I had this film on my radar for a while now, being recommended by a fellow photographer as “something between Double X and HP5+”. My curiosity aroused, I got a few rolls of it, at not a very dear price, and one roll found its way in my bag for the recently made trip to Austria. Spoiler alert: whatever my friend thought about this film, it is not what he suggested it to be, not by a long shot. I’ll have words with him, I can tell you this.
I have to say here that I made a pact with myself last year, not to take with me or shoot any untested films, when it comes to my holidays or visiting places where a good deal of decent photographs can be had. Well, I foresworn myself, and had this film with me while visiting Salzburg for the holidays. Not very proud of myself, as the results of Kono Monolith 400 are something I might have wished to avoid. Simply said, it is not the film for me. Or at least, it is not the film that I thought it will be. Or something.
I shot this film in a Nikon FM3a, set at 400 speed, and treated it as any other 400 film. The results are something of a baffle; while most of them are crap, some (very few) may have something to say to me.
Grain wise, not boulder size but very present, at least in this film as I processed it (D76). I do not mind to be honest, it seems to me the grain generally enhances the acuity, and to some extent, the sharpness. I have not performed any tests, not real tests I mean, but I have the distinct feeling of edges being a bit blurred here, not sure why.
Also, the tones are washed somehow, I mean I do not see any real separation when it comes to the tone by tone situation. The transition is so smooth that I have the feeling it is all a grey image, with very little distinctive tone sectors. Hard to say where zone 3 starts and where it ends. Blacks are not really blacks either.
From what I gather from Kono Manufaktur website and from elsewhere: “Kono! Monolit 100 is a panchromatic 35mm film with a nominal sensitivity of ISO 400. A classic all-rounder from Svema for use in lower light conditions. Classic grain, flexible exposure range and 36 exposures.”. It is also advertised and sold on various sites as “Kono! (Svema) Monolit 400 135-36”. Well, I can tell you that this film does not seem to be the Svema 400 Foto I know. And I know because I shot like 20 rolls in the last year, purchased from Astrum directly. At least it does not seem to be the film I purchased from them in that denomination. In all fairness, Kono say they do produce this film in Germany. Meaning they import and roll from Svema’s stock, or they produce this from scratch on a patent?
The Svema 400 Foto film negative I know appears to be something else, and while it bears some certain resemblance to this Kono Monolith 400, it is not Svema I believe. Or at least it is not the Svema I know: too grainy, and the exposing latitude is pretty narrow. The negative itself is very thin (Svema is the same, very thin) and it has a yellowish tint after drying up.
The negative came out very thin, and it took me some time to understand what happened. I have not nailed down exactly what gave here, but I can guess: the ASA is probably closer to 250 than to a real 400. Some ( a lot really) of the frames were so thin that I could not even scan or see the details. Granted, it is not probably a good idea to develop in D76, but I just followed the Kono’s own dev chart:
From my own notes, I should’ve process the negative in Rodinal at 1+25 for 12 minutes (as per Svema 400 film), that gave me really good negatives, with the contrast a bit high but well kept under control. I believe this will be the next thing to do, cannot wait to see if something changes. I believe it will.
This film handled the day light shots rather well, if a bit dark and grainy. However, it didn’t nailed the exposure, which is surprising because given the light at that time of day (overcast without shadows), the 400 ASA should’ve been enough for a good exposure. Also, the image below is disappointing, as 400 ASA at an aperture of 2 was thought to be enough to capture the scene. It did not however, in spite being enough light within the church.
Right, so whatever I have said here is my own personal experience, and in no way shape or form can this be construed as a professional opinion or some such review. It could be very well that I fucked up at some point and this is the result. It also possible that the batch was off for some reason. I just do not know, but I will try to fid out more about this film, in different conditions and with other developers.
All said and done, not a bad film, but not up my alley really. Would this be a film that I may use in the future? For the time being, I guess not, but I’ll finish those I still have right now. That said, who knows what will I get on the second roll, right? Perhaps it will reveal itself to me as a good choice of 400 ASA film. Or not.