Why is 35MM BW ISO 800 film so difficult to find?

[Tom Kershaw]

In 1999-2000 the Paterson Acupan 200 and 800 were Fomapan T200 and T800 films. The Fomapan T800 film was discontinued in 2001.

Although Fomapan 200 is still a traditional grain film IIRC.

Tom.

 

[RobertV]

Although Fomapan 200 is still a traditional grain film IIRC

It's a mixture between classical cubical crystals and hexagonal crystals.

I find it a nice film for architecture. The effective film speed is however iso 100-160 in most developers. Fomapan Creative 200 is doing well in R09/Rodinal, RHS/AM74, D76/ID11 and Xtol.

Here some 35mm examples:
Dead Link Removed

and here 120 rolfilm:
http://gallery.fotohuisrovo.nl/thumbnails.php?album=12

 

[Tom Kershaw]

To confirm, mentions of Fomapan 200 speed films are all referring to the same product?

Tom.

 

[Philippe Grunchec]

@Robert: and in D-23, Pyrocat HD!

 

[RobertV]

and in D-23, Pyrocat HD!

D-23 is close to D76 so I directly believe you.

I never tried Pyrocad HD but Finol (Moersch, also a pyro developer) is also fitting with T200.

I tried out last month W665 (Windisch), based on Ortho Phenylene Diamine, an ultra fine grain developer (1941) on the Fomapan Creative 200 film. From 35mm to 40x50cm and almost no visuable grain and nice large grey tones.

This was my test chart on iso 100, 9:45 minutes in W665.

 

[Philippe Grunchec]

Is that Foma 200 at 100 ISO? 135 or 120?
Did you try CG512 with Foma films?

 

[RobertV]

Is that Foma 200 at 100 ISO? 135 or 120?

This is Fomapan 200 35mm E.I. 100 in W665, M7 + Summicron 2,0/50mm

I never tried myself CG512 with Fomapan.
CG512/RLS is a 24 degrees C developer and I am not working with a Jobo rotary processor. However I have a TBE-2 so for a manual 24 degrees C. development it's certainly not impossible to do.

 

[2F/2F]

How the hell did a post about 800 film so quickly devolve into a discussion of a 200 film?

 

[Philippe Grunchec]

Sorry, 2F/2F!

 

[john_s]

..........
Many years ago, when I was a young photographer, Agfa had a 1000 film: as far as I can remember, it didn't last very long.

When I was young, the first roll of film I developed was Agfa Isopan Record (iso 800). The man in the shop said that I should use Agfa developer with Agfa film so I bought a bottle of Rodinal. I used the dev time in Modern Photo Almanac 1969 to develop it and the grain was huge. I had been too far from my subjects when i photographed them so each person's head was composed of about half a dozen huge grains.

I then progressed to Tri-X and Acufine and that did produce some great shots, also exposed at around 800. It was years before I approached an Agfa product again. I do miss their products......but not the Isopan Record!

 

[2F/2F]

Sorry, 2F/2F!

No need to apologize! It is just funny to me.

 

[RobertV]

Agfa Isopan Record (iso 800).

Up from 1997 I did some tests with the Fomapan T800. In 35mm it was like your "success story" with the Agfa Isopan Record (800). In 120 roll film it was usefull material to work with but also on a lower iso rate (640).

The T800 film was discontinued due to the lack of interest for such a film.

A film like Tri-X (400) or HP5+ can be easily pushed to iso 800 without to much loss of quality.
If you take a speed enhanced developer like Microphen, DD-X, Xtol, Diafine (2 bath) it's easy in handling or pull the mentioned Neopan 1600 to 800.

 

[Philippe Grunchec]

Emofin is even more flexible than Diafine.

 

[RobertV]

Emofin is even more flexible than Diafine.

Diafine is an almost fool proof developer. Fixed E.I. for the film and temperature independent in a wide range :21-29 degrees C.

So less parameters you have to deal with and therefore maybe less flexible then Emofin.

 

[ic-racer]

P3200 Per Kodak:

For ease in calculating exposure and for consistency with the commonly used scale of film-speed numbers, the nominal speed has been rounded to EI800 [from ISO determined 1000].

 

[Jim_in_Kyiv]

How the hell did a post about 800 film so quickly devolve into a discussion of a 200 film?

At least there was the decency to step down through 400 film along the way.