Final thoughts on Foma 400

I'd like to thank all of you who participated in my posts and gave me much advice and encouragement. I have a new film friend.

What do I think of Fomapan 400? Well, I just ordered 10 rolls of 36, 10 rolls of 24, and a 100' bulk roll for my half-frame cameras. I love the stuff. It really is a throwback, and what I like about it is that it changes character radically in different developers. It's not going to replace my standby HP5, but it is certainly going to augment it as my "other" ASA 400 film (along with XP2 and TMax 400)

Many of you said that it is delicate when wet, so I listened to you. I found that when I put Photo-flo in the final rinse, I was left with a bit of streaking. So I tried some Arista Flow wetting agent (I use 4 measured drops per litre) and there was almost no deposit. Anybody else found this flow to be pretty decent?

I used 2 developers - Xtol and Rodinal at 1:50. I will be trying HC110 next at 1:63, but from what I gather from Flickr posts, this splits the difference and will probably be useful. Here are some of my results and observations. By the way, I shot everything at box speed, my preference. I'll play around with other indexes as I get to know the film more intimately. The following are all scanned 5x7 prints.

Half frame, Olympus Pen FT, Rodinal 1:50, a lot like the old Tri-X, I think:

Oil Refinery, Prince George, BC - 70mm Zuiko f2.0 lens, 1/60th at f8, I believe. The day was rainy, dreary with little contrast. Foma 400 delivered a nice picture, with nice grain. Not as much grain as I was after for this purpose, but I can crop and achieve what I want, or try Rodinal at 1:20




Freezing Swamp at Cobb Lake BC, Olympus Pen FT, 100mm f3.5 Zuiko with Cambron 2x doubler. 1/125th at f8. The film has real pizzaz and contrast.




Cottonwood Tree, Nechako River area, 1/125th at f5.6. Lots of detail here, and again, real punch. I toned this one brown.




In full frame 35mm, with a Pentax MX, and 50mm f4 Pentax-M macro lens, developed in Xtol:

Almost like a different film. Grain is fine and smooth, tonal graduation nice but not subtle. A punchy film with real balls.

Forgotten Hat at Cobb Lake, 1/125th at f11, if I remember correctly; I did a bit of toning on the image:




Culvert at Cobb Lake: 1/125th at f8, should have been printed on grade 2 paper, but I only had #3 around. This was a high contrast scene, and I think Foma 400 delivered a pretty hard hitting result:





Again, thanks for looking in and keeping me in the loop with your hints and expertise! Just to let you know, the actual prints themselves really are better than these posts. I'm very happy with them.

Good stuff. The Xtol shot does look like a different film, I agree. Interesting film.

I really like the photograph of the refinery. The grain is beautiful and helps with conveying such a scene very well.

You are right that Xtol changes things around. Xtol in general mutes highlights quite a bit, which is why it's such a great developer for objects the sun hits directly, or direct light of any kind. In muted lighting it is not as effective.
I had good success with Fomapan 400 in many developers, a couple of examples below in Xtol, where I think I made the muted look work. Both are prints on Ilford MGIV fiber matte.

I also included a portrait, which is HP5+, and with Xtol, but wanted to include it because it articulates how well Xtol works when you photograph things in direct sunlight. This is also a print on MGIV matte fiber.

Keep up the good work!

I love it as well (though I pick it up under the Arista EDU Ultra 400 name). Though I prefer to shoot this film at 200 ISO instead of the marked 400.

Fomapan 400 @ 200 ISO (Photo of my nephew and the tree lined lake were developed in Diafine 3+3 while the two middle were developed in stock D-76 for six minutes and thirty seconds):



I've also shot this film at 1600 with some surprising results (stock D-76 for 20 minutes):

What I think of Fomapan 400?
I purchased 30m to cure my hunger for grain in the negs and prints.
I'm not going to be grain hungry for a while now after Foma and Rodinal.
At 200 in xtol this film has no name. I prefer Kentmere 400 for it. And HP5 as true 400.

moltogordo said:

What do I think of Fomapan 400? Well, I just ordered 10 rolls of 36, 10 rolls of 24, and a 100' bulk roll for my half-frame cameras. I love the stuff.

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Wait a minute: a100' bulk roll for a half-frame camera? Can't even imagine how many shots that will be ...
I recently got me a half-frame Olympus Pen camera and it's a pleasure to use. I hope to finish my first roll shortly to see what this lens will bring me. I loaded it with Fomapan 100 film.

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

If I had a half frame I think I'd bulk load for it just so I could load short rolls to keep the frame count reasonable!


Sent from my iPhone via Tapatalk using 100% recycled electrons. Because I care.

According to a Spectral sensitivity chart, it appears to have extended red sensitivity out to 700nm. I believe I have a box of 4x5 in the freezer... I'll try it when I get back from Japan.

Roger Cole said:

If I has a half frame I think I'd bulk load for it just so I could load short rolls to keep the frame count reasonable!

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Bingo! That's the plan!

To those who use this film how are you finding its reciprocity characteristics? I checked the manufacturer's data, and it's pretty bad compared to what I'm used to. A 10s metred exposure should be extended to 60s. I have found manufactuer's data to be a bit over the top, mind you.

TheToadMen said:

Wait a minute: a100' bulk roll for a half-frame camera? Can't even imagine how many shots that will be ...
I recently got me a half-frame Olympus Pen camera and it's a pleasure to use. I hope to finish my first roll shortly to see what this lens will bring me. I loaded it with Fomapan 100 film.

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

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I load 12 exposure loads from bulk film for my Pen FTs. Loading a regular 36 exposure load is like having 4 Gigs of jpegs in your DSLR. Too much!

Andrew O'Neill said:

To those who use this film how are you finding its reciprocity characteristics? I checked the manufacturer's data, and it's pretty bad compared to what I'm used to. A 10s metred exposure should be extended to 60s. I have found manufactuer's data to be a bit over the top, mind you.

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I haven't done a lot, but it's nowhere near as bad as the manufacturer claims.

It's tough to find consistent data, though, and I don't have time to do any testing. But I have been thinking of doing some late night shooting with it just to see for myself, by bracketing, and then draw out trend curves as it is usually an exponential function and extrapolate even longer times, and based on that do some real night shooting.

I have done shots out to 3-4 minutes calculated using the manufacturers times and they came out well. FWIW, I don't consider it "bad" per se, just longer than other films. I really like the look of the film so I don't mind the wait.

TheToadMen said:

Wait a minute: a100' bulk roll for a half-frame camera? Can't even imagine how many shots that will be ...
I recently got me a half-frame Olympus Pen camera and it's a pleasure to use. I hope to finish my first roll shortly to see what this lens will bring me. I loaded it with Fomapan 100 film.

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

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I got myself and old school film strip projector (from an old school). I get my film reversal processed and keep it uncut. I get 75 shots to a roll and project them with this. If I did a bulk load I should easily be able to get 80 shots a roll.

Nothing like having 72+ shots in a half framer (Fujica Half and Olympus Pen FT for me) when you're afield and it's raining or snowing horizontally, or out on the street at night, or just on vacation. If that's overkill then I just go for the better image quality and shoot full frame or even medium format.

And I use Fomapan in all three formats. Love all three speeds. I'd use it exclusively if the QC weren't so iffy, though I've not had any problems with more recent batches( last few years).

I sometimes have 36 exposure loads in my 35mm cameras for weeks, occasionally months, waiting to use the rest. 72 is just silly for the way I shoot, but I realize not for everyone.

I don't "spray and pray" to use a euphemism from the shooting world.

37th Exposure said:

And I use Fomapan in all three formats. Love all three speeds. I'd use it exclusively if the QC weren't so iffy, though I've not had any problems with more recent batches( last few years).

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I've used a lot of Foma since 2006 no problems lots if problems with Kodak maybe that's why they went ch11?

I've tried Foma and like the 200 Creative. I've not had much luck with 400; it scratches easily and there seems to be a problem with electronic flash - at least the few times I tried it. It has been several years, however. Has the QC changed in recent years? Thanks.

I use Foma film that's rebranded as Arista that I buy from Freestyle and I love the film souped in HC-110 or XTOL. However, the film doesn't do well with long exposures. From my experience, it goes into reciprocity failure with night shots. For long exposures, I just Fuji Acros.

Amazing, someone uses Foma 400 in HALF FRAME!! I still don't dare myself to use it in 35mm, i though grain will be a bit bigger than what i'd like. However, in medium format I like Foma 400 a lot. The tonality is very, very nice, the final look is very pleasing. The extra red sensitivity is a plus.

Now, i really want to say thanks to the brave soul that tried to push Foma 400 to 1600. Haven't seen too much of those tests on the internet.

Mr.Pinhole. Chart show it reciprocity failure (fomapan 400) similar to Delta 100.

But fomapan 200 the chart shows a very reduced reciprocity failure time.

But I will check it again to confirm, once I am on the computer.


Edited:
I just check chart and it says the Fomapan 400 is has actually a smaller reciprocity failure than the 200 and 100. Fomapan 100 has similar reciprocity failure as Delta 100.

Xmas said:

I've used a lot of Foma since 2006 no problems lots if problems with Kodak maybe that's why they went ch11?

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What problems with Kodak?

Tom