Chinese "Era" B&W film and paper -- experience?

Hey all

Resisted temptation mightily at the one and only Wukesong camera mall, in Beijing, a couple days ago.

Fighting the urge to pick up a Shen Hao 617 or 8x10 (being broke helps with such urges) I did break down and decide to experiment with some Chinese products. Picked up some ASA100 Shanghai film in 120, along with a 25-box of Era film (haven't heard of it before) and a 50 sheet box of Era B&W paper.

Has anyone used these products before? I'm OK with trial and error and doing my own research...but know that someone else's wisdom can cut the learning curve a lot.

I highly recommend that mall, to anyone travelling in Beijing! Some of the out of the way stalls have stuff I never dreamed of seeing...although I do urge some fluency in Mandarin or someone else to help you with the language and bartering.

You must be "LUCKY" with your purchase!

Era 35mm film is really excellent and great quality. fantastic tonality with Rodinal. Buy some! Not so keen on Shanghai 120 - quality control is a bit lax bit great for pinhole or if you are going to scan. Love to try the paper sometime. I seem to recall Mr Rudman saying that there is a chinese paper that liths well.

I got an overwhelming urge to try some Shanghai GP3 film a while ago, so I ordered a brick via eBay. I'm attaching scans of one shot from my test roll. One of these is a full-frame scan scaled to 800x800; the other is an 800x800 crop of the scan. (The scan was a direct negative scan at 2400 dpi on an Epson flatbed scanner.) APUG may scale these uploads, too. My notes indicate that I developed in Dead Link Removed 2+1 for 10:00 at 20C, with good density. Physically, the film is extremely curly -- even worse than Foma films in this respect. The emulsion also seems very prone to scratching, so exercise extreme caution when handling it.

Oh, one other comment: When I removed the Shanghai GP3 from the camera, there was no obvious way to seal the roll (no glued paper strip as with other brands). I later found a glued paper strip in the empty film-feed location in the camera, but the glue was so weak it would probably be useless. The fact that it came off the roll as I wound it to the end speaks volumes, I think. So: Be sure to carry some tape or a rubber band or something if you expect to shoot more than one roll of the GP3!

How much were the Shen-Hao 8x10's?

I didn't price the 8x10's -- I hang my head in shame for that one, but in my defence my companion was pretty impatient. IIRC the vendor advertises in View Camera magazine (the only one based in Beijing, natch).

Impressive that they even had the 617 on display and available, too.

I've used a lot of ERA-100 in 35mm, and I love it - it's my most-used 35mm film these days.

I've got a few galleries on flickr with it...

Developed in HC-110 dil B, here and here.

And in Rodinal 1:50 here.

And that reminds me, I'm running low - Mr Chen might be getting an order from me soon

Oh yes, I meant to say that I get excellent full-range tonality from ERA-100, especially in the mid-tones, and it's really smooth in HC-110.

And in Rodinal it still seems to retain most of the tonality, even if it loses a bit of the smoothness, but it gets an extra bit of bite and sharpness.

oscroft said:

Oh yes, I meant to say that I get excellent full-range tonality from ERA-100, especially in the mid-tones, and it's really smooth in HC-110.

And in Rodinal it still seems to retain most of the tonality, even if it loses a bit of the smoothness, but it gets an extra bit of bite and sharpness.

Click to expand...

I agree.
Attached is in R09 @1:40
Zorki6/Industar

I must say I just got a few rolls of 135 from a Taiwan based e-bay vendor. The packaging is similar to the lucky, (clear plastic can) and the cassette looks like the old reusable Fuji type. (before they switched to crimped ends) The film has some grey in the base. I am part way through exposing my first roll. I did find the makers (Shantou ERA Limited Corporation) web site, and they not only recommend d-76, they provide the formula in case you need it! The site only mentions the ISO 100, and also the ISO100 Sheet version on a poly base. http://www.chinastera.com/English/ERA1/English_product3.htm I will be very curious to see what sort of results I get.

I wonder if their is a North American distributor for their products ?