Foma Film

[Tony]

Hello everyone, been absent for a few weeks due to ill health and a nasty uneanted visitor through the backdoor of my computer... with no thanks due to Bigpond. Anyway have just received 2 rolls of Fomapan Classic 100 b&w film along with me beloved Rodinal. The film is 36exp. so i wont know the results for a while. I will be using my old standby of 1:100 rodinal and very little agitation in a Paterson tank. It is many years since I used this ratio but have been known to go as far as 1:300 with Agfa 25asa when it was available. Startling results form this though, I needed a hypodermic to measure the minute quantities of Rodinal. Anyone tried the Fomapan film?
Tony

[neilpcraven]

Yep, I love it. Use it a lot for MF. I develop it in D-76 though, so can't tell you what Rodinal will be like.

Don't be scared when the negs (and the poured out fluids) come out blue, they print fine.

Here's one I took a while ago on Fomapan:

[Tony]

Hello Neilpcraven, thanks for your reply. That is a great photograph. I assume that MF meand medium format? They were out of stock of 120 so I had to be satisfied with the 35mm. I just missed out on 10 rolls of 120 Shanghai film for $9.99! Some sample shots looked quite good. I am hoping that someone takes up a distributorship for Adox films here in Australia. Would love to try their 20 asa/iso, supposed to be the sharpest film in the world with their own special developer. Said to approach 500 mega pixels in digital terminology. Regards Tony

[MattC]

I will be interested in seeing the results - if they are anything like neils, then you have something to look forward to!

[ameerat42]

Yes, Film caught my eye, so I had a look. And the enthusiastic response from Tony tipped me to go and search it. I found two interesting links, http://www.digitaltruth.com/products/foma_tech/Fomapan_100.pdf
and
http://www.macodirect.de/fomapan-classic-120br10-filme-p-103.html?osCsid=8c8aac23d770246a91de1323d2a01b76

It looks like an interesting film base, and one I could develop myself, so I wonder where one might get some around Sydney? Any idears? Am.

[neilpcraven]

Blanco Negro in Alexandria are the guys for Foma products in Sydney, I think. I get mine from eBay usually though, cause it's a trek to get there.

It's easy and forgiving to develop at home. I use D-76 diluted 1:1, my finger as a thermometer and whatever time it says on the first table I find on google at 20C. Seems to come out ok. Would probably be much better if I did it properly :)

[Tony]

Hello Neilpcraven (and everyone else). Yes I got my Fomapan from Blanco negro, very obliging they were too. I am still hoping to find Adox at some stage in Australia. My original base B&W years ago was Agfa 25asa/iso with Rodinal diluted 1:100 and even up to 1:300 at times. I remember still the best neg I ever got was with the agfa film at 1:100 with a Schneider Xenon lens in a 1950's Robot Royal camera. The negs were so sharp they appeared like engravings. The Schneider lenses are still my favourite though I have used Nikkors for decades. BTW the agitation when developing with such high dilution ratios was very little, occasionally lifting tank and with a gentle rotating of same every five minutes or so. The results were outstanding. When applied to 120 film... wow! though the 120 negs appeared thinner than the 35 mm, they printed beautifully. Regards Tony

[Tony]

BTW ameerat42, I am a long way from Sydney (Rockhampton Qld.) but Blanco Negro got my supplies to me in 3 days. I found them very helpful and excellent to deal with. Regards Tony

[Athiril]

I dislike Foma. Though I recommend treating it like EI 50 and metering for the shadows, or erring on the side of overexposure on top of that.

[Tony]

BTW ameerat42, I am a long way from Sydney (Rockhampton Qld.) but Blanco Negro got my supplies to me in 3 days. I found them very helpful and excellent to deal with. Regards Tony

[Tony]

Once again I have been ill, 2010 is a bad year for mr. I received an email prompting me to come onto the site post something. Thats it i'm afraid, still not well enough. I'll try and get something on soon about some cheap lens hoods etc. that received recently. Quality was excelllent... :) Tony from Rockhampton Qld.

[ameerat42]

Sad to hear, Tony. I'd say take it easy. Get better first. Am.