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Julian Tanase Photography

My Minox journey continues…

The strangeness of Fomapan 400

The strangeness of Fomapan 400

My first roll of Fomapan 400 Action, (loaded in a Minox camera) results were less than encouraging. Something is not right with this film, and I obviously count in my possible (and probable) mistakes when shooting and processing it. This aside, I cannot tell if this is a real 400 ASA or less than that. My results with the 100 (Minox LX) and 200 ASA (Zorki 1, 35mm) versions of Fomapan are all right-ish, but those were shot and processed at 50 and respectively 80-100 ASA, which are half their box value. Strange that, but not so much.

Anyways, I thought to give this 400 film another go, loaded it in a Nikon FM3A, only this time shooting it at 200 ASA value and process accordingly; if 100 is 50, 200 is 80-100, then is follows that the 400 is 200, right? Results were better than the first time, but still…there is something I miss here. I have changed the developer from D76 to Rodinal, for 11 mins, diluted 1+50. Temperature was set at 20*C, as usual.

Not bad images, but still…something is not there. What exactly, I am not certain, but that something is visibly lacking. To be honest, I expected more of contrast and deep tones. Oh well, back to the drawing board, third roll is coming soon. For now, all I can say is that I may be the one at fault, but this film is not behaving either.

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