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FOMA Fomapan R 100


Daniel C

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  • 10 months later...

I am afraid it certainly can't be processed by all labs that process black and white tri-x. Processing this stock in the normal Kodak chemistry can result in very wierd effects. They can be a nice 'solarized' pos/neg looking effect, but not what you are after if you want straight processing. Be very careful when asking a lab whether they can process this. Some may assume they can but never have. Some may have processed it and simply been lucky (when the Kodak chemistry hasn't processed many other films it can often process Foma o.k.).

This stock is really suited to home processing using the FOMA kit chemistry.

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Richard, do you happen to know what's special about the Foma processing? Is it only the special internal anti halation layer?

 

As far as I know, there are two things that are different with the Foma R100. One is it is a 'silver rich' emulsion, which means it has a lot of silver halide crystals that aren't photographically active. They are basically redundent bits of silver halide. And the other is the silver anti halation layer. I don't believe the silver rich aspect would make the difference with reversal processing in different chemistry. Certainly it is the silver anti halation layer that means that fomapan can't be processed as a neg because it has to have a bleach stage in the processing to remove that layer. I strongly suspect that as you say it is the anti halation layer that is to blame for the processing issue that it has with the kodak reversal process chemistry.

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Hello Gautam,

yes, it is best if you can buy a LOMO tank on ebay. There are three models. The most appropriate is the rare 100' lomo. These are expensive. The second best option is to get a 50' lomo. These are the ones that can process two 50' loads at a time. Quite useful. There is also the 10 meter/ 30 foot tank. This tank is easy to identify as it has two black hoses instead of just one. Don't buy one of these.

You can also process just in a bucket, but it is pretty messy, and the results very much look like they were done in a bucket. Can be a nice thing, but not necessarilly what you are after.

If you are processing this film yourself, you can in fact use Kodak D19 as the developer and mix up the Kodak R9 bleach formula. I can advise on that. Using D19 and R9 bleach would be cheaper than using the foma kit. But if you are going down that path, you might also consider using Orwo film rather than Foma. A little easier to process as it doesn't have the silver anti-halation layer that foma does. Or you could use Tri-X. Use whichever of those stocks is the cheapest for you to get. Look into finding a supplier of photographic chemicals. These could be packets of chemicals (kodak D19 comes in a packet) or raw chemicals. Using raw chemicals is the cheapest way to go.

feel free to ask me questions about home processing if you want to pursue this.

cheers,

richard

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Thanks so much Richard! I did have a look at LOMO and Morse tanks on eBay (they cost as much as my K3 camera!). I had spoken to Kodak, Fuji and some old local camera/ film dealers in New Delhi (where I live) and unfortunately my only option is to purchase the raw chemicals/ processing kit online.

 

I've been ordering my filmstock with Kodak online and usually have it delivered to friends/ family in the US to carry it back for me (unfortunately through X-rays)-

 

I am going to try home processing- have you ever heard of this experimental filmmaker called Nicolas REY? (not to be confused with the great auteur Nicolas RAY)- I love the look he achieves through hand processing old AGFA 16mm stock in his studio in Paris. Another one of my favourite exp filmmakers- Ben Rivers also home processes some of his films/ installation pieces. I have been experimenting with 35mm stills for a few years and just can't wait to have a go at moving images.

 

Right now, I'm preparing to shoot Double-X (will get it processed at a lab as it is a narrative short) but my eyes are on the FOMA and ORWO right after- and of course, the Tri-X before it disappears. I'm in constant worry that all the great filmstocks are disappearing!

 

You will no doubt hear from me when I get to these.

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Hi Gautam,

from a thread in another forum, I read that there is a photography store called 'madanjee' on Chandni Chowk where you can buy quite a bit of black and white chemistry. They may not have D19, but you can use a paper print developer if you want to do the reversal process. Of course, you can also make developer from Coffee,vitamin C poweder and 'washing soda'. That works very well. The bigger issue is fixer. It is possible to use normal table salt, but apparently you have to use an awful lot and the film takes about 24 hours to fix properly. So the main thing to try to get is a black and white fixer. To process reversal, you will need to find a scientific chemicals supplier. Major cities usually have one of these. You will need to buy Potassium Dichromate and Sulphuric Acid to make the bleach, and Sodium Sulphide to make the so called clearing bath.

The reversal process really isn't much harder than the negative process (which is just developer then fixer). The thing is you only need to do one stage - the first development stage - in the dark. You can do the rest in full light. So using a bucket to develop spaghetti style isn't too hard.

A lomo tank is of course the best way to go. Personally I don't recommend the Morse rewind tanks. Some people like them, but I don't.

You can make yourself a simple flat frame and wind the film around it then lay it in an open tray of developer. That works very well. Hard to do long lengths that way, but you can always cut a 100' length of film into say 30 foot lengths and process this way, the splice back together after processing. For splicing, the cheapest thing to do is to get an old kodak universal tape splicer from ebay. These can be very cheap. They use little tabs which are also cheap to buy.

Yes, I know both Nicholas and Ben. Nicholas is heavily involved in the filmlabs.org forum of which my lab is also a member. I believe this forum is open for individuals to join as well. Looking at Ben's films, he has often processed spaghetti style in a bucket. I think mostly just in negative, not reversal.

hope that is of some help. send me an email at richard@nanolab.com.au if you want to ask specific questions.

cheers,

richard

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I understand some labs have a trick, or work-around, for processing Fomapan in Kodak's D-94a (potassium permanganate) process (Fomapan is really designed for the older D-94 w/ pottasium dichromate bleach.) Part of the the work-around is to process the Fomapan in a separate run, while none of the Kodak film is in the baths at the same time. It isn't perfect but minimizes the solarization effects. It all depends on the lab, their particular machine, and so on. The lab I had good luck with this trick was Yale. On the other hand, back when Forde lab in Seattle were in business, they could barely get an image at all. I don't know about Alphacine now.

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  • 4 months later...

As far as labs that process Fomapan R100 correctly with great results, I have only come across 1 in the USA. This is DR-5 Chrome in Denver, CO.(http://www.dr5.com/. They usually only deal with still/slide film, but have agreed to run Foma's cine line. They are more expensive than most lab in the U.S. that deal with it, but the results are flawless. I used to send my Foma to Yale Film & Video in Burbank, but the results were not consistent eventhough they run it separate from Kodak. In Germany, Wittner Kinotechnik processes Fomapan with Foma chemistry with good results. Anyone dealing in Fomapan R100 should use DR-5's lab.

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