Development times for Svema Foto 65

Hi---

I took a flyer on a cheap auction and bought some 20-year-old Svema Foto 65 (nominally 80 ASA) to play with. It may well be fogged beyond usefulness, but I thought I might as well find out, so I've just shot a smoke test, rating it a little low.

Anyone know how to develop this stuff? I'm using HC-110 for preference, but if someone has a time for a different developer I can try to extrapolate from that. I'd like to avoid using Diafine (I'm tray-developing, and I'm nervous about getting solution B into solution A in the dark).

Thanks

-NT

I'm not sure about Foto 65 -- I believe that Svema changed their products sometime after what you've got was made -- but I've got some Svema FN64 and I've developed it in several developers, each time exposing at EI 64:

• Dead Link Removed 2+1, 12:00 at 20C -- Came out a bit dense. I have yet to try it at a shorter time, but my notes suggest trying 10:00 or 11:00.
• PC-Glycol 1+1+48, 10:00 at 20C -- Good density, but a hint of unevenness in the development.
• Rodinal 1+25, 6:15 at 20C -- Excellent results.
• Rodinal 1+50, 11:00 at 20C -- Very good results.
• XTOL 1+1, 11:00 at 20C -- Hideous results. Good density, but uneven development with huge and ugly ugly ugly grain. Very surprisingly bad.

I've also seen suggestions of D-76 1+1 for 8:00 at 20C, but I've never tried that. Your box may have a developing time stamped on it. That's the time in the Soviet standard developer #2, which is similar (perhaps identical; my sources are contradictory) to Agfa/Ansco 12.

Overall, I like this film in Rodinal 1+25 best; that combination produces a nice old-fashioned feel and good tonality. Rodinal 1+50 seemed to lose a bit of the film's charm, but maybe that was just the subjects I shot on that roll. My DS-12 roll seemed similar to the Rodinal 1+50 results, but it might do better with less development. PC-Glycol was a bit uneven and XTOL produced unspeakably hideous results. My guess is that phenidone and/or the phenidone/ascorbate combination just doesn't work well with this film. I intend to develop the rest of my stock in Rodinal, although I may give DS-12 another try.

Thanks for the suggestions. From the times you posted, I inferred "not wildly different from Efke 100", so gave it 7 minutes in HC-110 dilution B.

The results...well, the development looks reasonable, but the film is, as you might expect, a bit messed up. There's a bit of a light leak at one end (I assume from the box, which seemed seriously inadequate for light protection), some very large light streaks across the image, and a bit of random mottling all over the negative, including in the unexposed borders.

The result may actually look kind of interesting, but I wouldn't count on this film to produce a reasonable image of the object being photographed. However, this *was* the top sheet of a stack that didn't seem to be very well protected, and further down things may not be as bad. Research continues.

-NT

Good luck with it. My Svema FN64 was just a few months past date when I bought it, and I immediately dropped it all in the freezer, save the roll I shot first. Thus, mine's in good condition and produces good enlargements, with no undue fog or weirdness on the negatives. I've got an 8x12-inch enlargement from this film hung on my wall, in fact. I pull the film out when I want a certain feel to the prints. In current products, I'd say that Efke 50 is probably closest to the Svema.

Hi

So nice to be reminded of this stuff. Biggest part of my APUG portfolio (there was a url link here which no longer exists) was shot in late 80-s - early 90-s on Svema 65 which expired in 1967 - sheet film 18x24 cm. I don't remember what developer I used. I recall there was in Russia so called Developer #2. Anyway, the film was so slow, I used condensed versions of developers and even added paper developer sometimes. But I like uneven development and odd effects.

I used Svema 65 only because it was the only film available in my circumstances. As soon as Kodak and Ilford appeared in Russia I used them or, when I had no money, didn't shoot at all but never bought cheap Svema.

Victor,

that actually is a really inspiring portfolio with a lot of funny quotes!

-Sino.