Budget B+W film [china]

[el wacho]

uncle goose, where are you getting your foma film from? i'm here in Turkey and looking for affordable sources of film and paper. thanks.

 

[mrred]

Sorry for the delay in returning to this thread . . .

Great reading and I have decided to stay away from the chinese stuff.
Fomapan sounds great and it is European so should be cheaper on the
delivery costs.

Funny, I use fomapan as my main 120 film and this thread made me go buy 40 rolls of lucky on the ebay. I tried fomapan for my experimental stash a year ago, and now use it as my main fine grain 120 film of choice. Wake up Kodak and Ilford.

I have, and still do, use tmy txp and hp5+ in my mf work (play actually as I have a day job). They have an edge on film speed with quality. I just find they are not worth the price and I use them as little as possible. Any edge in SF is needed, but MF+LF does not suffer as much. If they want my money they need to adapt.

 

[olleorama]

I too have tried to keep costs down by buying cheap film, but eventually succumbed to what others told me straight away, buying good film. If I know myself, which I do, I know that I wouldn't listen to such advice anyway. For the curious here are my results from a few cheap films I've stumbled upon

Shanghai GP3, 100 120 Good resolution, nice tonality, tried it both rodinal and diafine. I like it, but it has some serious drawbacks, firstly the curling can be horrible. Some rolls have looked like pretzels, others have been quite okay. Another issue I've had has been something that looks like light leaks by the edges of the film. It could of course be real light leaks, although it should have been present on others film (specially on portra), but they haven't so I'm guessing it's the film. I even developed two different films at the same time and only shanghai got the light leaks... It sort of sucks when you really made an effort and your photos turned out to have the lomo look.

Fomapan 400, 35mm Terrible, dreadful, I hate it. Coarse as gravel and takes forever to clear. Tonality looks screwy compared to modern films. Avoid. My 16x20 prints from Tmax looks better than 5x7 from fomapan 400. I find it really hard to believe anybody could actually like this film. If this film would have been a child it would be put out to the wolves or in an orphanage.

Fortepan 100, 120 Got a 10 pack for next to nothing, and I don't like it. Poor resolution, sort of counterproductive to use MF if the negs are like 35 mm shots with a good film. Can't seem to get the high lights thru no matter what I do. Will use up the rolls I've got though.

ERA PSS 100 4x5 This is a film I like. No problem with curling of course, and good resolution. It is definitely worth it's price. I showed the package to my girl friend who is an AD and she absolutely loved it. Has nothing to do with photography, but if you don't like the film, you'll still have a beatiful box, that's not bad for $12.

I've more or less standardised my B&W stuff on delta 100 for 120, tmax 100 for 35 and ERA for 4x5. tmax because I felt bad for Kodak, they make extremely good products, and even though the are a notch more expensive than Ilford, they are so worth it. But since I shoot Portra I figure I'll support ilford too.

 

[Emulsion]

Regarding Lucky film, the following was published on the web in 2003.

"Kodak will provide US$54.5 million and technical support to assist Lucky in upgrading its existing triacetate film base production and coating lines, and give an emulsion and coating line to Lucky.

Kodak also promises to provide manufacturing technology support to Lucky on an ongoing basis to enable it to produce world-class colour products."

http://www.china.org.cn/english/BAT/78256.htm

 

[Uncle Goose]

uncle goose, where are you getting your foma film from? i'm here in Turkey and looking for affordable sources of film and paper. thanks.

I use Fotohuis Rovo ( Dead Link Removed ). Prices are great and shipping is certainly reasonable, of course to be cheaper off you better order a large amount of stuff, I usally order 40 rolls and save some serious €. I don't have an affiliation with this web-shop except being a happy customer.

 

[PhotoJim]

Beau Photo in Vancouver stocks Foma (at least this was true when I was in the store in May 2008).

The best way to get non-Kodak/Ilford film in Canada is by mail. I've gotten Era, Lucky, Shanghai, Foma and Forte that way. (Forte was also sold at Eight Elm Photo in Toronto, but Forte is no longer in production.)

I like Lucky and Shanghai films, but the thin film base on the 120 version is extremely annoying. Still, my results have been quite good . The Shanghai film responds very well to pyrogallol; I haven't yet tried Lucky 100 in that chemical.