As you have seen through my previous posts, I have been playing around with a Konica Autoreflex TC lately, doing different styles and types of photography with it and different films. Some days ago, I took it out once again with a roll of Fomapan 100and a yellow and a graded orange filter. I went for subtle snowy shapes in nature to test out both the sharpness of the lens, and to once again try the Fomapan 100. Over 2020, I shot many rolls of Fomapan 100 to test it out and get familiar with that film, and I must say that Fomapan 100 is a film I really like shooting, and that I find to give very fine grain when developed in Kodak X-tol at stock level, and that I get very nice results with it for most of my photography. However, this is my first test of this in snowy conditions.
I did not have Kodak Xtol at this moment, because I’ve recently had two batches that split. I initially thought this was my mistake and that I hadn’t mixed it properly or made some other mistake with it; however, after some research online, I got leads about a bad batch of Xtol that had this issues. The date I bought the two bags of powder correlated well with the production and estimated sell-dates of the problem batch. Even though the two batches didn’t cause me any issues, I have not bought Xtol for a while. I will, however buy another batch some time soon. But I had a few bags of Fomadon Excel left, which is basically Foma’s take on the Kodak Xtol.
Previously, I used to have Xtol in the spring, summer and autumn-time, when I shoot most film, and Fomadon Excel in wintertime, when I shoot less. When handeled properly, I cannot see difference between negatives developed with Excel and Xtol. One difference though, is that Fomadon Excel can be slightly more challenging to mix. I have found that mixing it as you wold mix Ilford Chemistry, with warmer water, makes the powder dissolve better and easier, and that is how I mix Fomadon Excel. For this particular process, I also used Foma Fixer and Foma Stop bath as well. So this is a all around Fomapan Process.
All in all, I am very happy with these images. They were taken very quickly whenever I saw something that I found worthy of shooting, and I find that they make the sky come forward in a very pleasant way.
Cheap Camera Adventures 