Flattest 35mm 400 asa film?

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paulfish4570

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I love the look of Arista Premium 400/Tri-X but I do not like how it insists on a long-axis curve no matter how long it is pressed in a Strong's Concordance (big tome, like an Oxford unabridged for the Bible).
Ilford's Kentmere flattens well. Anything else?

Thanks,
Paul
 
Eastman 5222 (Double X) is the flattest film I’ve seen. In the tropical climate its normally dry with in a couple off hours and when cut is totally flat in the scanner holders.
 
Yes, the Rollei Retro 400S is flat. Polyester base with non-curling layer.

The new Rollei RPX 400 too. Acetate base.
Normally Polyester curls more.
 
paulfish4570 said:
I love the look of Arista Premium 400/Tri-X but I do not like how it insists on a long-axis curve no matter how long it is pressed in a Strong's Concordance (big tome, like an Oxford unabridged for the Bible).
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Flattening film under something heavy has never worked for me as well as reverse rolling it and storing the roll in a film can or snack-sized Ziploc bag for at least a day. Try it and see if it works for you.
 
Fomapan 400... I seem to recall that it was so floppy that it was a complete PITA to handle, and quality control was something that happened to other people.
 
paulfish4570: How about Arista Edu/Fomapan?
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The Fomapan 120 springs along its length but across its width it is flat.

In 35mm, I find Foma pretty much dead flat. But the 400 speed is probably closer to 200 or 250—pretty, though.

I find HP5+ to dry almost as flat.
 
mgd711 said:
I bought 10 roll’s of this rubbish some time ago. I used 4 and gave the rest away. Extremely floppy and difficult to handle.
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I have a 30.5m roll of it (well, Fomapan 400), haven't shot too much as (mentioned above) it doesn't feel quite 400 ISO. I like to shoot at 1600 and 3200 a lot too and Tri-X pushes much better. But on the few occasions a 200-400 range film is actually called for I like the tonality of the Fomapan, it's got nice grain too (goes very mushy when pushed though).

I liked it's floppy base, it's easy to hand-wind onto cartridges in the changing bag and although my plastic reels weren't a fan of it, it loads as easy as anything else onto my new stainless steel reels (I love steel tanks now!). Same story with the Efke KB25 actually.

The only problem, oddly, was getting it started on the film take-up spools in my Lynxes (Lynxii?). It wants to jump the sprocket unless you wind on a fair bit before closing the camera door.

Other than that, dries very flat, scans OK.


A point to note, since I started buying 30.5m rolls and bulk loading (any film), they all seem much flatter than the 36 exposure pre-loads. Is it because they haven't been sitting coiled up tight in a canister for months? Tri-X still has that lateral bow, but the Efke KB25, Fomapan 400 and FP4+ dry very flat.
 
HP5 is very flat, actually so are most of their films. Ilford for sure.

And I try to use my Tri-x without a hardening fixer and it's much flatter, but not completely.

Curious to see what others say, as of I love tri-x.
 
The Rollei films are very flat. My favorite is Rollei IR400, which is an excellent black and white film when used at ISO 400. It is the flattest of any of the various B&W films I have used. It is also an excellent infrared film when shot at ISO 25 and using a 720 IR filter. I usually buy mine on eBay (it costs half as much on eBay as it does in film stores here in Japan).
 
Trix is worst of all. Neopan 400 is a bit better and the Ilford films are by far the best.
I completely gave up on trix in 35mm for that reason. Scans are horrible, even after leaving the Trix negatives between books for a couple of days!

Strangely: for me the curling with Trix is very problematic with 35mm film but not so much with 120 rollfilm. So in 120 i still use Trix!
 
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