I developed two rolls of Arista.EDU Ultra 400 film last night and they have a blue cast to them. Is this a sign of improper fixing (similar to the Kodak film grey/purple tint?) or is it some sort of fogging?
Also, when people said that this film is thin they really weren't kidding.
And I did get some fogging on the very edge of the end of the roll.
And the frame numbers overlap into the very edge of the film.
Other than that, $1.50 a roll and i'm happy.
The blue base is normal. It's a blue tinted Polyester base and the blue is permanent, it will not wash out. My experience with the Foma/EDU.Ultra films are that they have some really great qualities but quality control is a major problem so I guess you sort of get what you pay for in this case. In the past two weeks having shot about 8 rolls of various Foma and EDU.Ultra branded fims, I have seen emulsion defects in the 100 speed as well as come across rolls of the EDU.Ultra 100 which were either cut too short or the starting arrow was at the wrong place resulting in my last frame going off the end of the film! This is in my Fuji GSW690111 which has never ever had any issues and which tested perfect shortly afterwards. Of the Foma/EDU.ULTA films, the 200 speed is pretty impressive and I have not seen as many issues with that speed for some reason. I would shoot the 100 a lot more if there was not these quality issues. None of them have the quality control of Kodak, Fuji or Ilford.
The 120 film has the coloured base, but it's absent in the 35mm version (which is actually very clear and -- stupidly -- has no edge frame-number marking).
Hmm, the Arista.edu Ultra that I've shot had edge frame numbering (although it seems to go up to 75 or something). My problem with it is that the emulsion was scratched (on every roll, no matter what camera I used, so I think this happened when they loaded it). This is a pity because I really like the look of the 100 when shot at 50.
My experience is that the non-bulk rolls of 35mm Foma/Arista.EDU Ultra films have frame numbers (two numbers per normal 35mm frame, so they go up to ~70), whereas the bulk rolls lack frame numbers. Personally, I prefer having frame numbers, although if they'd overlap into the frames, I guess it's better not to have them!