Pyrocat-HD & Fomapan anyone ?

[SteveH]

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.

 

[SteveH]

Times it is NOT :

8min
9:30min

I read a post by Mr. King stating that the times for pyrocat 1:1:100 are about 20% less than that of PMK. I found a time of 10min for PMK, hence my starting point.
I agitated once every 30s. If I had more negs, I would start off at 12mins and see where that takes me.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

If you're doing tray development, get a dark green safe light, and develop by inspection. It's really easy. Just develop for 20% less than you think it'll take, turn the light on for a few seconds, look at the neg, throw it back in the developer if it needs more, repeat every minute or two until development is finished. Voila. You have a ballpark figure for how long it takes.
It has been tremendously helpful to me, I've never had to ask for developing times since I did. I do this with sheets, and then develop rolls roughly according to that.

- Thom

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I forgot to mention to do a couple of brackets, over and underexposure, and see what turns out the best.

Michael and Paula I believe have really good instructions on how to do this on their website, under 'Writings' if I recall correctly.

 

[sanking]

What is Fomapan? Is it similar to Forte200, JandC200 and Bergger BPF, or is it different film? I have personally never tested or used it.


Sandy

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.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

What is Fomapan? Is it similar to Forte200, JandC200 and Bergger BPF, or is it different film? I have personally never tested or used it.


Sandy

I have some Fomapan Classic 100, but I haven't tested it yet. From the product description, it may be similar to Efke PL 100.

The Foma website: www.foma.cz

Fomapan Classic 100
A traditional single-layer, silver-rich film. Easily pushes to 200 and 400. Well known as the film that's almost impossible to get an unprintable image from.

Fomapan Creative 200
a T grain film, it is regarded as one of the best medium speed B&W films available with a long scale and tonal range.

Foma Action 400

A traditional single-layer, silver-rich film. Foma 400 is an excellent high-speed film yielding excellent tonal range in a classic emulsion.

 

[SteveH]

Sandy,
Hrmm, I thought you were sent some in December of '04 ?

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[sanking]

No, I recall that John mentioned he would send me some for testing, but he either forgot or the package was lost because I never received the film.

Sandy

Sandy,
Hrmm, I thought you were sent some in December of '04 ?

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[SteveH]

Ah. Well Im going to be giving it another shot this evening. I took double exposures of my 3 shots today, so we'll see what happens. Im going to try 12mins and see where that takes me. Dependant upon my results, I will try the 1:2:100 to try to knock some time off of the successful development time.

 

[SteveH]

If you're doing tray development, get a dark green safe light, and develop by inspection. It's really easy. Just develop for 20% less than you think it'll take, turn the light on for a few seconds, look at the neg, throw it back in the developer if it needs more, repeat every minute or two until development is finished. Voila. You have a ballpark figure for how long it takes.
It has been tremendously helpful to me, I've never had to ask for developing times since I did. I do this with sheets, and then develop rolls roughly according to that.

- Thom

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I don't have a dark green - neither does my local shop. I'll have to snag one online.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Sandy, it's the same film Freestyle uses under Arista EDU Ultra. Dirt cheap if you want to try some. The 200 especially is supposed to be much like Tri-X, only contracts better.

- Thom

What is Fomapan? Is it similar to Forte200, JandC200 and Bergger BPF, or is it different film? I have personally never tested or used it.


Sandy

 

[Tom Stanworth]

Sandy,

By way of likeness:

Some say Foma 100 is close in look and soul to the almost exhausted APX100 and a very good substitute if not up to the legendary Agfa quality control. Suposedly the same gritty street look in rodinal etc.

Some say Foma 200 is incredible and I believe that scratched on emulsion reports generally relate to the 100 with no reports I am aware of on the 200 having this issue from the box. Aparrently only 200 in speed increasing devs and otherwise boxed as Acupan 200. Some say married to FX39 this stuff literally glows. Roger Hicks rates this film and FP4 plus the same in FX39, about ei 125.

Some say Foma T200 is Tgrain. Others (incl Roger Hicks who says he has seem EM images of the emulsion from Foma) says it most definitely is not a T grain film but traditional.

Once my last 20 boxes of APX are gone I will continue with FP4 plus and thro in some foma as well. The 200 especially sounds very interesting esp as it seems not to have quality issues.

Tom

 

[SteveH]

Tom,
So far I have been lucky and haven't had any QC issues with fomapan 100 in 4x5 (I've gone through 75 sheets at this point).

Sandy et al.,
Here is where I stand. Exposing the film at 100asa, I have found that 13mins @20c with 5s agitation every 30s gives about the best results. All of the shots I took today, I metered using incident readings, and followed it up via spot. All of the negs I tested fell within what would be considered normal development.
The negs have great tones to them, and the highlights look great. However, there is a lack of shadow detail. Im sure that the negative should have it on there, as it fell in zone III, but it just isn't on the film.
Therefore, Im thinking that either 80 or 64asa should do the trick, with perhaps 12mins development time. I'll give it a shot tomorrow and let you know how it works out for me.

Regards,

 

[SteveH]

Looking again at the negs this morning, I am thinking that perhaps 64asa might be the better choice. Im waiting for the cloud cover to clear, but hopefully I'll get something today.

 

[sanking]

I am just curious how you meter using incident readings? If you meter in the most highly illuminated areas of the scene you will get under-exposures of 1/2 to to one stop with B&W films with the meter set for the manufactuerer's film speed. If you are really concerned about shadow values double the EI of your film and take the reading in open shadows. (but not in the deepest shadows). Another good solution, perhaps the best one for incident metering with B&W film, is to use the normal ASA value and take two incident readings, one in the shadows, another in the bright part of the scene, and average the two readings. Another option is to halve the film speed and take the reading in the sun but this will not guarantee good shadow detail.

Sandy

Looking again at the negs this morning, I am thinking that perhaps 64asa might be the better choice. Im waiting for the cloud cover to clear, but hopefully I'll get something today.

 

[SteveH]

Sandy,
Sorry, I suppose I should have been more clear in my explination of my meterings. What I did was I took an incident reading of the scene. I then picked out what I believed should lie in zone III, and zone VII. The outcome of these readings for zone V was equal to the incident reading. I did this to be sure that all of my scenes would be of normal contrast range, and to make sure I had the incident reading proper, and visa versa.

Thanks for the help,
Steve

I am just curious how you meter using incident readings? If you meter in the most highly illuminated areas of the scene you will get under-exposures of 1/2 to to one stop with B&W films with the meter set for the manufactuerer's film speed. If you are really concerned about shadow values double the EI of your film and take the reading in open shadows. (but not in the deepest shadows). Another good solution, perhaps the best one for incident metering with B&W film, is to use the normal ASA value and take two incident readings, one in the shadows, another in the bright part of the scene, and average the two readings. Another option is to halve the film speed and take the reading in the sun but this will not guarantee good shadow detail.

Sandy

 

[photo8x10]

No, I recall that John mentioned he would send me some for testing, but he either forgot or the package was lost because I never received the film
Sandy

Hy Sandy,

I bought fomapan 100 some days ago, and I''ve been testing it, here in italy this film exist only in 5x7, my first result the iso range is 32-20 iso, I developed in pyroHD 2:2:100. I think I'll try it the next week, after I'll post my opinion.
Sandy if you want some of this films, I'll send you to test it. Send me you address and I'll do it.

Bye

Stefano

 

[sanking]

Stefano,

Thanks for the offer of sending the film, but I want to first contact John at JandC about the film to make sure I understand what it is and where it is made.

Best,

Sandy

Hy Sandy,

I bought fomapan 100 some days ago, and I''ve been testing it, here in italy this film exist only in 5x7, my first result the iso range is 32-20 iso, I developed in pyroHD 2:2:100. I think I'll try it the next week, after I'll post my opinion.
Sandy if you want some of this films, I'll send you to test it. Send me you address and I'll do it.

Bye

Stefano

 

[fschifano]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I don't have a dark green - neither does my local shop. I'll have to snag one online.

B&H has them in 5.5 inch round and 8x10 and 10x12 in rectanglular format.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...655&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

 

[Shinnya]

Hi,

I am just wondering if anyone has done some testing of this films. Is it more like FP4 type of film or more like modern crispy kind of film?

Any thought on this?

Thanks.

Warmly,
Tsuyoshi

 

[SteveH]

All,
I did get out today, and took shots @ 64, 80, and 100 asa. All of the shots I metered as before - assuring that they had a normal contrast range. Im going to develop the 100asa first (13min @ 20c), as my 'baseline' test, just to make sure this neg looks like the others from a couple of days ago. From there I'll develop the other two ASAs at 13mins as well, and dependant upon how the highlights/contrast look, I'll work my way down from there.
I am bound to be successful today !

Tsuyoshi -
Most (and I agree) seem to believe that this film is a close replacement for APX100. When developed in Rodinal, the two look very close. I will bring some negs with me on Sunday, and you can view for yourself.

 

[Jeremy]

This film is quite nice, but between the blue film base and the stain from the pyrocat I have found that it gives me VERY long printing times (this is enlarged 120) so I am going to try my next couple of rolls out in HC110.

 

[SteveH]

Jeremy,
I have not tried it in HC110 yet. I did like it in Rodinal quite abit. It also looks pretty good in ID-11/D-76.

 

[Shinnya]

Steve,

Then, what is the characteristic curve of APX100 look like? Does anyone have data? Thanks.

Warmly,
Tsuyoshi

Tsuyoshi -
Most (and I agree) seem to believe that this film is a close replacement for APX100. When developed in Rodinal, the two look very close. I will bring some negs with me on Sunday, and you can view for yourself.

 

[SteveH]

I do.....I'll dig it up later tonight.