And that time to experiment with this type of emulsion from Svema Ukraine has come to pass. I managed to shoot two such films, with some reluctance though. Given my recent unsatisfactory results with Svema Foto 100, I promised myself that I will not waste any more time or resources to shooting a film which cannot be relied upon. And I kept my word, for a while that is. However, sunny days arriving, I changed my mind. I still believe the 4 films completely ruined by light were a fluke, most probably a bad batch mixed in my order from Svema. Who knows?
So I decided to shoot a can of Svema Micrat-N film with a Boots (Ricoh) 35AF camera, and another in my (really reliable) Olympus OM1. This here presented is shot with the 35AF camera, recently processed. It was developed in Rodinal Spezial 1+25 for 6 mins, 20*C, 30 ” initial inversion, then 1 inversion every minute. It is probably too concentrate a dilution for this film, I guess. But as experiments go, this will be changed next time. There is not much data on development for this film; only a few pieces of information, incomplete, scattered here and there on the web. So I decided to do the entire roll of film without resorting to testing it.
The film was rated 25 ASA, and shot/developed at this value. After drying, the negative (visually) looks like Agfa Ortho 25 one, crystal clear base with just blacks showing up, almost no grey at all. The scans were done by way of Plustek 7200 Opticfilm, which is not the greatest scanning tool there is (well, it wasn’t that even at the time of purchasing it, back in 2005, to be honest). Coupled with Vuescan Pro, it provides decent images, but still missing important features which can make or break a good image. It will be replaced at some point this year, I hope.
Have I mentioned how curly this base is? No, but I do say this now: this film is on the same level of curliness (is this even a word?) with Copex Rapid, Rollei ATP and some other films of that ilk. Even after some 48 hrs hanging with (decent) heavy clips, it is still biting back. If you scan this film as I do, in 6 frame stripes at a time, you’ll find that the insertion in the adapter is a struggle not always won by you. This film is alive, believe me.
This is the only decent frame I got. I give up, no idea what the heck is going on with this film.
