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Fomapan Retropan 320 soft


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I've just come across this Black and White film which is new to me and I was wondering if anyone has used it and if so what they thought of it? I'm familiar with both Fomapan100 and 200 and have developed them in Ilfosol 3 with good results for scanning. Foma recommend their own special brew for developing but do give a limited number of other options.

I'm thinking of picking up a couple of rolls to experiment with and any thoughts on this film would be welcome. I'll be using Ilfosol 3 and my usual developing time is 5 minutes with agitation to start and at the end of every minute. 

 

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No, haven't tried it yet. Is this the stock that has little anti-halation property? If so that might explain the "soft" characteristic.

I have recently tried Fomopan (Arista) 100 & 400 and have liked the films - especially how they dry totally flat for scanning. I've tried both DD-X and Rodinal on these, and prefer Rodinal for tonality and "sharpness" (acutance). They seemed a bit soft in DD-X.

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I've now read a bit about it and it is the one with anti-halation properties. It also appears to have a propensity to exhibit grain. This may be more to do with the developer being used although the examples I've seen online developed in Foma's own brew showed obvious grain.

I'll pick up a couple of rolls to try as I've got a batch of Ilford Delta films ready to be processed .

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I tried some a couple of years back, the guy who I buy my Foma stuff from had some, and I tried a roll or two.

I haven't gone back to it though, and this normally tells me something. My process is usually R09, and this possibly isn't the recommended soup, but it's what I use.

If needed, I'll dig out some shots, but recall them being "soft(ish)" (no surprise there I suppose) and grainy (and the grain could be the developer not the film).

But, try it yourself, and be sure of what it really is like, I am sure that for some subjects it will be perfect. At the time I was using Fomopan 100 and 200 and they "seemed" more all-round for what I was shooting.

Gary

 

 

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Thanks. It does appear that this film has 'special qualities' one of which could be excessive grain. I'll pick up a couple of rolls and develop one in my usual chemistry and see what I get. I'll probably buy a few rolls of Fomapan 200 at the same time. At least I know where I am with that.

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I’ve tried a couple of rolls, and have one on the go at the moment.  I’ve posted a couple of foggy day example in the past in the I Like Film thread so perhaps not ideal examples but it may give you some idea. In my experience I have found that It is grainy and soft but that may be no bad thing.  If I recall the example were also developed in Ilfosol 3, and scanned on my Paton. Before using it I read that it is better at ISO 250 rather than box speed and again the examples were at that speed.

Regards

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It is a good film but it has a lot of grain. You can expose it on E.I. 250-400 depending on the developer. Supergrain (Rollei) - AM74 or the Retropan Special developer are good combinations.

I even like it more in medium format, 6x7cm roll film.

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I bought four rolls recently and I've used one so far. I rated it at box speed and used my M7 to set the value. I'll develop it myself in Ilfosol 3 and give it a bit longer than my usual five minutes for Delta100. I'll post an example in this thread I get a reasonable result.  

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I've developed my first roll of this film and it's not one I would turn to automatically. I rated it at box speed using my M7 and my F3.5 Nickel Elmar from 1933 for a true vintage look. It was developed in Ilfosol 3 for 7 1/2 minutes at 20Deg C and as expected the negs have a lot of grain.

Just a couple of examples. Using a different developer and/or processing time may improve the final result but I'm not inclined to experiment as I'd rather use Delta100 or Fomapan100/200.

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A very lot of "grain":

 

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Foma Retropan 320 soft E.I. 320. Zorki-6 and I-50. Rollei Supergrain 1+9 8:00 minutes (20C).

 

 

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