Pyrocat-HD & Fomapan anyone ?

[Ian Grant]

Eddie, its 52 years since I held my first camera and in all that time I too have never heard of "SBR" or "EFS" so have to make a guess and hope I understand them.

But I reckon SBR is subject brightness range in f stops, and EFS is Effective Film Speed,

Ian

 

[Jed Freudenthal]

All,
I was just about ready to drop into the developing mood when I discovered that no one lists a dev. time for fomapan 100 in pyrocat-hd. I searched the site, and came across the same question - without an answer.

Anyone ?

Edit: Tray Development.

I recently tested the film in 4x5" size and found it defective. I reported it to the manufacturar. Wait for the response.

Jed

 

[sanking]

anyone else using foma 100 and pyrocat hd? i do not have any quality issues with my foma film. i use tanks development with hc110 at 20 degrees. dil h for 9 min (dil G (119:1) for 18min) very very successfully.

i would like to try some pyrocat hd. i am finding it difficult to find a starting point.

i do not understand "SBR or EFS"

thanks for the help.

eddie

Eddie,

I have never tested the Foma film in Pyrocat-HD so can not offer much advice. However, unless it is very different from other ASA 100 films I would suggest a time of about 12 minutes at 70F using tank development and the 1:1:100 dilution of Pyrocat-HD. That should certainly get you in the ball park for silver printing, though you may have to make some adjustments with VC filters.

Subject Brightness Range is a BTZS (Beyond the Zone System) term that calculates the subject luminance range of the subject in stops when using Davis' incident metering system. SBR of 7 is considered normal. When you do BTZS testing the SBR of the subject determines how much develoment is needed.

EFS means effective film speed. Generally the speed of a film in a given developer is not constant, but increases with time of development.

Understanding and using a system of sensitometry may help one make better negatives, though some don't consider it necessary.

Sandy

 

[Ian Grant]

One major problem of the BTZS is you really need a densitometer, but in reality its only taking the Zone System and expanding on it, which seems to make a lot of sense if your producing prints by alternative processes.

Pyrocat-HD is a superb developer and once you've settled on your dev times and effective EI it's usually very easy to use a different film and as Sandy King says be in the ball park, then tweak it to suit yourself.

My own tests with Pyrocat-HD were made with Tmax100, but Tmax400, Fortepan 400 and EFKE PL25 are just as easy to use, however the Fomapan 100 & 200 films are quite different. They really do need testing afresh, the ball-park times etc don't quite seem to work, the results are extremely contrasty. I have 30+ rolls of 120 and a few boxes of 5x4 and 9x12 so I jhave to get it right. When I had to use FP4 & HP5 recently, two films I've not used for 20 years (the only 120 B&W films available in Chile), it was quite the opposite my ballpark dev time 15mins 1+1+100 @ 20°C worked perfectly.

Ian

I'm adding that numerous posters on APUG state that their EI's for Foma films are 2 stops below the box speed, my guess is my own test will indicate something similar.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

One major problem of the BTZS is you really need a densitometer, but in reality its only taking the Zone System and expanding on it, which seems to make a lot of sense if your producing prints by alternative processes.

Pyrocat-HD is a superb developer and once you've settled on your dev times and effective EI it's usually very easy to use a different film and as Sandy King says be in the ball park, then tweak it to suit yourself.

My own tests with Pyrocat-HD were made with Tmax100, but Tmax400, Fortepan 400 and EFKE PL25 are just as easy to use, however the Fomapan 100 & 200 films are quite different. They really do need testing afresh, the ball-park times etc don't quite seem to work, the results are extremely contrasty. I have 30+ rolls of 120 and a few boxes of 5x4 and 9x12 so I jhave to get it right. When I had to use FP4 & HP5 recently, two films I've not used for 20 years (the only 120 B&W films available in Chile), it was quite the opposite my ballpark dev time 15mins 1+1+100 @ 20°C worked perfectly.

Ian

I'm adding that numerous posters on APUG state that their EI's for Foma films are 2 stops below the box speed, my guess is my own test will indicate something similar.

My notes show that I got good results by rating 35mm Foma 100 at an effective film speed of 50 and semi-stand developing for 14 minutes with Pyrocat-HD 1+1+100 @ 20°C.

 

[eddie gunks]

great! thanks all. i will try 12-14 min. tonight or tomorrow. i shot 2 negs for each subject today and i will try 13 min....what the heck ( i can adjust the 2nd neg accordingly). i also shot 2 sheets of the same scene at twice the exposure. what would you all suggest for a decrease in development % for a one stop increase of exposure? ball parks are fine. i play well in ballparks.

i have very good results with foma 100 in hc110 so i anticipate the same using pyrocat hd. i ma trying to set myself up for some van dyke and kallitype printing. thanks again. i will report back.

eddie

 

[fschifano]

The blue film base must be anti-halation backing that was not removed in normal processing. Soak the film in a dilute solution of sodium sulfite (1 teaspoonfull per liter of water) for about ten minutes and the blue base should go away.

Stain should not add extra printing time with silver papers unless the film was over-exposed, or developed much to much, or the film is outdated and has a lot of B+F.

Sandy

The blue base is not leftover anti-halation dye. This film, in medium format, has a blue tinted base. I've seen it myself and it is so described in the manufacturer's documentation.

 

[eddie gunks]

thanks all,
i developed 3 sheets tonight. i rated the foma 100 at 50. i souped em at 70 F for 12 minutes. they look great! i will try and print them in a few days. i will try them with regular B&W and with my "new to me" van dyke printing. stay tuned.

i shot 3 sets of negs. 2 metered "normal" and one with a bit extra. (the normal was 8 sec. the next one was 20 sec.) the 8 sec neg looks good. the 20 sec neg is much denser. i will try and print both using van dyke and regular B&W and see how i do. should i decrease development for the next over exposed negs? i have another neg for every exposure i made. if so, by how much?

thanks again.

eddie