Forte Portraitpan 100 same as Arista.Edu (Hungary) film?

[Kino]

I just shot and processed a role of OOD (1994) 120 Forte Portraitpan 100 B&W negative and liked what I saw as it was drying. I did a simple 7 min in undiluted D76; nothing special.

I finally got to try out my Yashica D bought at a garage sale for $5!

"I don't think you can get films for that anymore..."

Beautiful! I must confess though, half the roll is double exposures because of the manual shutter cocking and non-coupled film advance. Took a while to come up with a system; now I assume the shot in the camera HAS been exposed and advance the frame, set the exposure (not supposed to change shutter speeds after cocking the shutter), cock the shutter and fire.

What I like best is that it looks like something between Pan-X and Tri-X with a nice grain structure.

Anyway, since I only have one more roll, I was hoping to get more, but it is $5.99 USD a roll at Omega/Slatter; the US Distributor.

I noticed that Freestyle has a section in their current catalog that has their house brand Arista.edu is made in Hungary. I assume it is also made by Forte, but could be wrong. It would be nice, as their price is $1.39 USD per roll with a break at 50 rolls to $1.29.

Anyone know for certain?

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Arista EDU Ultra is Fomapan...the Hungary film is Fortepan, IIRC.

 

[Kino]

Arista EDU Ultra is Fomapan...the Hungary film is Fortepan, IIRC.

Huh?

Why would they sell branded Fomapan AND a house brand from Foma when they are so close in price?

 

[Stephanie Brim]

*shrug* The house brand is decently cheaper than the Foma in 135 and sheet sizes.

 

[Kino]

OK, I went to the online Freestyle site and found they sell the Forte 100 for $2.39; much better than the other source.

Working my way toward my 4x5 Crown Graphic from a police auction and the Arista.edu looks just the ticket to get comfortable with the system. It even came with a fingerprint photographing attachment!

House branding makes things confusing...

Thanks for the info Stephanie!

 

[srs5694]

Freestyle has or had at least four suppliers for their "Arista" line of film. From memory:

• Arista Pro = Ilford
• Arista II = Agfa
• Arista.EDU = Forte
• Arista.EDU Ultra = Foma

Some of these are no longer available or are available only in limited quantities (and possibly out-of-date).

Note that they use the same names for their papers, but at least one paper supplier is different than noted above, but I don't recall the details, except that Foma does supply the Arista.EDU Ultra paper.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

The EDU Ultra films, both 100 and 200, and the papers are supposed to be top notch. I mean, they're Foma, so anything you hear about Foma can be applied to the Edu Ultra as well. I'm thinking about picking up some in 5x7 for the plate cam and 35mm for my Canon P and others. I'm also thinking about picking up some 5x7 and 8x10 paper to do contact prints on with the 5x7.