120 shanghai film frame numbers

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paulfish4570

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three rolls of 120 shanghai film arrived from china yesterday, but i have heard standard arabic numerals are not used for frame counting/spacing. any of y'all got a clue? hey, i couldn't pass up three rolls, delivered, for $8 for my yashica A. no film crank on this cam; all red window.
 
The frame numbers are standard, but the white numbers on black paper are hard to read through the red window.

a quick google of 'shanghai backing paper' will show you what it looks like
 
Shanghai GP3 is a decent film for the price. Looks great in Rodinal. There are a couple of things to remember though: you need rubber strings to keep the roll tight after you take it out of your camera. The glue strip is totally useless. When developing remove carefully the piece tape that keeps the backing paper and the film part together. The tape will disintegrate in the tank and your negs will be full of ugly black spots.
 
Ron, i didn't record it. came from hong kong, i believe, $10 with free delivery, not $8. still a good price just to try. go to ebay and enter shanghai film and you'll get a bunch of sellers.
 
As Paul says, I rather like GP3. Its much better than its pricetag would indicate. The grain is more prominent than the newer T-grained ASA 100 films, but is much more pleasant in texture. Tonailty is very good too. On sunny days and a yellow filtee at EI 160, developed in Caffenol-C and I'm a happy man. I do however prefer to use it with auto feed camera, the black backing with white lettering makes it a bit difficult to see the frame numbering.

Oh, and the base is quite thick, not quite as thick as TMX, but reassuringly substantial. Makes for easy scanning.


Hard Rock Cafe by Eirik0304, on Flickr
 
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I've shot about 20 rolls of Shanghai GP3 with good results. Developed in Rodinal, this film is capable of beautiful tonality and sharpness. Purchased in quantity it works out to a bit more than $2 a roll delivered from multiple HK based Ebay sellers; buy the latest expiration dates offered. The Frugal Photographer site also carries it in North America. My batch did not have any frame numbers (or other text) whatsoever on the negative rebate; the Arabic frame numbers on the backing paper are printed in disappearing ink (perhaps sourced from the supplier of the glue for the exposed-roll sealing strip). I've always used this film on automat-style TLRs and would hate to try to read the backing paper numbers through red windows.
 
I've used Lomography's repackaged GP3 in the past (it's available in their shop in London at not too much of a premium), and I got some decent results, but damn, that packaging - the terrible construction paper backing, the lack of usable sealing strip, the useless wrapper, the impossible to see frame numbers.... Such a headache. But then, I guess you get what you pay for.

Film-wise, I've heard of the emulsion chipping off the base, and the film definitely has a penchant to curl - just trying to get it into the film scanner was a fight and a half.
 
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