Tesla 1, they sell other special effects films that offer the ability to add various levels of awesomeness to your images. I chose the Tesla 1 film because it would put blue zaps all of the frame which I think is especially cool.

How Revolog Film Works

You load the film the way you would any other film and it does not require special filters or other gizmos. I believe that the effect is a product of double expsoure. Somewhere in the Revolog Labratories of Amazingness, they expose the film to pictures of lighting or electrical discharge and then package it for shipping.

Revolog Test 1 Comerford Station

Comerford Station HVDC Line Conversion
I'm not going to just shoot this film anywhere, I want a location that can holds its own without special effects. I chose Comerford Station which is a dam and hydroelectric generation station on the Connecticut River. It is also home to the Comerford Static Inverter Plant which is where the Réseau multiterminal à courant continu (RMCC) sheds its French accent before continuing to Massachusetts. Combined with the dam it is a pretty epic sight and easily accessible by any of the TransCanada parks near it.

This a generic shot taken of the dam with the inverter plant in the background. When shot at the rated ISO200 the zap effect is pretty awesome and works nicely with the setting.

I decided to fiddle with the exposure to see if I could accentuate the zappy effect. When shot at ISO 400, the zaps are more apparent.

I was right and I think that looks pretty cool.

Revolog Test 2: Saint Johnsbury

St Johnsbury is an interesting place. It is the home to some incredible victorian architecture, the first indoor mall in Vermont and one of the most fun science museums in the world.

There is something inherently creepy to me about victorian architecture including some of the devices and structures that Nikola Tesla built and used as laboratories. Since the St. J mall is lame, I decided I'd add some zappyness to the town.

This is the St. Johnsbury Atheneum which features a ton of books and some very large paintings. I discovered through shooting it that when you have an image that has light and dark areas if the zap effect is in the light area, you probably won't see it. This is ok but in one case it was rather upsetting.

Bellow is the Fairbanks Museum and if you have a kid or like electrical stuff it is a pretty amazing place. It is also an amazing place to push buttons.

I wanted the picture bellow to be amazing. There is a scary ghostbusters lion, a big victorian building with a cross and now imagine the most baddass electrical discharge ZAP! in it. Sadly, the place where the zap was on the frame also happened to be in an area where the image was very light and therefore the effect was lost.

My final awesome image, this pretty awesome apartment building. As a kid it scared me because of the tower and its proximity to my orthodontist. I decided that because the light was interesting, I would take a chance and meter the scene at IS0 800 and boy am I glad that I did.

Tesla 1 Conclusions

Naturally, you should buy a lot of this film because it is a lot fun. I'm only slightly joking about that. After months of being bored with everything and generally photographically lethargic I had something that got me excited and out shooting again. That is enough to have me excited about trying other Revolog films.

Things To Know

I shot everything with a Voigtlander Bessa R3M and Heliar Classic 50f2.
The cool stuff at the Comerford Dam is on the New Hampshire side but can be tricky to access.
Exploring behind the fence at any transmission station will kill you so quickly it isn't funny.
I had it developed at CVS West Lebanon but I did the scanning.