Foma - the company

[Europan]

A Bell & Howell perforator as patented by 1917. Before B. & H. made it under a licence from Williamson & Son in England. The American Perforator Co. aided B. & H. in turning the English apparatus into a rugged device. The principle remains unchanged to this day.

 

[mshchem]

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.

I'm not sure when this interview was given. Both the owner and the banker seem to be expecting to be the last and only producer of black and white products. Interesting but I think unlikely.

 

[tsobota]

I'm not sure when this interview was given...

If you look at the html source of the page, the pictures are loaded from a folder named ".../uploads/2016/05", so the interviews were probably made in May 2016 or thereabout.
Tom

 

[Tony Egan]

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.....

Chris provides a great service to Australian photographers:
https://blanconegro.com.au/

 

[mshchem]

If you look at the html source of the page, the pictures are loaded from a folder named ".../uploads/2016/05", so the interviews were probably made in May 2016 or thereabout.
Tom

Foma makes beautiful papers, I have not tried their film. I hope they stay around for a long time. In the past way back I used Kodak Medalist and Ektalure, I used a Lot of Forte ,now mostly Ilford. Foma quit making the chloride Azo like contact paper, that's a shame.

 

[marcmarc]

I've given Foma several chances over the years. No more. Their QC has never improved in my experience and the 100 speed film I've found to be way too contrasty with highlights that block up with both Rodinal and HC-110 even with developing times as short as 5 minutes.

 

[tih]

Yeah, the high contrast of the Foma films is a challenge. Their RetroPAN 320 is much better in this respect, though, and my initial flutters with it look promising.