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enock
28-Feb-2013, 16:06
I am the proud owner of 100 sheets of Efke 100 in 4x5 and I was wondering what the group knows about using this film? I mostly take landscape with FP4+ and develop in HC-110 dilution H.

Are there any tips on what this film is best for?

Just want to treat the first and last 100 sheets of the film with some respect as it will probably be the last I will ever see.

Thanks in advance

David Vickery
1-Mar-2013, 00:35
I have used Efke 100 in the 11x14 size. I like it very much for landscape and architecture, and would probably like it for portraits too. I would not use HC-100 with it though. That is mainly because I have very limited experience with HC-100. There were reasons for that, but now I can't remember, there was some reason that I ruled it out. I would have to go back and look at some info in order to defend not using HC-110.

It seems that FP4+ would have finer grain and maybe be a little sharper for enlargements. However, for contact printing, both films can have the richness necessary.

I used a version of ABC pyro that I only mixed at the time, not stored as solutions-it is easy to mess things up with Pyro. When I got things right, Efke was beautiful.
I am going to be using my old stock again soon, and will have to decide on a developer myself.

Efke is good for alternative printing processes, with plenty of exposure and rich development.

enock
1-Mar-2013, 09:00
Thank you for that David, I think that this is tipping me into trying Pyro. I would really like to try Rollo Pyro as I have no darkroom at home and I am not sure where to find one in Pasadena area (I should really join the junior college at PCC and try and use the darkroom there!)

From what I hear with Pyro it is mixing it correctly and in a timely fashion, and doing things the same over and over again will yield better results.

polyglot
1-Mar-2013, 16:26
It's not a film I've used a lot of so I won't try to tell you how, but I will note that Adox have announced that they have organised the manufacture of what should be a direct replacement (http://www.adox.de/english/ADOX%20Films/Premium/page55/index.html) (stylistically) for this film.

I'm a believer in "no magic bullets"... so I'd go with whatever standard developer you like the look of, e.g. D76, Xtol or Rodinal. Or whatever floats your boat - if you're familiar with HC110 then use that as long as you're aware that it implies a little speed loss, similar to Rodinal. If you treat it like FP4 and give it an extra half-stop, I don't reckon you'll go far wrong.