I go through a lot of 8x10 film and it has gotten so expensive that I try to find ways to get it cheaper and ways to waste less.
I have gone through several boxes of Arista EDU 100 and 400 and found it pretty dependable and consistent. I had never tried the 200 because I figured it was middle of the road grainier than a slow film and slower than a fast film. I recently bought a 50 sheet box of the 200 because I picked up some info somewhere on line that it was a tabular type grain and different from the 100 and 400. My 8x10 work is all in my little studio space and all still life so I generally shoot a sheet of film and go straight away and process it, in hopes to get something right with one sheet. If it has a problem I fix it and re shoot and process another sheet.
These last few days I have been trying out or trying to use the Arista EDU Ultra 200. I have gone through 7 sheets of it and so far every sheet is covered in weird little clusters of seemingly scratches in the emulsion though I can't detect any texture mark. It is somewhat like they coated the film over bits of dirt or fluff or lint. I am pretty experienced with film processing and probably have processed well over 5000 sheets of 8x10 since 1990. Lately as I said I have been processing one sheet at a time in a glass tray with the emulsion up and I never ever touch the emulsion except at the very edge. There is no way in hell that I am the cause of these scratch marks. A couple of days ago as I was getting really frustrated with needing to re shoot and after I had gone through 5 sheets of the EDU200 I said screw it and shot one sheet of FP4. I opened up a 3d of a stop and adjusted the processing time and first sheet first try I got a beautiful flawless scratchless streakless sheet of film. A day later and I am working on another photo, I decide to give the EDU200 another try and once again got unbelievably screwed up scratched up mottled film.
I just wanted to go on record here with that experience. In case someone is doing web research on the film. I know as always some other people will weigh in and say that they have used several hundred sheets of EDU 200 and never once had a problem. But that was my experience and I am a very careful methodical photographer and lab tech.
I am going to continue to use the100 and 400 speed but the 200 was a complete waste of money.
Dennis
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