Arista Pro/Edu experiences

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XAos

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Just found the old threads on Arista at freestyle. They specifically have a good deal on Arista Pro ISO 50 in 35mm and Arista Edu ISO 100 in 120 that I'm interested in. Without necessarily rehashing who might actually make what, does anyone have any experience with these two, how do they look, are they good candidates for Diafine, if not, what did you find that likes them, and is there anything else that might seem relevant here.

I'm currently shooting Tri-X and occasionally Plus-X, and I have a couple spools (though I need to start building my stock up.) I thought I'd try some slower films, but I'm always on the lookout for cheap film. The Mamiya in particular is over in the corner hollering 'FEED ME SEYMOUR'. Hmmm maybe I shoulda got a 6x4.5 back.
 
Arista Pro is Ilford and exactly the same as the ISO Ilford equivalent.; e.g., Pro-50 is Ilford PanF+ and Pro-400 is HP5+.

The new EDU Ultra films are made by Foma while the Arista II films are made by Agfa.

All of it is good film from quality companies.

Walker


XAos said:
Just found the old threads on Arista at freestyle. They specifically have a good deal on Arista Pro ISO 50 in 35mm and Arista Edu ISO 100 in 120 that I'm interested in. Without necessarily rehashing who might actually make what, does anyone have any experience with these two, how do they look, are they good candidates for Diafine, if not, what did you find that likes them, and is there anything else that might seem relevant here.

I'm currently shooting Tri-X and occasionally Plus-X, and I have a couple spools (though I need to start building my stock up.) I thought I'd try some slower films, but I'm always on the lookout for cheap film. The Mamiya in particular is over in the corner hollering 'FEED ME SEYMOUR'. Hmmm maybe I shoulda got a 6x4.5 back.
Click to expand...
 
I have used the Arista EDU films (not the EDU Ultra), and whoo-eee they are the curly-est
darn films I have ever used. This is 120 size I am talkin' about. Also, they have no frame or edge numbers. Putting in a sleeve under a heavy book for a week doesn't seem to tame them either. To save money they must have omitted the "anti-curling layer" ha ha.
 
Hmm good catch this is the Edu Ultra at the really screaming price. Agfa isn't terribly expensive but it doesn't play well with diafine. FWIW the Edu and Edu Ultra are the same price, but the Non Ultra version says its low stock. I couldn't tell the difference between them before you mentioned Ultra.

I can't seem to find anything about ISO's for the Foma or Edu(any variant) in Diafine though, guess I'll have to figure it out myself. They both however mention HC110 as not recommended... hmmm it dont like my friends - I'm not sure I can trust it.
 
Freestyle has an announcement on their Arista.edu films that was just added to their website. From the tone of it, it sounds like they may expect to discontinue it. Or, poerhaps they are just trying to promote sales.

-Paul
 
the arista pro line is being discontinued. the arista.edu line is also being discontinued.

however, they are both being replaced with the arista pro II and the arista.edu Ultra.

allan
 
Roger Hicks said:
Rehashing who makes it is actully pretty important. Agfa films do NOT behave the same as Ilford.

Cheers,

Roger
Click to expand...

Well, the reason I said that, is that it appears that doing so may jeapordize the continued relationship of Freestyle and manufacturer. It matters more to me what it looks like, how it behaves, and which developers to use to get the most out of it. Google seems to have an idea who makes it, but if I dont have experience with those films, how will knowing that it's Agfa really help me? In the end what I need to know about Pan F is what I need to know about House Brand B anyway. So... it doesn't really matter.
 
phototone said:
I have used the Arista EDU films (not the EDU Ultra), and whoo-eee they are the curly-est
darn films I have ever used. This is 120 size I am talkin' about. Also, they have no frame or edge numbers. Putting in a sleeve under a heavy book for a week doesn't seem to tame them either. To save money they must have omitted the "anti-curling layer" ha ha.
Click to expand...

Yes, I had the same experience. The 35mm is also very curly. This is the .EDU, not the Ultra.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
this is from an email i got from freestyle:
Arista Classic Graded FB
is Ilford Galerie FB
As low as $16.99
Arista Classic VC FB
is Ilford Multigrade IV-VC FB
As low as $14.99
Arista Graded RC
is Ilford Ilfospeed RC
As low as $12.99
Arista Premium RC VC
is Ilford Multigrade MG-IV RC DeLuxe
As low as $10.99
Arista Plus RC VC
is Ilford MG RC Cooltone
As low as $10.99
Arista Pro 50
is Ilford Pan F Plus
As low as $1.89 on 20 more
Arista Pro 125
is Ilford FP4 Plus
As low as $24.99
Arista Pro 400
is Ilford HP5 Plus
As low as $14.99
Arista D-Max 100
is Ilford Delta 100
As low as $2.49 on 20 or more
Arista D-Max 400
is Ilford Delta 400
As low as $2.59 on 20 or more
 
I've never developed my films before, but I would like to ask a question. Can you take, well, say... a roll of these films to a 1 hour photo store? Or would you need to go to a pro lab?
 
brians said:
I've never developed my films before, but I would like to ask a question. Can you take, well, say... a roll of these films to a 1 hour photo store? Or would you need to go to a pro lab?
Click to expand...

Most "one hour" photo stores have automatic processing machines that are only designed to process the universally available C-41 process color negative films. Some stores also can process the E-6 color slide films. If they were to offer b/w film processing, they would have to have a separate processor just for b/w, and most do not have this, as the low volume could not justify the investment. The large machines for color do not require any operator skill to process the film. B/W film requires knowledge and skill, which is not found in one-hour stores.
 
Ok, here's the first test roll of Arista Edu Ultra 120, hanging dry with the bottom clip removed to show curl. Does not look bad to me. It was kinda floppy getting it on the reel, complicated by some water that got loose in the changing bag and I had to ratchet rather than feed. Stiffer films dont really help if its sticking due to water though. Curl was not bad at all.

I developed this in diafine, bath A soaked a while (6min - purely by accident and I suspect absolutely and totally unnecessary, but just in case you get different results). 4 inversions at 1:30 using plastic reels. I hit a little winding problem with the back caused by the way I had it propped, ruining the first few frames, I'm not a real good judge of negatives, but on the light box, it looks good from ISO 100 down, even ISO 25 was not too much. ISO 200 was a little thin. My "meter" was another camera, with a wider lens, so none of this is real scientific. I metered at ISO 50, f/8 & 1/4sec, then left the aperture at f/8, and just went up a stop at a time on the shutter. The last two, ISO 33 and ISO 25 were 1/4 sec at f/6.7 and f/5.6 respectively. My scanner will do 2400 optical but it wierds out and it looks wavy, so I stopped at 1200 dpi for the inset crop. The rest are pretty low resolution just to look at shadow detail, highlights (sorry I didn't do a good job framing some competing highlights in).

Ok, I was going to upload these to the thread here for reference, I may still do it if it seems to be a good idea. For now, you can see my results here at my server

In short, I don't know what you'd call this film in diafine. My scans/development/exposure may not have done it justice, but I like what I got, and wouldn't worry shooting it anywhere from 33 to 400. 800 gives recognizeable images, and I've gotten worse, but I wouldn't dare call it 800 in diafine. If anything I wouldn't hesistate to pull it, though that may not be a "pull" as much as compensating for shadowed subjects.
 
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I developed a roll of Arista EDU ULTRA 200 the other day. I used Rodinal 1:50 for 8 minutes at 68 degrees F. I gently agitated for the first 20 seconds and then three inversions every minute thereafter. I'm attaching one picture from the roll that was taken with strong natural side light from a glass door and high overhead windows.

Walker
 
"Arista Pro is Ilford and exactly the same as the ISO Ilford equivalent.; e.g., Pro-50 is Ilford PanF+ and Pro-400 is HP5+."

I have used Arista Pro 50 at 100 in Diafine and have liked the results. I have scanned these negatives, I haven't been in my wet Darkroom for awhile.

I like the results so well at ordered two 100' rolls at a very good price. I think about 16.95 each before handing cost was added.

Leo
 
Thanks, Peter. Those three young children had suffered through a day or more of home-hunting with their parents. They'd been in and out of cars and homes probably a score of times or more and they were beat. When their parents decided which home they wanted and were doing the paperwork, these kids crashed on the chair and sofa in the office lobby. I stood on the stairs to get above them and it just felt like a good shot when I took it. The EDU Ultra 200 did a pretty good job with tonality IMO. It's not nearly as prone to curling as the Forte film that was marketed as the original EDU films.

I appreciate the kind words.

Walker
 
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