The Future of Colour and B&W Film with Ilford...

[gbroadbridge]

For photographers like Clyde Butcher shooting LF

I thought Clive Butcher went digital after his stroke - or has he flipped back?

 

[Ian Grant]

I thought Clive Butcher went digital after his stroke - or has he flipped back?

I don't know anything about him except he still makes very large, expensive prints. My point was there are people out there who would really benefit from a slow sheet film.

Ian

 

[DREW WILEY]

How would ULF shots benefit from a slow film, given that such tiny f-stops must be employed anyway? One slow film which did catch on was Efke 25, an orothpan film with an exceptional long illumination capacity range - which was its real benefit. By contrast, Pan F (in the real world, itself 25 speed) has an exceptionally short range.

 

[isaac7]

FP4 and Delta 100 use blue in their packaging, HP5 and Delta 400 Green, so logically a new Delta 25 (or 50) could be the same yellow/orange packaging as Pan F.

I agree with @Lachlan Young I would much prefer a completely new slow UFG (Ultra Fine Grain). Pan F has its issues, latent image stability for instance, I preferred Agfa AP25 then APX25 in 120 when shooting it in a 6x9 roll film back, alongside 5x4 APX100 or Kodak's Tmax100 @ 50 EI.

Someone says why do we need a IFG film as sheet film. I remember EFKE films being marketed in the UK 1978 after the plant and rights had been transferred from DuPont, in Germany, to Zagreb. LF quality from KB14 (20 ASA Tungsten), well almost in terms of fine grain, excellent sharpness with the best lenses, horribly poor emulsion hardening. I would add hardener to the developer.

Then Kodak introduced Technical Pan, in 35mm people claimed LF quality in POTA or Technidol. But hey Tech Pan was available as sheet film. EFKE improved their film hardening, a game changer, emulsions were renamed with their ASA Tungsten light speeds, instead of DIN. KB14 became KB25, the KB just means "cine" 35mm format R was roll film and PL sheet film.

I still use 5x4 EFKE PL25 occasionally at its 50 ISO Daylight speed, it us such a sharp, grain-less film. I still have a couple of boxes of 10x8, but just a few sheets of 5x4 left.

For photographers like Clyde Butcher shooting LF and printing up to 52"x76" a sheet film like Pan F or a slow Delta film would be of interest.

Ian

How about Kodak 2237 in sheet film? It’s at least a stop slower than Efke 25 so not sure how useful it would be. It is an emulsion already being made and I think the base would be the same as it is made with now.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I can't think of anything which would replace Efke 25. All the micro-style films have pretty bad gradation at the extremes. Ekfe could easily handle 12 stops of SBR without resorting to heavy-handed compression ("minus"/ "pull") development, which crushes the life and sparkle out of much of the microtonal gradation.