Does anyone here have experience shooting Adox CMS 20 using sunny 16 rules? I'd like to know if it has enough exposure latitude to compensate for exposure errors. I have been searching the internet for answers but could only find one assertion that the film can not be over exposed by even one stop when developed in Rodinal 1:100, but developed in Adotech it has a wider exposure latitude. How wide?
I was thinking of developing it in Caffenol LC, which is the low contrast version of Caffenol, and rating it 12 ASA.
Hi Gearge,
I've used this film a lot over the last years.
From my test results and experiences:
1. Don't use this film with conventional developers like Rodinal, Caffenol and so on. It's a waste of time and money.
It is impossible to exploit the full potential of this remarkable film with conventional developers, because you either get uneven development, development artifacts, problematic characteristic curve shapes or too low sensivity (dependant on the conventional developer you use).
This film needs special, dedicated developers to really shine.
There is currently only one company in the world which was successful to create such dedicated developers:
SPUR in Germany.
SPUR is also making the Adotech developer for Adox.
2. With Adotech developer you get a very strong S-shape characteristic curve. Therefore you need exact exposure and developing. There is indeed very little exposure latitude, real speed is ISO 9 -12.
3. Best developer for Adox CMS 20 is the SPUR Modular UR New developer (Part A2 + B).
With this new developer you get a more linear characteristic curve, the negatives are much easier to print, you have a bit more latitude. Try it, it is the best solution so far for this outstanding material (btw, SPUR Modular New has a shelf life of at least three years, therefore using it parallel to other developers is not a problem at all).
But additionally I recommend another film: Agfa Copex Rapid, also developed in SPUR Modular UR New developer (Part A1 + B).
Outstanding stuff, because
- real ISO 40/17° with this developer
- panchromatic film
- excellent tonality, almost ideal chracteristic curve, negatives are very easy to print
- outstanding resolution, significantly better than T-Max 100, Delta 100, Acros 100 pulled at ISO 50/18° with fine grain developers, and also much better than Ilford Pan F+ and Efke 25
- excellent sharpness, surpassing all other films in this speed range
- very very fine grain
- excellent dynamic range of about 13 stops, great overexposure latitude.
I make 16x20" prints from 35mm Agfa Copex Rapid which have even a little bit better quality than my 16x20" prints from my 6x6 FP4+ and Plus-X shots.
I can therefore highly recommend the Agfa Copex Rapid / SPUR Modular UR New combination.
Cheers, Jan
