Tell me about Neopan 35/1600

holgaguy

holgaguy

Established
Local time
7:49 PM
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
103
Location
Monterey, Ca
View My Gallery
Have you used it, how did it work for you, in what conditions did you use it, which lens, do you use it alot, would you use it again,how much did you pay for it, did you develop it your self, if so what developer/ dont like it WHy?, Like it Why?
and of course show me you photos with it
I need to know
thanks
cosmo93940
 
shot it exclusively for months. love it. very sharp. no grain. super super super high contrast. usable from 400-3200 iso. kinda like ddx with it a bit. If you are a TMZ shooter, it will take a while to adjust (or at least took me) this film is basically the exact opposite curve of tmz, scooped mids with incredible blacks and highlights, not mushy at all.

Its not like its hard to get, why spend time on the internet asking for opinions when you can just go shoot a roll and draw your own conclusion?
 
It is surprisingly sharp, contrasty and rich. At least, to me, it's the best thing next to sliced bread in photographic terms; not only is it fast (sensitive) but really fast (in developing soup). Unlike the TMZ3200 that has to bathe in D-76 for 15 minutes, this one only takes 7:45 minutes. Just beware of the little seconds you may let it stay in the developer, because 10 seconds (or so I hear) may make it a bit toooo contrasty.

In any event, it's a very nice, sharp fast film. Go and get yourself a dozen rolls! 🙂
 
It's a great film. Be careful... Don't let just anyone (i.e. Kodak-loyal people who will treat it like a tmax) develop it as they'll ruin things. Over agitation or even an extra 10 seconds is all it takes to lose the mid-tones.
 
I've dabbled with NP 1600 some, and now I'm wondering why I've let a couple of new rolls sit around. Need to pop those into the camera!

Now I'm rather reluctant to do this because I'd be the first to admit I'm no artist, but I've used the tags feature on flickr to try to track what combinations of stuff have worked more or less ok, and what didn't. In case this is at all useful to you, here are some of my past attempts with NP1600 at some different speeds. Oh, and it's also important to remember I'm not using a terribly high resolution scanner (Epson 2450).

http://flickr.com/photos/64634236@N00/tags/neopan1600at800/

http://flickr.com/photos/64634236@N00/tags/neopan1600at1250/

http://flickr.com/photos/64634236@N00/tags/neopan1600at1600/

All were dev'd in XTOL using the times on the massive dev chart. I've always presoaked my film for 4 minutes. I subsequently read someone saying they thought the times on the massive dev chart seemed more appropriate for those that presoaked their film. If so, that turned out to be a lucky coincidence for me.

For the NP1600 at 1250, I think I might have used the time pretty close to the 1600 time. Oh, and I kept agitation to an absolute minimum. I also read that XTOL is very sensitive to agitation, and as others have said, NP1600 can get blown pretty bad if not careful.

Anyway, there it is if it's any help.
 
Ive shot this film consistently for the last fifteen years. About two hundred and fifty thousand rolls professionally and for myself. Neopan is THE film for solid faithful depictions of a scene. It has a realistic rendering when processed in the most basic fashion, 20c 6'00" in Rodinal Special, or 20c 8'00" in Xtol or D76, A4+B4 Diafine. There is no grain (worth talking about), blacks are black, whites are white with a nice range of full tonality and definition.
 
As others have said, very useful film with a wide range of tonality and fine grain. I prefer it over TMZ3200 or pushed Tri-X.
 
irq506 said:
Ive shot this film consistently for the last fifteen years. About two hundred and fifty thousand rolls professionally and for myself. Neopan is THE film for solid faithful depictions of a scene. It has a realistic rendering when processed in the most basic fashion, 20c 6'00" in Rodinal Special, or 20c 8'00" in Xtol or D76, A4+B4 Diafine. There is no grain (worth talking about), blacks are black, whites are white with a nice range of full tonality and definition.
Click to expand...

LoL... pix or it didn't happen! lets have a link :- )

Update : got it... here
 
Last edited:
I used to shoot a lot of it, rated @1600 and souped in whatever developer was in the darkroom. Usually HC110 or D76, sometimes Tmax. Don't know what it cost, because at the time, it was free to me 😉

These are the few old scans I have from the old Nikon scanner we used at the time. Someday I'll dig those negs out and run them through my new scanner to see what they're really like. I do remember printing some of these in the darkroom, and the grain was not as bad as I expected it to be. If I remember correctly I had to really work hard to blow out the highlights... and at the time I didn't even have a decent incident meter to really measure the light indoors.

Edit: BTW, bottom shot with M2 + 35mm summicron. The local press photogs always stared at me when I sat on the sidelines with 'weird' gear.
attachment.php

attachment.php
 
Nice shots, Cosmo!

I've only shot one roll of this film and my experience is the same as that of others. Very sharp film, finer grain than you might expect, and high contrast. I liked it a lot. That was in D76 stock...I think I shaved about 30 seconds off the recommended time at 68 degrees.

Has anyone here developed it in DD-X? I have a couple of rolls in the fridge that I plan to soup in DD-X very soon, and at 1:4 the recommended time is 5 minutes. That sure is fast.

Paul
 
Do a search on Flickr for example, here are my snaps with Neopan1600: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=neopan1600&w=36646756@N00

I've only dev'd this in DD-X and I like it. But I'm unsure whether I like this or HP5+ pushed to 1600 more. At 3200 Neopan1600 is too contrasty for me.

The bad points are the short dev times (you can be a little sloppy with a 13 minute dev time, less so with a 5 minute dev time), the base is thin and it curls more than HP5+.
 
NP1600 is my standard film for nocturnal shots. I usually rate it at 1600, and goes along with my standard night combo: Leica M6 and CV 35mm f1.2 Nokton.

I usually develop it in HC110b following standard timing without any deviation and it gives excellent results with very little grain for an ISO1600 film. Like it so much I bring it with me everywhere I travel.
 
Not much to add to what's already been posted.

It's my main super-speed B&W & I've always shot it @ 1600 w/good (to me) results. Examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furcafe/tags/fujineopan1600/

If you see graininess, etc., that's much more likely due to my own technical errors/choices (e.g., underexposure, extreme cropping) than film & developing.

I don't develop my own, but do know that my labs use either Ilfotec or T-Max developer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Working with outdated Delta 400
2
Replies
30
Views
843
Freakscene
Freakscene
Jbennett68
Tennessee Memphis TN Cameras and Coffee
Replies
5
Views
377
Jbennett68
Jbennett68
bulevardi
Talent vs Skills — where’s the magic coming from?
2
Replies
28
Views
861
chuckroast
C
Mos6502
Reunion Tour: Miranda S and Fuji Neopan SS.
Replies
8
Views
447
Mos6502
Mos6502
BillBingham2
Hi, yashica 35 f numbers
Replies
6
Views
123
Aiviou
A
Back
Top Bottom