Whenever I decide to push some film I always do a bit of internet searching to see how other people did it. With Fomapan 100, I found very little information and most of it was a suggestion not to do it. I decided to give it a go, used my bulk loader to prepare 24 images and shot them over the course of a single day at home. The idea was to shoot in different lighting conditions to see how it all came out.
The first image above, is a continuation of my Bull Study. I have selected a copper bull made following Ancient Greek methods. It is small, all of about 3.5 inches long but rather heavy. I love the simple lines and it reminds me of Picasso's Bull Deconstruction. So my goal is to shoot the bull under different conditions, with different film, cameras and lighting. So I decided this would be a good subject matter.
Overall Fomapan100 is a wonderful film at a very attractive price. The plastic layer is a bit thin compared to more expensive brands, but it dries perfectly straight and the grain is very fine. Obviously all bets are off when you push it beyond the suggested range. The recommended practice is to shoot this film at an EI between 50-200. Pushing it to 400 is one stop over the recommended levels.
The results were ok. I am fine with the level of grain however true blacks were hard to get. Below are the other images of the role to give you a feel for how it worked in different lighting.
All in all, while useable I would not recommend pushing to 400. I believe that in the darkroom I can get a good print out of it but it would require a bit of work. The contrast range seems to steep giving us little in terms of grey tones to work with. In a pinch it certainly can be used.
From past experience I believe shooting it around EI80 gives the best results however EI of 100 works just fine. Be careful when handling the negatives as they are easily scratched (don't use a squeegee).
The first image above, is a continuation of my Bull Study. I have selected a copper bull made following Ancient Greek methods. It is small, all of about 3.5 inches long but rather heavy. I love the simple lines and it reminds me of Picasso's Bull Deconstruction. So my goal is to shoot the bull under different conditions, with different film, cameras and lighting. So I decided this would be a good subject matter.
Overall Fomapan100 is a wonderful film at a very attractive price. The plastic layer is a bit thin compared to more expensive brands, but it dries perfectly straight and the grain is very fine. Obviously all bets are off when you push it beyond the suggested range. The recommended practice is to shoot this film at an EI between 50-200. Pushing it to 400 is one stop over the recommended levels.
The results were ok. I am fine with the level of grain however true blacks were hard to get. Below are the other images of the role to give you a feel for how it worked in different lighting.
All in all, while useable I would not recommend pushing to 400. I believe that in the darkroom I can get a good print out of it but it would require a bit of work. The contrast range seems to steep giving us little in terms of grey tones to work with. In a pinch it certainly can be used.
From past experience I believe shooting it around EI80 gives the best results however EI of 100 works just fine. Be careful when handling the negatives as they are easily scratched (don't use a squeegee).
