Opportunity Knocks...

oftheherd said:
Bill,

Thanks for the thread and the research. I would be interested in trying some of the 35mm and 120/220 roll too if they have it. I wasn't able to understand that they did. I would also be interested in trying 4x5.

Is anyone interested in trying paper? I don't even own an enlarger any more, but might be interested in trying some of it for contact printing 4x5.
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I'm sorry to say it does not look like they have any 120. They seem to have pre-rolled 35mm ISO 100 in 36 and 24 exposure, and big rolls of both the standard pan and their version of lith film, as well as various sizes of sheet film and x-ray film and of course the papers.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
As far as I know, Era is the best of all Chinese film, especially B?W, color are all imported in bulk at least 10-15 years ago. I am not sure Era will comtinue to manufacture B/W film, I heard most or all of them are in red just like Kodak and Ilforld. Era may follow Agfa/Ilford's step went belly up soon.
All chinese B/W can use D-76, I think the package usually have the processing information. I was told Lucky is not as good as Era (color) I am not sure about the b/w. I wll try to get more information for your guys tomorrow.
 
Dan Chang said:
As far as I know, Era is the best of all Chinese film, especially B?W, color are all imported in bulk at least 10-15 years ago. I am not sure Era will comtinue to manufacture B/W film, I heard most or all of them are in red just like Kodak and Ilforld. Era may follow Agfa/Ilford's step went belly up soon.
All chinese B/W can use D-76, I think the package usually have the processing information. I was told Lucky is not as good as Era (color) I am not sure about the b/w. I wll try to get more information for your guys tomorrow.
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Dan, thank you, any help would be sincerely appreciated!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

PS - Any other RFF member who reads Chinese, I'd certainly appreciate any information you can glean from their Chinese-language website. The English translation leaves a bit to the imagination.
 
Bill I don't have enough thumbs, you deserve more than four thumbs up for all this research ! 🙂

I'm not a big film expert but would gladly give a shot (or 36) to some new film and find out how it looks like in Diafine at different ISOs.
 
sfb_dot_com and Bill,

From a recent visit to Jessops in the UK in a couple of stores, they have stopped doing there own paper, what they have looks like older stock Ilford. Hopefully they will continue with new stock. I've not seen the film in a while and the chemistry looks like small lots only. Here in the UK it is getting hard to get stuff over the counter. Jessops is looking more like a digital printorama place than a phot enthusiasts store but I guess thats where the money is.

Nova Darkroom (no affiliation) used to carry a ton of stuff, I'll check them out, based in the midlands (fgianni its in Warwick, nearer to you I think but I'll give em a call sometime). Also Fotospeed just down the road from my home (Corsham) said to me a while back that they will be around to turn off the lights, i.e. when everyone else throws in the towel. I'll give em a nudge and see what they have.
 
Oh err.. sorry, yes, count me in for trying some out. Note that Diafine is not easilly available here in the UK. Last I heard was that Huron would send it at a good price though. Mango, how did you get on with the stuff you got a few months back? Oh and if I remember correctly (a first) Mr Cad had some small quantities.
 
Bill,

Definitely count me in. In fact, if you're game, you and I can go out and shoot a few rolls with some different camera/lens combos one weekend to see how this stuff does.
 
What is the benefit of ordering from ERA? Is this for sheer curiosity or is there some value motive? I mean, would I be able to order a bunch of ERA film and save tons of money? For me, the cost factor is the most important one. The roll film would be my choice, the Panchromatic black and white.

I've checked out the site, but don;t see any price listings. I would be interested in 120 or 220 B&W, but only if it's really cheap. If it's more than a dollar a roll (120), I'd have to pass for the simple lack of money.
 
Fred said:
Oh err.. sorry, yes, count me in for trying some out. Note that Diafine is not easilly available here in the UK. Last I heard was that Huron would send it at a good price though. Mango, how did you get on with the stuff you got a few months back? Oh and if I remember correctly (a first) Mr Cad had some small quantities.
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You may try Huron camera, unless somebody gives you a free sample, I guess you won't find a cheaper way to get it in EU, and also I've only seen happy customers from them (myself included).
 
shutterflower said:
What is the benefit of ordering from ERA? Is this for sheer curiosity or is there some value motive? I mean, would I be able to order a bunch of ERA film and save tons of money? For me, the cost factor is the most important one. The roll film would be my choice, the Panchromatic black and white.

I've checked out the site, but don;t see any price listings. I would be interested in 120 or 220 B&W, but only if it's really cheap. If it's more than a dollar a roll (120), I'd have to pass for the simple lack of money.
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The benefit would be securing a new source of B&W film for when the rest of them fall off the face of the earth. You dig a new well before the old one goes dry, know what I mean?

Curiosity? Sure, there is some of that. Many people try Efke and like it because it has a '50's' classic look. No one in Western Europe and North America would have known that if they hadn't been curious.

Money? Could be, I have no idea at this time. The lowest price B&W film I can find at the moment is Forte and Foma via Freestyle - about $1.39 a roll for 35mm for their 'house brand' of Arista.EDU film. I don't know if this would be cheaper than that.

I don't think they have 120 roll film. Their listing for 'roll film' refers, I believe, to 35mm rolls of film and bulk rolls of 35mm film.

There are no price listings because they previously have not done business with the West. I am in contact with them and am investigating what it would take to import a small quantity to the USA, and then I would split it up and resell it. Prior to doing that, I'd hand it out to those here who might be interested in testing it.

I'm just trying to explore alternatives here.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
captainslack said:
Bill,

Definitely count me in. In fact, if you're game, you and I can go out and shoot a few rolls with some different camera/lens combos one weekend to see how this stuff does.
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Absolutely! I'm trying to follow up now, see if they can fix me up with a small sampler that doesn't cost the world.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Fred said:
Oh err.. sorry, yes, count me in for trying some out. Note that Diafine is not easilly available here in the UK. Last I heard was that Huron would send it at a good price though. Mango, how did you get on with the stuff you got a few months back? Oh and if I remember correctly (a first) Mr Cad had some small quantities.
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I was just mentioning Diafine because it is well-known for developing SOME kind of image on just about anything, and time/temp don't seem to matter much, as long as Solution A and Solution B get at least 3 minutes each. So without access to real processing data for this film, that should work as a 'last ditch' type thing. Otherwise, if we work up some basic 'known good' D-76 times, we can extrapolate to other developers from that basis and adjust as necessary.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Classic Pan is the biggest mystery - no one seems to actually know who makes it or where it comes from. All I have been able to find are guesses. It is available for sale, though.
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I was under the impression that Classic Pan is Forte, the same as Arista.edu (not Arista.edu Ultra).
 
celluloidprop said:
I was under the impression that Classic Pan is Forte, the same as Arista.edu (not Arista.edu Ultra).
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Oops, my bad! I'm thinking of another film, a different film, that nobody seems to know anything about. It only comes in 100m rolls, and it is labeled (I thought) "Classic Pan" but has no other information, like country of origin or manufacturer contact info. I am told it shows up on eBoy from time to time. Some folks have tried it, thought it was sorta blah.

Dang, I can't remember now. Maybe someone else can fill in the blank here.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Bill, thanks for all this research. Besides curiosity regarding the 'feel' of different fillms, it would be nice to find some other sources for films and papers if (when?) the traditional places are gone.

Count me in to try a roll or two. I'll second the idea of 24 exposure rolls as a good number of frames to experiment with- not too many that it will be overly frustrating if development is off or the film is second-rate, whatever that might mean, but enough to get a sense.
 
bmattock said:
But their website indicates a minimum order of 400 rolls of 35mm - that's a lot for an experiment - what if it all stinks? I may ask them if they can send me a representative sample and we'll hand it out here on RFF and get the results back and go from there.
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Or 5 bulk rolls of 100.

I do have a friend in Shanghai right now and she'll be back in Jan. I'll see if I can get her to bring back a few rolls... assuming she can actually find it.
 
This is slightly off-topic, but I didn't feel it was threadworthy.

I was in my local grocery store (Lowes Foods, which I believe is local to North Carolina) and I noticed while in the checkout line that the house brand film was on sale (with the store's sales card) for buy one / get one free. My curiousity aroused, I pulled a roll off the rack and checked for a "made in XXXX" label, expecting to see "Germany", 'cause I figured it was rebranded Agfa. To my surprise, it said "Made in Italy".

Italy?!?

They make film in Italy?

Anybody have any idea what this film could be? I could have sworn it was the same ISO 200 that I bought at Walgreens recently that is rebranded Agfa, but it can't be unless Agfa has a plant south of the Alps and I didn't see a film manufacturer in Italy on Bill's list earlier in this thread.
 
Yes, Ferrania. I didn't mention them because they don't make B&W film. Ferrania is an interesting company - an independent that was purchased by 3M, then spun off into Imation, then spun back into freedom. They have plants in Italy (their original) and Oklahoma (which they got from 3M) which used to be the US-based Dynacolor company - they were big in the 50's and some in the 60's. They also make Solaris 126 cartridge film - I think the last company that does.

I have heard that Ferrania is in bad, bad, shape - dead man walking, but laws in Italy won't let the corpse fall over - something like that.

I have not heard great things about their film, unfortunately.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
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