Did Fomapan 100 change in recent (2 to 3) years?

Hi,

I'm developing my 2nd or 3rd roll of Fomapan 100 (135). When I looked at the inside of the cardboard package which has development instructions, it seems development times have decreased since my first time developing of Foma 100.

I'm using ID-11. In the old version, times were 8 to 9 mins, in the new version times are 6 to 7 mins,

See attached pics. Left side is "new", right side is "old". "old" version exp. date is 7/2016, "new" version exp. date is 7/2018.

regards,
chris

Please excuse my upside down pics. They looked correct when watching them on my PC. And, yes, due to this left is right, and right is left.

The one with the hand-written notes is the older one.

We (a group of film shooters) were to visit Foma factory this year. They are struggling to get chemicals, gelatin, film base replacements to replace their long time suppliers who stopped the production. Some changes of such components may lead to changes of development times. Although they are really trying to minimize such impacts they are inevitable sometimes. It is for example quite problematic to get backing paper for 120 film now and they are not satisfied with the replacement they have. In the past some photographers complained that Foma 100 is more like Foma 80 so maybe they improved it a little bit

The times on the newer box agree with the Fomapan 100 datasheet dated september 2016, so they should be correct. I started to shoot Fomapan only relatively recently so I cannot comment on any "visible" changes to the material.

Stanislav Boščík said:

It is for example quite problematic to get backing paper for 120 film now and they are not satisfied with the replacement they have.

Click to expand...

Oh great, I just bought five rolls for a shoot this weekend....

For the record, I've developed the new film 6m30s in ID-11, and it came out fine.

regards,
chris

Foma 100 is the true old master’s film.

You heard about old tri-x?
You think that modern tri-x is a legendary film?

All along you’ve been missing Foma 100!

+1

I've been using a 100' roll with an expiration date of June 2019.
I've been getting great results with D-76 1:1 at 10 minutes. For a stock solution of ID-11 my times would, more or less, match up with your newer times of 6-7 minutes.
I don't know about the older formula as I've only started shooting Foma with this roll, but with the current version contrast can climb pretty quickly so I would definitely use the shorter, 6-minute time as my starting point and keep agitation pretty gentle.

Some years ago they have to reformulate all their emulsions due to a supply problems with some of their sensitizers components. The result was a drop in effective sensitivity and longer development times. Perhaps now they have managed to recover some of what they missed previously.