Just got some Adox CMS II (4 x 5 and 120)

**Jim Andrada** · 27-Mar-2013, 09:07

A couple of more scans of the CMS 20 II rated at ISO 12

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17745879/Javier%202.tif

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17745879/Jumping%20Cholla.tif

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17745879/Pri...0Pear%201A.tif

By the way - no real point in putting these on Flikr etc because unless you download the whole file you won't be able to see the insane level of detail

Now I have to pick the one I'll send to Lenny for drum scanning - wanna vote??? One scan of Acros, and one of CMS 20 II

**Joel Truckenbrod** · 27-Mar-2013, 18:15

Very interesting test. Thanks for doing this, Jim.

The results are pretty close to what I expected - a very high contrast film that's virtually grainless. While I'm sure the resolution is potentially much higher than Acros, this scan is obviously not revealing it here - the detail captured with the Epson is actually very close, despite the high contrast and lack of grain in the CMS scans. The iso 6 exposure/development strikes me as significantly better in terms of both usable shadow and highlight detail. Regardless, the bright, contrasty light that you photographed in is obviously not ideal for the film - a bit of a torture test if you will. Though there is solid amount of shadow detail in the iso 6 scan that's available with a bit of curves work - more than the Acros scan actually; that may purely be a product of the exposure used with the Acros image (I suspect it is).

I've thought CMS could be a good solution for scenes where a great deal of tonal compression is desirable. It probably would do pretty well in cases where the tonal scale of Fuji Velvia would have done well - flat, low contrast scenes. I have 10 rolls of 120 showing up in the next couple days for testing. If I like it, it may find it's way in to my bag to be used with a 4x5 reducing back.

**C_Remington** · 27-Mar-2013, 19:33

Jim, do you print in the darkroom? How large a print do you think you can reasonably print with these negatives??

**Jim Andrada** · 27-Mar-2013, 22:40

I used to print in the darkroom, but not anymore. Probably because I don't have a darkroom anymore.

I'm sure the Epson can't really show the differences so I'm planning to get a drum scan done of the Acros and the CMS 20