East European films with low grain in 6x4.5?

[Nick Zentena]

Let me start by laying out my impressions.

Forte 200 is WAY too grainy in 6x4.5. Developed in D-23. Printed with a diffusion enlarger. It's way grainer then I'd like.

Agfa APX 100 is just perfect for me. OTOH they don't make sheet film. I'd rather something that came in all flavours.

I can live with 100 film speed.

So which of the currently available 120 films would you suggest? Reasonable grain. Similar look to APX would be great.

[Fotohuis]

Try Foma T200 (E.I. 80 - 100) in SPUR HRX-2.
Xtol can be also an alternative.

Best regards,

Robert

[titrisol]

IMHO Efke 100 in DDX is similar to APX in graininess.
Even though I prefer it in Rodinal 1+50 or 1+100+C

[David A. Goldfarb]

I find Foma 200 quite grainy, but I haven't tried it in spur.

Efke 100 is a beautiful film, and should be comparable to APX in grain. I think that if you like APX 100, you'll like Efke 100, though they are not the same.

Efke 25 is quite fine grained, but with a very different look.

If grain is a big concern, the real answer is to move to a larger format and shoot any film you like based on tonality alone.

[Fotohuis]

The single layer films from Efke are doing best in AM50 or Neofin Blau. Rodinal is also doing fine.
Disadvantage is the very soft emulsion, you have to take care of this.

Best regards,

Robert

[Nick Zentena]

But David they don't make APX in sheet film anymore-(

I've got some EFKE 100 in various formats so going with it for 120 makes sense. Either that or get a bigger freezer and stock up on APX to defend myself from Agfa.

[Fotohuis]

If grain is a big concern, the real answer is to move to a larger format

yes, of course but.........

If you want real big format (=50X70cm) printed from 35 mm negatives and grain is your concern,
Try the next films:

Pan F - Perceptol (Ilford)/CG512 (CG Hamburg)
Rollei R3 (iso 50) - CG512 or Rollei low speed developer
Fuji Acros 100 (iso 50) - CG512
Agfa Copex (iso 25 -40)- SPUR Nanospeed
Kodak Imagelink (iso 25)- SPUR Imagespeed
Efke 25/Maco UP25 - AM50 (Amaloco) or Tetenal Neofin Blau

Discontinued but sometimes available:

Kodak technical Pan
Agfa APX25

Best camera for these kind of films and high resolutions: Leica M serie, preferable with 1,4 or 2,0 lenses because films are about E.I. 25 till E.I. 50.

Even some films (the microfilms) can give over 300-500 ln/mm resolution, (=far over the optical resolution) you will see the differences. Some of these films are also available on 8X11mm (Minox) format.

Scanning can be a problem, best is to print via an enlarger on classical photo paper.

Just an alternative to a medium format camera.

Best regards,

Robert

[abeku]

Fomapan 100 in Perceptol or D-76
or
Efke 100 in TMX dev
are definately combos worth to consider.