Fuji Acros versus Delta 100, your experiences?

[StuartR]

Hello all,

I recently came to Japan, and have acess to tons of different films at my local camera megastore. My standard fine grain black and white film is Delta 100, but here the ilford films are quite expensive compared to Fuji films. I was wondering how people liked Acros, as it seems to be a very comparable film to Delta 100, at least technically. I have shot a few rolls now and developed them, and they look fine, but it is hard for me to tell as I don't have access to a darkroom or scanner here. I have just had to look at the negs. I have shot some Acros in 4x5 that has turned out nice, but I was interested in hearing about its characteristics from those of you who shoot it regularly, particularly in 35mm and 120. My only developer here is Rodinal, which I have been diluting to 1:50 for use with it. Sample images are also quite useful!

The price of a 10 pack of acros in 120 was 2725 yen (24 dollars), but the same ten pack of Delta 100 was 4750 (41 dollars)! I don't think it is worth nearly double, but correct me if I am wrong...

Also, has anyone heard of Fuji Mini Copy film? I bought a roll and it appears to be a Fuji version of a document film like tech pan. It is ISO 6-25 and it says: "High Resolution II" on it. The rest (including the processing info) is all in Japanese, but it was only 375 yen for a roll, so I figured I would buy one and check it out.

 

[mkyy]

acros + rodinal is my definition of smoothness. i don't have a lot of experience with delta though.

here's a sample shot:

a larger version here.

 

[StuartR]

Yeah, that looks great to me. Delta 100 might possibly be smoother though. It is probably a difference in developer though, as rodinal is not a particularly smooth developer. It is a great developer, just not for smoothness. Here is a shot of Delta 100 developed in Xtol 1:1 I believe...forgive me for it being a gear shot, not a real one. I think it was the 50 lux ASPH:

 

[thpook]

Acros is magical in XTOL. I stopped using T-max and Delta when I discovered it.

Another thing to consider is that (as far as I know) there are no other film available with better reciprocity characteristics.

 

[titrisol]

Acros is beautiful. I prefer it over Delta 100, it gave me longer tonal range and was more tolerant to underexposure.

I used it in 35mm, but I assume the 120 will be more or less the same. I metered as100 in my Nikon FE and shot away!

Rodinal 1+50 does a good job with it, but Clayton F76 just has an edge in tonality and grain.

 

[peter_n]

I love Acros too but I haven't used Delta 100. I would agree with thpook, Acros looks wonderful in XTOL.

Stuart - that lens is big, you sure its a 50?

 

[StuartR]

HAHAHA, I meant the one I took the picture with....that's the 75 lux on an old double stroke M3...

 

[peter_n]

OK that makes me feel better... 😉

 

[Uncle Bill]

I use both Delta 100 and Fuji Acros Neopan 100 and they are wonderful film to shoot with. I have used them mostly in Nikon F's and a Pentax Spotmatic Sp (Acros). I have used Delta 100 in my Leica M3 and Contax IIIa. What I have to do is a pepsi challenge same camera one of each shot through.

Bill

 

[mkyy]

sorry for the little OT discussion

stuart, you got a chance to try other flavors of fuji films like the fortia and natura??

 

[StuartR]

Mack -- I have used Fortia before, and I didn't really like it. I didn't mind what it did to reds, yellows and oranges, but I seem to remember it making dark greens into light greens...One of the things I really like about Velvia is that it makes really rich greens, Fortia seemed to make them look cartoonish rather than verdant. I have not tried the other Fuji films like natura and trebi, nor the Konica films, nor Kodak Dyna HG. There seem to be a lot of films here that I have not seen before, but most are consumer films, so doubt that there is much to recommend them over the pro films other than price and shiny packaging.

Here are two fortia shots. Bought in Japan, used in California: