Deciding between Ultrafine Xtreme 400 or Arista EDU Ultra 200

[Gerald C Koch]

You might also consider Eastman 5222, a lovely film. At an ISO of 250 it behaves very much like Tri-Xx and has finer grain. I expose it at an EI of 400. Develops nicely in HC-110, Rodinal or D-76. You can get a 100 ft roll for $89.99. Check out the site they also sell other brands. The Russian Svema 100 at $79.99 looks interesting.

Dead Link Removed

 

[Cholentpot]

Now I understand. Hey, not everybody likes HP5+ either (I do), but that is a personal choice we all have. At least we still have a choice!

I shoot what I can get me messy fingerses on. Last year I shot and developed 50 rolls of the most effed up Kodak Gold 200 12 shot rolls and I loved every moment.

 

[kb244]

I went ahead and ordered a bulk roll of Arista EDU Ultra 200, and a 36ct roll of both Kentmere 100 and 400. Did the order from B&H, so they'll likely be here by wednesday, hopefully before I have to head to campus at 3.

I also suggested Kentmere to the photo department for next fall/winter semester's PO126 film/paper suggestion since it would be coming from the same manufacture as what they already suggest to students (FP4+, HP5+, Ilford Multigrade RC glossy paper // I'm a student employee there, but most of my tasks to date has been assisting the visual arts department, researching equipment that we need, photographing the student's artwork for upcoming accreditation, keeping the digital lab printers working/clean, and photographing events as needed). I understand that Kentmere 100/400 are not the same emulsion as FP4+/HP5+, they seem to share the same dev time for the sprint chemistry (bout 1.5 min longer for Kentmere 400 vs HP5+ but identical for FP4+ vs Kentmere 100). And from the reviews they seem like it would be more suited for a student-affordable, yet modern looking film. Also the reports that K400 dries flatter than FP4+/HP5+ seems like something that would be more desirable among my classmates who are using the ilford branded films currently.

I went with the AEU 200 for myself in bulk because I feel like I'm going to want the "character" it brings, but if I like the K400 in comparison to say Tri-X, I'll consider either bulk, or more rolls of that a couple payrolls from now. (and with any luck I'll still be able to access the darkroom in the back over the summer when I'm working there over summer classes). At worse with the AEU200 I'll just need to filter (red, orange, yellow, etc) the lens outdoors from what I been seeing online.

I'll probably shoot one of the two rolls I have of Foma's Retropan 320 until that order arrives, might mix up a stock batch if Microphen for that since we got some spare boxes in the back since the massive dev chart shows 10-11 minutes for that, but least Retropan 320 has a somewhat 'normal' dev time for HC-110 Dilution B at 7 to 8 minutes, I'm just curious to see how a fine-grain developer like Microphen would do with it, and I need to mix some up anyways to test results with the expired P3200 rolls I have.