C'mon - Freestyle, God bless'em. Their rebadged stuff are the best deals in Photography. At $2 and change (US) a roll of 36 - and it ain't crap? Good stuff? I used to "roll my own" to save a lil change now I used Freestyle. It's not even worth it look for deals on eBay... buy all you want... One roll of Tri-X costs close to $6 w/ tax at the local brick and mortar...
As far as the Tri-X/not-Tri-X debate, if it's close enough to warrant debate, then it's good enough. Looks like Tri-X t' my eyes, I've shot 4-5 rolls of it. However, I would be careful about citing "Made in USA" as proof. My thinking is the rolls could be bought in Czech Republic and "assembled" in the USA? Like cars that are "Made in the USA" - like the Crystler I just junked... Wanted to "buy American", support our economy, etc. fool that I was... The car was a rebadged Mitsubishi, essentially, I found out later...
I was more curious than argumentative, if it came off as a disagreement, it was not my intention.
I am trying to remember the last time I used Rodinal , or R09, for tri x and it is too long for my brain cells, must have been that last glass of wine last night. '-)
I wonder if the color change occurs if you use a prewash?
They are showing R09 to be the same as Rodinal, but the dilutions and times I have are slightly different. I think R09 was a product of the releasing of the old Rodinal formulation by the Socialist governments? I buy Foma's R09, but I was using it with 6x9 on Agfapan 400 for what I took to be the tonality. They show 1:20 and 1:40 dilutions as I recall.
I too. am very glad that Freestyle, which 30 years ago was basically a minor player, to pick up the challenge and it looks as if they are supplying some great stuff at very reasonable prices. I see they are repacking Foma 200, and selling it under Foma's name, it is truly an excellent film. I use to be an associate of Foma USA, (Misha are you around?), and the 200 was one of the best films I ever used. Was in my testing days, and got some terrific gray scales. Easy to spot, I think they are basically the only ones making an ISO 200 B&W film.
Their MF film had problems with dust, and I do not know if they solved the problem. Early cartridges were shades of Kodak 60's cartridges. Reloading 35mm is an art, and the right cartridges essential, unless you have mastered Tom A's skills with Leica cartridges. I keep any of the good reloadable cartridges in ziplocs.
As to the buying American, I also bought a Chrylser, to find out two years later that they had run out of US motors, and not only was the engine Japanese, but the fuel pump was Israli, and expensive. I guess all you can do is try.
It is nice to see someone like Freestyle hawking a good variety, am looking for a new Freezer, and yes, there is mostly film in my fridge. Film was commonly available short dated at shows, but film is pretty rare any more. CVS has Tri X.
Kodak also deserves a bit of credit for keeping a good variety of film in production.
20 years ago, I was talking with Agfa about a technical problem, and asked what percentage of their film production was B&W, and even then they said it was around 1%.
On my trips to Europe, I do sense that there is a deep appreciation of current B&W work, and even 8mm film, but perhaps I do not hang outi in the right places in the US.
At $2 a roll, I do not think I would do much bulk loading, and Foma used to be $1 a roll. I would think they would discontinue 24 ex rolls.
Regards, John
