A Revelation

[Venchka]

Last spring I bought 10 rolls each of Arista Premium 100 & 400 from Freestyle.

About a month ago I finally finished the first roll of the Premium 100. When I opened the camera and saw the 100 canister and looked at the meter and saw it set to 400 I was dismayed. Last week I got up the nerve to develop the roll of grossly underexposed Premium 100. Looking in my German Kodak Xtol technical manual, I arrived at a time of 12 1/2 minutes for Plus-X at 400 in Xtol 1:3 and rotary processing. I scanned the first few negatives from the roll last night. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Is this film really Plus-X? Who cares. It looks good!

Can this film be pushed to 400? You bet!

The Arista Premium 100/Plus-X could well be the best 400 speed and push developed film I've ever shot. I may use the Arista Premium 400/Tri-X as my high speed 800 & up pushed film.

For the time being, Arista Premium 100 serves my purposes in the 100-400 range. Maybe 50-100 as well. I wish Freestyle/Kodak would package this stuff in 120 and sell it for the same price as 35mm.

Cheers!

 

[mattmoy_2000]

Why would they rate it at 100 if it was plus-x? There's no advantage to telling people the wrong EI...

 

[erikg]

Why would they rate it at 100 if it was plus-x? There's no advantage to telling people the wrong EI...

Nevertheless, this is what they have done. Subterfuge? +1/3 is not a big deal anyway.

 

[clayne]

Because most people rate 125PX at 100 anyways? It's in an advantageous direction so if anything the "wrong" EI they're stating is more benefit than hurt.

Also, it's only 100->400 is merely 2 stops. Easily handled by any modern negative film.

 

[Venchka]

Will this discussion ever cease? Box speed is merely a place to start. Box speed is not a substitute for proper individual testing.

I have encountered films that handled 2 stops underexposure less well than the Arista branded Plus-X. Or, put a different way, this film looks better at 400 than several films I have tried with a box speed of 400. The last 400 film I tried and liked, in 4x5 and 120, was Ilford HP5+ at 250. So, not exactly a 400 speed film, non?

 

[Anscojohn]

Why would they rate it at 100 if it was plus-x? There's no advantage to telling people the wrong EI...

******
Many people find the actual speed of plus x is 80.

 

[Venchka]

******
Many people find the actual speed of plus x is 80.

Personal E.I. is just that - personal. It is what is. It can vary with different shutters, meters, etc. Hand 10 folks a roll of the same film. Instruct them in the proper way to test for E.I. It's very possible that you will get 10 different answers. That's not the point here.

My point is that this is a very nice film. Pick an E.I. Develop accordingly.

Enjoy.