What is this Film???

[nikon_sam]

I was checking out a few Thrift stores on my way home and I found these rolls of film...

Arista 400 Professional Film B&W Made in England...2-100' rolls
Arista D-Max 400 Professional Film B&W Fine Grain Made in England...1-100' roll

Arista 400 expires...Sept. 00 & Oct. 00
Arista 400 D-Max expires...Mar. 97

If stored decently they should be good...Right???
Who makes this film and where do I start for developing times using Rodinal 1+50 ???

The rolls have never been opened and still have the original sealing tape on the plastic cans...
Has anyone used this film and was it any good???

The film was priced at $8.99/roll. I took them all (3 rolls) and I guess it was "Half-Off" day because it was only $14.00...

Thanks...


They also had a few other photo related items...I did see an El-Nikkor 50mm 2.8? enlarging lens mounted on what looked like a Beseler board for $65 and another mounted El-Nikkor 80mm 5.6? for $85...
I didn't ask but they may go for Half-Off too...

 

[Roger Hicks]

Well, how many film coating companies are there in the UK? This has to be pre-Harman Ilford.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Chris101]

I'll guess that the Arista 400 should be developed similar to FP5, and the Arista DMax should be developed similar to Delta 400. I recently shot a roll of Trix that had expired in 2002 from CVS, and it was burnt. The base density was high, and so the contrast was very low.

 

[nikon_sam]

I was thinking maybe Ilford and was also a bit concerned with what Chris called "burnt"...
I'm going to roll a few cans to test it out...wish me luck...

 

[colyn]

Free style sells the Arista brand. Check their website for processing information..

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Somebody on RFF doesn't know Arista? What is the world coming to?

 

[nikon_sam]

Somebody on RFF doesn't know Arista? What is the world coming to?

This "Arista" was made in England not the Czech Republic...😀😀😀
So I figured it wasn't the same stuff that Freestyle sells...

 

[jan normandale]

Arista is a "house brand" so they'll source film from many producers and then rebadge it. If it's Czech it's probably Foma which is a brand they also carry at Freestyle.

 

[degruyl]

Sure sounds like HP5 and Delta 400 to me, but that is based solely on country of origin and expiration date.

If it is HP5, there is supposedly an issue with low concentration Rodinal.

Personally, I would shoot a couple of 24 exposure rolls and throw one into a tank with Rodinal 1+100 for an hour to see whether the film looked ok. I would probably agitate 1-3 slow inversions every 10 minutes, but it has been a while since I shot a roll of 35mm.

Otherwise, I would look at the massive dev chart... but it this film is not listed, not even in the "unlisted films" section. So, try it? You have plenty to do a proper film test. (I would start with the normal times for Rodinal 1+50 for the ilford 400 films).