Foma - the company

[alanrockwood]

Jindřich Puhlovský is a shareholder of Foma Bohemia.
View attachment 197475
An interview with him: https://www.csobpanorama.cz/vidime-to-cernobile/?print=print

I visited Foma Bohemia in 1999, met with commercial director Dana Hojná.
Today the company employs 250 people. Special orders are welcome, one can buy
films in rolls up to 2,000 ft. or even whole jumbos.

That was an extremely interesting and informative article.

 

[CMoore]

Are you a Foma customer that lives in the usa.?
Where do you order your Foma Products from.?
Thank You

 

[lantau]

Jindřich Puhlovský is a shareholder of Foma Bohemia.
Special orders are welcome, one can buy films in rolls up to 2,000 ft. or even whole jumbos.

I'm following an Australian guy on Instagram. He seems to have a film photo business. He is a photographer making prints in his darkroom for exhibition but also offering darkroom courses. Several times he posted pictures of what seems to be a special order from Foma. Each time he received a large freight pallet filled with boxes of paper, film and chemicals. Australian can order Foma stuff from his business.

My feeling was that other film brands are expensive and difficult to source in Australia, so he just did a direct import from Foma for all the photographic materials he needs to use and sell. Despite being a smaller player Foma is still offering the full product range needed from taking a picture to the finished print.You've got to love them for that.

I cannot imagine that you could do that with Kodak or Fuji. Perhaps with Ilford, given the size of the order.

But maybe these imports were financially feasible only because of the low prices when dealing directly with Foma.

 

[pentaxuser]

Certainly in the U.K. Foma bulk rolls, even with the fall in the GBP to Euro exchange rate represent a saving over bulk rolls from Ilford. I won't even mention the farcically expensive Kodak bulk rolls- oops, I just have
This isn't true of Foma paper however but I am not sure if this if genuinely due to it being more expensive than say Ilford paper or some other reason. It has always seemed strange to me that its film(35mm cassette or bulk rolls and 120 rolls) should be so much cheaper than its paper relative to Ilford. It would be interesting to see what the paper price is in the Czech Republic

pentaxuser

 

[lantau]

You can compare by looking at their own factory store: https://fomaobchod.cz/

 

[pentaxuser]

You can compare by looking at their own factory store: https://fomaobchod.cz/

Thanks for that. A worthwhile link. The problem here is that some of the sizes and even some of the quantities differ between the U.K. retailers who sell Foma paper and the Foma factory but on initial analysis one of the comparable groups is 5x7 inches and boxes of 100 and there Foma does appear competitive( roughly equal) with some U.K. retailers - in fact in at least one case actually cheaper. Interestingly I am having difficulty finding a U.K retailer that stocks Foma 5x7 in boxes of 100 although the boxes are clearly available from Foma. A bit of a puzzle is this.

I will examine the Foma site more closely. Thanks again

pentaxuser

 

[gorbas]

So that extended red sensitivity in Fomapan 400 is gone? I'm just entering IR field with Rollei 400 and Kodak Aerographic 2405 and Foma 400 looked interesting with red and deep red filters? Did anybody tried this with most recent batch of Foma 400?

Last week I was reading about IR and turned out Fomapan 400 had some sensitivity, but it was gone more recently as they seem to adjust their formulations according to materials availability; Fomapan 200 suffered from that years ago.

 

[blockend]

As a regular user of Fomapan 100 I notice a small comma shaped black mark frequently when removing dust in Photoshop and enlarging the scan. I'm pretty sure it isn't a digital artefact, but a glitch in the emulsion, or a clot of halides. It doesn't bother me unduly and won't stop me buying the product, but I find it curious that it's a comma or tadpole shape each time.

Any ideas as to the cause?

 

[BradS]

Are you a Foma customer that lives in the usa.?
Where do you order your Foma Products from.?
Thank You

I buy Foma films from Freestyle Photo
but I think Adorama or B&H carry some of their films as well..

 

[alanrockwood]

Are you a Foma customer that lives in the usa.?
Where do you order your Foma Products from.?
Thank You

I buy Arista Edu Ultra film from Freestyle, which is made by Foma.

 

[CMoore]

OK.....Thank You both.
I do not use Freestyle very much. But they Do Cary Foma...quite a bit of it.
Looks like Foma still makes quite a bit of graded paper as well.
I also did not know they were the maker of Arista paper.
Thanks Again

 

[R.Gould]

So that extended red sensitivity in Fomapan 400 is gone? I'm just entering IR field with Rollei 400 and Kodak Aerographic 2405 and Foma 400 looked interesting with red and deep red filters? Did anybody tried this with most recent batch of Foma 400?

I use Foma 400 all the time, my goto film, and I find that the extended red sensitivity is still ingives me an orange filter look with no filter
my most recent buy( around 3 weeks ago) very nice film and in 15 or more years no QC problems, a while ago the lost the blue base, but the emulsion never changed, with a good cloudy sky the imageon fomapan 400
Richard

 

[pentaxuser]

So that extended red sensitivity in Fomapan 400 is gone? Did anybody tried this with most recent batch of Foma 400?

Can you say what the source is for believing or even questioning whether the extended red sensitivity has gone?

pentaxuser

 

[gorbas]

Thank you R. Gould! I will try it very soon.
Pentax user, post #6 on this thred

 

[R.Gould]

Just read the post 6, problem with Fomapan 200 was that they had to re formulate the film as some of the materials were no longer available, at one time it was discontiuned, but due tpopular demand the they re made it but with different formula due to loss of some materials, but the 100 and 400 emulsions remaind the same, I have never used the 100, only the 200 and 400, the 400 was never an IR film, and never intended to be, but had some extended red sensitivity, which I found showed especialy well in Rodinal developer, certainly you do not need an orange filter to get Orange filter look skys, so do not expect IR results with 400, you won't get it, but lovely cloudy skys with out any filters
Richard

 

[Prest_400]

Sorry if I caused some misunderstanding. I specifically referred to IR wood effects with a R72 type filter, basically from anecdotal information of other photographers. Source: https://www.flickr.com/groups/68975634@N00/discuss/72157645677712153/

 

[Stephen Prunier]

I also use FOMA 100 and 400 in 35mm & 120mm. I purchase it either through Freestyle, or B&H. You can find it as Freestyle's, Arista EDU Ultra.

 

[gorbas]

Thank you for clarification Prest_400! I'm thinking about using Foma 400 with IR720 filter as well as with regular #25.

Sorry if I caused some misunderstanding. I specifically referred to IR wood effects with a R72 type filter, basically from anecdotal information of other photographers. Source: https://www.flickr.com/groups/68975634@N00/discuss/72157645677712153/

 

[Роберт]

The Foma factory in Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic.

Instead of a less big B&W program or no B&W film anymore (Fujifilm), Foma expanded their B&W film with the Retropan 320 Soft which will be available this month on 120 roll film too.

It was already two years available on 35mm and sheet film. Here my example on 35mm with the Zorki-6 and I-50 lens.

The grain can be exceptional big.

Since 1998 I have a good relationship with Foma. They made a big improvement in Q.C. and their last obselete B&W film was the T800 in 2001. In the USA they are also selling under Arista brand.
At the moment they have just about 300 employees and indeed their medical department with X-ray products is still very important. How bad my vacation ended last year in Mykolaiv, Ukraine where they made in the hospital an X-ray from my back with an old Russian type X-ray machine loaded with Foma X-ray film. Anyhow I survived the whole thing and after payment of Hrivna 60 which is about Eur. 2 I could take the pictures to my fysiotherapy in the city.

Also on Foma film:

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I use Arista EDU 100 and 400 which is Foma film. I like the look of it when it's processed in HC-110. It has horrible reciprocity though.

 

[darkosaric]

I think Xray films are used a lot in the countries where there are no so many APUG users .

 

[BAC1967]

At the moment they have just about 300 employees and indeed their medical department with X-ray products is still very important. How bad my vacation ended last year in Mykolaiv, Ukraine where they made in the hospital an X-ray from my back with an old Russian type X-ray machine loaded with Foma X-ray film. Anyhow I survived the whole thing and after payment of Hrivna 60 which is about Eur. 2 I could take the pictures to my fysiotherapy in the city.

"Old Russian type X-Ray"! You may want to see a doctor about radiation exposure.

 

[Martin Rickards]

Thanks for that. A worthwhile link. The problem here is that some of the sizes and even some of the quantities differ between the U.K. retailers who sell Foma paper and the Foma factory but on initial analysis one of the comparable groups is 5x7 inches and boxes of 100 and there Foma does appear competitive( roughly equal) with some U.K. retailers - in fact in at least one case actually cheaper. Interestingly I am having difficulty finding a U.K retailer that stocks Foma 5x7 in boxes of 100 although the boxes are clearly available from Foma. A bit of a puzzle is this.

I will examine the Foma site more closely. Thanks again

pentaxuser

Here in Spain I can get Fomaspeed variant RC 13x18cms in 100 sheet boxes for €29.61 VAT included a tad cheaper than the Kentmere equiv.

 

[flavio81]

Certainly in the U.K. Foma bulk rolls, even with the fall in the GBP to Euro exchange rate represent a saving over bulk rolls from Ilford. I won't even mention the farcically expensive Kodak bulk rolls- oops, I just have

Same here. Foma film is joyfully affordable.

Ilford is expensive.

Kodak... ridiculously expensive. The difference in price between HP5 and TriX here is a sick joke.

 

[Kino]

Jindřich Puhlovský is a shareholder of Foma Bohemia.
View attachment 197475
An interview with him: https://www.csobpanorama.cz/vidime-to-cernobile/?print=print

I visited Foma Bohemia in 1999, met with commercial director Dana Hojná.
Today the company employs 250 people. Special orders are welcome, one can buy
films in rolls up to 2,000 ft. or even whole jumbos.

Thank you for that article! I love the perforator he is leaning upon...