raytoei@gmail.com
Veteran
I have a love-hate relationship with Fomapan 400. Sometimes when it works, the images turn out nicely, sometimes it is just plain mushy. Because of that I have concentrated on other brands.
Recently, I have been looking at the Arista Edu 120 film. The low price and packaging + flatness of the negatives made me try it out for a photo shoot last Sunday.
One Roll came out mushy. And I decided to examine the cause of the mushiness. With mushiness, there is a loss of tones and more importantly sharpness.
The issue, thinking it through, is that it works better with certain developers or it is susceptible to "Over-Development" or "Over-exposure".
all the following images are 100% crop.
Problem Exhibit 1, is a result, in my opinion of overexposur/development. This iso 400 film was rated at iso 200 and souped in rodinal 1+100 rodinal for an hour in the tropical climate. In other words, a 400iso film exposed in 200iso and over-developed in 400iso.
Problem Exhibit 2 seem to agree with Exhibit problem 1, as both share the same grain look. Exhibit 2 was developed in Tmax Developer. Most of the photos came out alright except for 3 of this shot which is indoors with a very bright backlit. I think I exposed this as 1/30 at f2.
Exhibit 3 is a bit different, the developer is Microdol-x. The whole roll was mushy. I don't really know why, perhaps it was overexpored or simply Microdol-x doesn't work well with Fomapan 400.
After the mushy roll yesterday, I decided to change developer and method. I decided to use Xtol and not use stand development. The next image is from the 2nd roll yesterday, 400iso but exposed at 200iso. It is developed as a 200iso film.
"Ola, Fomapan 400, ei of 200, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 4min at 30C, Medium Format"
The Fomapan pdf says this: "FOMAPAN 400 Action has a nominal speed rating of ISO 400/27o, but due to its wide exposure latitude the film gives good results even when overexposed by 1 EV (exposure value) (as ISO 200/24 o)
or underexposed by 2 EV (as ISO 1600/33o) without any change in processing, i.e. without lengthening the development time or increasing the temperature of the developer used."
I interpret the above as Fomapan 400 doesn't like overexposure.
Anyone with the same conclusions ?
raytoei
Recently, I have been looking at the Arista Edu 120 film. The low price and packaging + flatness of the negatives made me try it out for a photo shoot last Sunday.
One Roll came out mushy. And I decided to examine the cause of the mushiness. With mushiness, there is a loss of tones and more importantly sharpness.
The issue, thinking it through, is that it works better with certain developers or it is susceptible to "Over-Development" or "Over-exposure".
all the following images are 100% crop.
Problem Exhibit 1, is a result, in my opinion of overexposur/development. This iso 400 film was rated at iso 200 and souped in rodinal 1+100 rodinal for an hour in the tropical climate. In other words, a 400iso film exposed in 200iso and over-developed in 400iso.

Problem Exhibit 2 seem to agree with Exhibit problem 1, as both share the same grain look. Exhibit 2 was developed in Tmax Developer. Most of the photos came out alright except for 3 of this shot which is indoors with a very bright backlit. I think I exposed this as 1/30 at f2.

Exhibit 3 is a bit different, the developer is Microdol-x. The whole roll was mushy. I don't really know why, perhaps it was overexpored or simply Microdol-x doesn't work well with Fomapan 400.

After the mushy roll yesterday, I decided to change developer and method. I decided to use Xtol and not use stand development. The next image is from the 2nd roll yesterday, 400iso but exposed at 200iso. It is developed as a 200iso film.

"Ola, Fomapan 400, ei of 200, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 4min at 30C, Medium Format"
The Fomapan pdf says this: "FOMAPAN 400 Action has a nominal speed rating of ISO 400/27o, but due to its wide exposure latitude the film gives good results even when overexposed by 1 EV (exposure value) (as ISO 200/24 o)
or underexposed by 2 EV (as ISO 1600/33o) without any change in processing, i.e. without lengthening the development time or increasing the temperature of the developer used."
I interpret the above as Fomapan 400 doesn't like overexposure.
Anyone with the same conclusions ?
raytoei
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