I love to shoot expired film. I kind of like the unpredictability, even when shooting well known emulsions. The results depend on how the film was stored, but I find it’s rare to get a completely unusable roll. One of the interesting film negatives was the DM Paradies, available in 200 or 400 ASA, sold in Drogerie Markt (DM for short) stores in Croatia and of course elsewhere in Europe. I was delighted to find some cheap expired rolls on Ebay and I couldn’t wait to try it out!
A little bit of background – for non European readers, DM is a well known chain store brand that sells cosmetics, personal care products, cleaning supplies, etc., but they also have a photo printing service. Well, I’m not sure if they still offer it, but many years ago you could leave a film with them to get it developed and they also had their own film “brand”, obviously repackaged. Those DM Paradies negatives were very cheap, probably the cheapest that you could buy new. This old topic from 2013 claims the emulsion is Kodak Gold 200 or Kodak Farbwelt 200 but I’m not so sure. To me the Gold 200 seems to have a bit warmer colors and better contrast, but I can’t say for sure just by using “auto levels” on my scanner.
Another interesting bit, and this is why the title is labeled as “part 2” – a long time ago I made a short blog post (written in croatian, use a translator) how this Paradies film results in photos that look like they were taken in ’80s. Of course, many people don’t read past the title, so the first photo got shared many times as a genuine ’80s photo taken on Dolac, a popular farmer’s market in Zagreb
Being an extremely cheap film, DM Paradies wasn’t highly regarded, so I think it’s actually a rare find. I shot a roll in my Olympus XA, rated at 200 ASA. I should’ve rated it at ISO 100, you can see the dark parts lack detail, but it’s not a big deal at all. Here’s how it looks on my lightbox:
You can see the base color is a little dark, but definitely usable.
So, here is a winter gallery taken on 6.1.2026. when the first snow fell in Zagreb (Croatia). Most probably the last snow of the year, too. Seems like a lifetime ago you could buy DM Paradies films for 1€ and both have at least several days of snowfall a year, but barely 15 years have passed since then…
Although snow scenes look great in b&w, I love how this expired color film really gives off this retro look. I feel this DM Paradies lost some of it’s dynamic range over time – note how dark clothing has no visible detail, as well as bright snowy roofs, despite the overcast day. The scans show a little bit of magenta/bluish cast, but I didn’t try to be very color accurate. As I explained here, I always do some color and contrast post processing (and so can you!) of any scanned photos.
I’m happy to say this DM Paradies did not dissapoint me! If you happen to stumble upon a few rolls, definitely give it a try. Please click on the photos to see them in full resolution. Cheers!
