Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Fomapan 'Creative' 200 is the same film as Paterson Acupan 200. I've had some mass spec done to verify it. They both also are distinctive in that they are numbered as single (half) frames. A cine film ancestry, maybe. There also used to be an 800 speed version (of both Foma and Paterson), but it was discontinued, I heard, because of problems with consistency (I experienced this myself with both films). I really like Fomapan films, but pre-scratched, weirdly spotted, or otherwise curiously anomalous results are not uncommon (strangest was a cassette that didn't fit - not sure how that one got out of the factory - and before you ask how they got it into the can, Fomapan used to come in little plasticized paper and foil packets). Fomapan Creative 200 is not a T-grain emulsion - Foma got into trouble with Kodak in the US because the film used to be called Fomapan T200. Kodak have a copyright on the T*. This film is a normal cubic grain emulsion with monosize crystals and some clever incorporated developers (I suspect this was where the 800 speed version ran into trouble - the chief 'inconsistency' of tha film was black spots, caused possibly by either infectious development in the developer solution or from some peculiar type of auto-development that I never managed to understand chemically). In this respect it's actually conceptually closest to Fuji's Acros, also a monosize, cubic grain, developer-incorporated emulsion. It places these films about halfway between a mixed-size old style emulsion and a t-grain or epitaxial (like Delta) in terms of acutance, grain and fussiness. The Forte 200 is the same as Classic 200 (and Bergger 200 and Arista 200 EDU). There is also a Svema or Tasma (anyway, a Russian Federation one) film of approximately this speed - but I think it's 250 speed. I've developed all the Foma films in a wide variety of developers. I've come to the conclusion that Xtol is the best all-round developer for 35mm, for these films too. Any phenidone (and its derivatives)/ascorbate developer of mildly alkaline pH should perform equivalently. LuGer John Black's excellent and innovative JB9, for instance. Wade Heninger seems to be using Foma 400 to good advantage recently. Bohdan Holomicek uses nothing else and there's nothing wrong with his photos. Tom A's divided D-76 (check the archive) works well too, or any staining developer for and old-style look. There's a divided catechol develop that Tom A sent me the formula for that makes the grain in some of these old-style film look horrendous (in his words "like the Olgas!" that's Kata Tjuta for Australians): www.citi.umich.edu/ u/provos/australia/olgas.jpg -- ___________________________________________________ Play 100s of games for FREE! http://games.mail.com/