First ADOX CHS 100 II Shots+ comparison

[Tobias Key]

Well my box of CHS 100 II finally came last week and I persuaded my daughter to pose for a few test shots. At the same time I shot my 5d as a reference and I've posted them here for your evaluation. I've posted the whole images in turn and the crops of the face so you can look at the differences in tonality between panchromatic digital image and the orthopanchromatic Adox. The differences are pretty subtle but my daughter certainly seems to have more freckles when shot with the Adox.

Generally the film was very straightforward to use and the box speed appears accurate. I developed these in Rodinal 1+50 and I got nice negatives with a fine grain, so other developers may reduce the grain even further. Didn't spot any QC issues, emulsion seems to handle like any modern film.




adoxtest (1) by Tobias Key, on Flickr


5d comparison shot by Tobias Key, on Flickr


adoxtest crop by Tobias Key, on Flickr


5d comparison by Tobias Key, on Flickr

[Tobias Key]

Here's a colour version of the crop for reference as well.


Colour comparison by Tobias Key, on Flickr

[Daniel Stone]

the film shots seem to have more depth/3D effect. You can determine more "planes" of distance, so to speak. To MY eyes, the digital seems more 2-dimensional, flat, etc...
Especially in the very fine hairs at the top of her forehead. The area around the nose as well.

thank you for the comparison

-Dan

[Michael Alpert]

Tobias,

Thank you for the comparisons. The digital images seem to have (perhaps) too much contrast. But beyond the technical comparison, these are lovely, quiet photographs. They portray your daughter in a very thoughtful and dignified way.

[photobymike]

by golly daniel i think you are right.... i have an ipad gen 4 retina display ...enlarged i saw more tones and perceived sharpness with the Adox...and the canon well looked digital....i really liked the comparison i really could tell the difference. But then again the the different media are using different part of the light spectrum... more freckles = more perceived detail......

[StoneNYC]

I see higher highlights in the digital, which are tamed in the film.

Also. Your daughter has striking eyes!

That's all.

[brouwerkent]

I spoke with freestyle today...and the price for 25 sheets will be 51 dollars! That strikes me as over the top expensive...and is bound to fail...given how good Kodak and Ilford films are.

I loved the Efke films...because they were formerly cheap...and while sometimes funky and soft...the price was right. But since the new Adox is more than Kodak...I would be shocked if this "new" film gets a serious market.

Saddened...and still missing my old friend Efke 25

Cheers!

Phil

[UlbabraB]

Here in Europe is about 30% cheaper than Ilford and Kodak, I'll give it a try hoping it doesn't have the same quality issues of Foma films.

[IanG]

In Europe 5x4" CHS II is 29 euros for a 25 sheet box, that's £24.71/$40.08, that's from Fotoimpex/Adox themselves and includes German VAT (not applicable to exports outside the EU).

That's a big saving compared to Ilford & Kodak.

Ian

[StoneNYC]

Strange how different pricing can be, I agree if it's as much or more than Kodak film, in sheets, then it's probably not going to have a good market here in the US.

I was really excited to try this, but now I'm a little bit bummed out.

Sidenote, EFKE films... yuck. lol! Please take my comments with a grain of salt, I really only shot 127 type films from EFKE because that's the only 127 films available in new stock, well until Ilford had their special ULF run. But every single role that I had had some kind of emulsion issue spots missing emulsion etc. And the grain wasn't nice, kind of soft, and all had "EFKE-itis" talk about poor QC ... You get what you pay for, I will admit that I do complain often about film prices in general, especially when it comes to the films I really like for example Fuji E-6 or Acros100 in sheet form, but ultimately I'd rather simply shoot less be more careful, and get a better result from some high-quality film, than to get a bunch of cheap film and have bad looking images.

This is certainly one of those moments when you should read my tagline underneath my signature