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FOMA Developing Disaster - Can anyone help?


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Hello all,

I am at my wit's end with processing FOMA R100 B/W reversal. I can process severl other B/W stocks quite adequately, but Foma seems to always produce a very odd washed out and 'solarised' effect, a little like there is a step in the characteristic curve of the stock - blacks and dark greys working out, then a jump to light greys ...

 

I have tried everything I can think of or that others have suggested. The frame lines and film edges come out a nice dark black so I think I can say that the film is not foged or otherwise damaged, and that the reexposure and the second development are working fine.

 

I know this stock has a strong anti-hallation layer (the reason it cannot be processed as a neg) and that it is a silver rich stock. As far as I can tell the issue must have something to do with one of these.

 

I have tried long rinse times, long bleach times ...

 

Could my problem be the effect of the film being x-rayed in transit to Australia ... I don't know what xray exposure would look like ... but I assume it would be an all over foging. Any one know the effect on reversal stocks?

 

Could my problem be to do with something in the water I use ... something that affects FOMA but not Kodak or Kahl (ORWO)?

 

I have a quantity of this stock in my fridge, I am desparate to find an answer.

Can anyone help?

Regards,

Richard T.

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Foma is a different beast; it's not the same as Kodak, Agfa or Ilford films. It has an antihaltion barrier that has to be removed by bleach in processing, which is apparently why it doesn't work as a negative film. Are you using the Foma chemicals? Check around on previous posts here and other sites; I've seen threads of other filmmakers' workarounds for Foma processing.

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Just letting people know that I have finally solved my Foma problem. It need considerably more clearing time than other B/W films, possibly because of the anti-hallation thing. Any way, I got a result - finally!

Richard

 

 

How much more time?

Dimitrios Koukas

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I wanted to see what absolutely ample clearing would look like, so I tried 6 minutes and I used 20g of Sodium sulphite rather than the 10g/litre that Kodak suggests. I note that Foma suggest 50g of K2S2O5 - would that be potasium disulphite (that was a guess)! In any case, Martin Baumgarten tells me that for Foma he uses the kodak 10g/litre of sodium sulphite but for 5 minutes, not the kodak 2 minutes. I will try that next. I had only been giving it 2 minutes before.

R.

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