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09-10-2021, 08:38 AM   #1
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Exposure latitude and Fomapan 200 Creative - newby questions

Although I shot some negative film many years ago, I'm really just beginning to learn about it now, so please cut me a little slack with what I'm sure will seem like silly questions to you experienced folks

I'm embarking on a period of film photography using - by choice - very simple, limited equipment, and a commercial lab for developing and scanning. After much deliberation over film choice I've settled on Fomapan Creative 200, which I believe should be suitable for my needs given my location and range of daytime weather we experience. However, something in the film's promotional info has me a little confused...

From Foma's website:

QuoteQuote:
FOMAPAN 200 Creative is panchromatically sensitized, black and white negative film of the speed ISO 200/24°. It is the film of new generation, making full use of outstanding properties of hexagonal core/shell tabular silver halide grains. The film features exellent resolving power and low granularity and is intended for use under normal or slightly unfavourable light conditions. Its wide exposure latitude allows exposures in the speed range from ISO 100/21° to 800/30° without change of development time. The film is available in roll film 120, sheet films, perforated 35 mm films including long length rolls.
Here come the silly questions:

1) Does the highlighted text above suggest I can under-expose up to one stop (ISO 100) or over-expose up to two stops (ISO 800) - all on the same roll - and the film will render useable negatives without pushing or pulling in development?

2) I'll obviously end up with a range of correctly-, under- and over-exposed images on the same film. Will the lab auto-correct for this when scanning the negatives?

3) If I should need to shoot a roll in lower light than the ISO 100 - 800 range allows with my camera's shutter and aperture combinations, can I treat the film as if it were ISO 400 and ask the lab to push by one stop in development? If so, will I still have four stops of latitude to work with when shooting, or will that reduce when pushing?

I have a strong feeling that I've not understood this correctly, and look forward to any educative replies.

Thanks in advance


Last edited by BigMackCam; 09-10-2021 at 09:51 AM.
09-10-2021, 09:15 AM - 1 Like   #2
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To 2) : I would indeed expect Scanning to compensate automatically , at least to some extent , they aim to obtain an average, well balanced image .

To 3) : in my old film days this was indeed possible, we could ask 400 film to be treated as 800 etc.... we had to indicate this when handing in the film roll, there was a tick box on the envelopes.
But today I would check with your lab beforehand...

About the marketing talk, I assume the film tolerates small deviations in exposure without affecting to much the image quality..., looks a wide range to me.
09-10-2021, 09:32 AM - 1 Like   #3
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1 and 2) expose for the shadows implies over exposure is preferable to under exposure. One stop wont make a huge difference either way. When over exposing, the scanner d max will impact how much detail you can read from those dense highlights, whereas for under exposure a thin negative is akin to blown highlights in digital (but for the shadows...).

3) Labs can usually push/pull if you tell them, here they charge a couple $ extra per roll. Pushing results in lower tonal range, higher contrast, and generally most imagine degradation occurs in the shadows. It's still better than under exposing and developing normally i think
09-10-2021, 10:15 AM - 2 Likes   #4
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I've been shooting a lot of Foma 200 as I bought a 100' roll of it. I actually find it to be better at 400, at least easier to scan with levels I like. And I don't mean pushing it, I mean underexposing it, which is what happens when you shoot a stop faster and don't compensate in development. So I think you could both push and just shoot higher ISO without push processing as the mood suits you, and be fine.

Here's an example at 200:



And here's one at 400, developed the same way as the previous:



Granted there were some different settings in the scan and subsequent bit of PP, but what you can see are things that are native to the film, like harder to control highlights in bright light at 200 than 400, while deep shadows are similar either way.

09-10-2021, 03:43 PM - 1 Like   #5
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You might find this detailed review interesting:

May 21st, 2021. Fomapan 200 Creative ? The Codex

The takeaway from my reading is that it does not readily retain shadow detail.


Steve
09-11-2021, 05:36 AM - 3 Likes   #6
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NOOO NOOO NOOO STOP NOW BEFORE THE FILM BUG BITES, ...... ITS TOO LATE FOR ME BUT SAVE YOURSELF!!


I am too late aren't I

OK then. Like you I am a film newbie. I had a spottie and an S1a that I got for the lenses. My first foray into film was due to being asked to test a 1932 Leica (I was hardly going to say no). After that I thought I would run some film through my bodies. Both had sticking mirrors (sorted) but were light sealed, despite this I am changing the light seals as we speak. I am also changing the leather on the spottie to navy blue, should look rather fine . As regards film, my first was some Kosmo Foto 100. It is fomapan 100 repackaged but I wanted to support the little guy. I pushed it to iso 200 on the S1a which increased the contrast and the grain. I just had to make sure I told the lab that I had pushed it one stop (+1 marked on the canister). There is an example of someone pushing it four stops to iso 1600 but that was too grainy for me. I shot the S1a first because the spotty SP needed some love, but that came next. In the spotty I ran a film of Rollei 400 shot at box speed. It was very nice indeed

Kosmo flickr album
Kosmo photo mono | Flickr

Rollei album
Spotmatic Rollei iso400 | Flickr

There are quite a few articles on pushing (faster than box speed) and pulling (slower) film but you have to be consistent for the whole roll and inform the lab as to what you have done.

I had my film developed and scanned so I can fiddle in Photoshop. The lab I use is this one
https://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/

And this is a great source for film
Film for Photography | 35mm, 120, 4x5 + more | Analogue Wonderland

And if you need light seals or want to change your leather to yellow or pale green, this is your boy
Aki-Asahi Camera Coverings

Just out of interest, what are you shooting with?
09-11-2021, 07:56 AM   #7
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I tried some of this film from an early batch. QC of coating was disappointing.
For a true medium speed film I have been using Eastman 5222 "Double-X".

Chris

09-11-2021, 09:46 AM   #8
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Thanks for the replies, all. Good info to confirm my understanding, tweak my expectations of this film and encourage me to experiment a little

@AgentL and @Cerebum - those photos are great! From what I've seen on the web, I really like the look of Fomapan in any of the 100, 200 and 400 speeds.
QuoteOriginally posted by Cerebum Quote
Just out of interest, what are you shooting with?
QuoteOriginally posted by Cerebum Quote
Just out of interest, what are you shooting with?
With this film specifically, I'll mostly be shooing an old Agfa Isola II (see my post HERE), but I may also run a roll or two through my Lubitel 166+ TLR. The Agfa is very limited in exposure control, hence my interest in Fomapan 200 Creatuve's latitude.

I've some 35mm film cameras I'm wanting to play with too
09-11-2021, 02:56 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
You might find this detailed review interesting:

May 21st, 2021. Fomapan 200 Creative ? The Codex

The takeaway from my reading is that it does not readily retain shadow detail.


Steve
The photos in the link seem a bit underexposed or maybe rather underdeveloped to me. Might have something to do with it. Though you can see from both the examples I posted that the shadows are deep (granted both of those were in high-contrast situations). The photo of the tires at the link was very well-exposed. Methinks the writer's meter was exposing to protect very bright highlights.
09-25-2021, 10:37 AM - 1 Like   #10
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I have not used or developed this film specifically but have tested many color and b&w films and found that they pretty much all have a very similar wide latitude. For example I shot a roll of Kodak TriX and tested it's latitude by over and underexposing it then developed and scanned it myself with the scanner software set for auto exposure and got these results.



As you can see, the scanner rendered a very good starting point covering the range of -3 to +3 but in fact I found I can post process a range of -4 to +8 and get very useable results with very little work. I would suggest that you test it out for suitability so you can know what range of latitude you can work with in your workflow.
09-26-2021, 08:40 AM - 1 Like   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by BigMackCam Quote
1) Does the highlighted text above suggest I can under-expose up to one stop (ISO 100) or over-expose up to two stops (ISO 800) - all on the same roll - and the film will render useable negatives without pushing or pulling in development?
Yes, that's what that yellow highlighted statement means. However, I would expect some loss of low values at EI 800. Next time you shoot a roll, try over and under exposure to see how thin or dense the negative ends up. I recently purchased some Fomapan 100 for the first time. I don't have much experience with the film to say much about it.

My results with Fomapan 100 in D-23.


09-28-2021, 05:23 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
I have not used or developed this film specifically but have tested many color and b&w films and found that they pretty much all have a very similar wide latitude. For example I shot a roll of Kodak TriX and tested it's latitude by over and underexposing it then developed and scanned it myself with the scanner software set for auto exposure and got these results.

...

As you can see, the scanner rendered a very good starting point covering the range of -3 to +3 but in fact I found I can post process a range of -4 to +8 and get very useable results with very little work. I would suggest that you test it out for suitability so you can know what range of latitude you can work with in your workflow.
Thank you, Les - this is a very useful illustration. It does indeed look like -3 to +3 is perfectly OK (with the TriX, at least). That's good news, especially for cameras with limited shutter speed and aperture settings (or, in the case of my little Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, one shutter speed and one aperture !! ).
09-28-2021, 05:24 AM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by tuco Quote
Yes, that's what that yellow highlighted statement means. However, I would expect some loss of low values at EI 800. Next time you shoot a roll, try over and under exposure to see how thin or dense the negative ends up. I recently purchased some Fomapan 100 for the first time. I don't have much experience with the film to say much about it.

My results with Fomapan 100 in D-23.
Excellent - thanks for confirming that.

Nice results with the Fomapan 100 and D-23!
09-28-2021, 03:44 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by BigMackCam Quote
Thank you, Les - this is a very useful illustration. It does indeed look like -3 to +3 is perfectly OK (with the TriX, at least). That's good news, especially for cameras with limited shutter speed and aperture settings (or, in the case of my little Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, one shutter speed and one aperture !! ).
Since you don't do your own scanning, it will be important to know what your lab's scanning can provide. The mini labs I've had scanned my film - Agfa, Frontier and Noritsu, tended to overexpose their scans.

Good luck!
09-28-2021, 09:32 PM - 1 Like   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
Since you don't do your own scanning, it will be important to know what your lab's scanning can provide. The mini labs I've had scanned my film - Agfa, Frontier and Noritsu, tended to overexpose their scans.

Good luck!
I will be doing my own scanning very soon, Les - using a tripod-mounted DSLR, light table, film holder and Negative Lab Pro software in Lightroom. NLP provides profiled emulation of Frontier and Noritsu lab scanners, but with full control over all aspects of the scan - including, of course, exposure
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