ERA Black&White Film: Any comments?

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dimitriroleda

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Has anyone here ever used Era BW Film (from China)? If so, what are your comments on it?

And, what's the average price for a roll?

Thanks and I hope to hear from you guys soon!:D
 
ERA and Lucky are different films made by different companies. I have used a few rolls of each. Both are old school film and ERA is much better, very much like really old TX and QC is better.
 
I went through a box of 4x5 ERA successfully last year and I've nothing to complain about, except no local availability & having to have it shipped from Hong Kong.
 
Era seems to not be readily available anywhere else except in China itself..

I found someone on ebay who sells era film, issac.chen from Taiwan.
 
I love it. Had my wife bring me back over 200 rolls from Beijing when she was there last Xmas. Great stuff, especially for the price I paid buying it in China locally. Isaac Chen on eBay sells it but at quite a bit higher price especially once you add in shipping cost. Not sure if I'd go that route vs. getting Plus-X, FP4+ or similar for only a little more (or cheaper maybe if bought even slightly expired).

There's a few threads here where we've discussed it before with some image examples and I attach an example here of my son taken with my Contax T2 and developed with HC-110 and another of a street shot in San Francisco shot with my Contax G2, 28mm Biogon, developed in DiXactol Ultra.
 

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  • SF Commute Amy Ben ContaxT2 ERA100 HC-110dilH 9min 23C 30secAg 2008-04 VS 4000 Scan-080502-0025.jpg
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rich815 said:
I love it. Had my wife bring me back over 200 rolls from Beijing when she was there last Xmas. Great stuff, especially for the price I paid buying it in China locally. Isaac Chen on eBay sells it but at quite a bit higher price especially once you add in shipping cost. Not sure if I'd go that route vs. getting Plus-X, FP4+ or similar for only a little more (or cheaper maybe if bought even slightly expired).

There's a few threads here where we've discussed it before with some image examples and I attach an example here of my son taken with my Contax T2 and developed with HC-110 and another of a street shot in San Francisco shot with my Contax G2, 28mm Biogon, developed in DiXactol Ultra.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pics!

So far so good for era, haven't heard much negative comments about it aside from the fact that it's hard to get & it's only in China.
 
I've also bought Era 100 from Isaac Chen. Era 100 seemed to me to be fine with good contrast, tonal range and what appeared to be fine grain. Maybe in really high contrast scenes it tended to real black OR white type contrasts, but ... for the money, it seemed good.

However I found it to be a PITA to scan as it was incredibly curly. I also found that it appeared to be extremely easy to scratch. I say this because my negs were liberally scratched all over.

At the time I assumed that it must be the film's fault - 'cause there's plenty that say that it's rubbish. However as I wasn't processing this film myself (I was working in a remote part of OZ and the water was something to be seen - and felt - to be believed!). So I was sending the film off to my trusty photoco shop and they were sending it to a lab for developing before they, photoco, made the prints.

I'm suspecting that the lab used a squeege thing, force dried the negs, rolled them up and then passed them on to photoco for processing. Many scratches occured and much curling ensued ...

Does anyone else who has processed Era 100 at home have a similiar / different experience?
 
I love the way these old threads re-emerge. :)

I just dug out the last roll of ERA I shot, about a month ago. The strips are about as flat and limp as HP5 - no complaints at all. It scans well.

This was dev'd in ID-11 1+1 10 min 20C. The neg had some spots - rubbish in my rinse water!
 

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ChrisN said:
I love the way these old threads re-emerge. :)
Click to expand...

Ah yes, right after I posted I thought to myself - perhaps I should've Googled this one? :)

ChrisN said:
I just dug out the last roll of ERA I shot, about a month ago. The strips are about as flat and limp as HP5 - no complaints at all. It scans well.

This was dev'd in ID-11 1+1 10 min 20C. The neg had some spots - rubbish in my rinse water!
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know what you developed in as well. I've only got one roll of the ERA 100 left but I've got some Lucky SHD100 on order. It'll be interesting to compare the two and see how they hold up as I' ve wondered about many of the negative comments regarding ERA and Lucky - are they informed upon experience comments or real life user comments? It seems to be a common enough thread that ERA is bad but that Lucky is worse.
 
I got 100 roll from the film itself (direct post to Hong Kong from their factory). Have tried D76, HC110, Tmax Developer and just last night Rodinal. All nice so far.

But is a very basic film. For example, you do not have any mark on the side to say "RDP 50" etc. Complete blank. The quality of the cassette is also very basic. It is ok but if you open it in the bag (to prepare it for development), it all pop up (whilst iif you open up say Fuji/Iiford cassette, they stays together.) But do not get me wrong, the whole thing is very good and I have gone through 25 rolls so far. I recommend it if you can get it cheap.

BTW, only ASA 100 (I did push it once a bit to 400; not sure I like it.)
 
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