Yo fellow Zuikoholics,
As promised, I printed some of the images I shot and developed on my
Friday morning
pre-work outing with my first roll of Fomapan 100 Classic film. I
loaded up an
OM-1, took my three favourite f/2 Zuikos (slow film, early morning..),
and went for
a walk next to the lake on the way to work.
My first reaction is "Not bad. Not bad at all...". In summary, it's
very old-school,
punchy, with slightly less grain, as well as less highlight range,
than FP4. Mid-tones
seem very well separated though, and the prints look great, without a
lot of darkroom
effort required. The negatives were very "dense" though, and required
about 2x longer
enlarging times than what I'm used to with FP4. But this was my first
roll, so
developing times can be adjusted in fitire.
I exposed it at ISO64, and developed it in D76 1+1 (9min30s @ 20ºC).
This was all-in-all
one of my better rolls in a while, many what I would call "keepers". I
only
had time to print 4 so far, and this chronologically, so it's not the
best ones on the
roll, but it might be enough to inspire somebody looking for a really
cheap, pleasant
B&W film? (Fomapan costs almost half of what the better Ilford films
cost).
Opening Magnolia
http://snipurl.com/w3six
(90mm at f/2.0, hand-held)
Step-by-step flying instructions
http://snipurl.com/w3sjm
(250mm at f/2.0, hand-held)
Opposing Elements
http://snipurl.com/w3sjx
(250mm at f/2.0, hand-held)
[What better way to test mid-tone rendering than a grey
feather on a grey lake? I love how Fomapan handled it]
Caught in a chain-link fence
http://snipurl.com/w3sky
(90mm at f/2.0, hand-held)
All of these were printed on 8x10in Ilford MG IV paper via a
diffusion-light-source enlarger (so a condenser would have even
stronger grain) with a Schneider W.A. Componon 80mm f/5.6, all
at f/8.
Bottom-line? It ain't no Pan F, and FP4 only has a tad more grain, but
I do prefer other aspects of FP4 (like the softer highlight rendering)
more.
So I don't think I'll become an enthusiastic Fomapan shooter, unless
I'm on a
tight budget.
Fomapan has absolutely no curl after drying, though, and was a
pleasure to
work with. I have read on online forums complaints, but those same
people
also noted that the film had turned their developer blue, so it must
have been
an earlier generation of this film.
Next up? A serious re-look at Delta 100...
regards,
Dawid
--
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