Fuji HRT or Agfa G-Plus

[DKirk]

I've been looking at the X-Ray film topics and wonder if anyone has used more recently either of these films - Fuji HR-T http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HRT-8-x10-FUJI-GREEN-X-RAY-FILM-8-x-10-Lowest-price-/261056769987?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc8322fc3 or Agfa G-Plus http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261252740459?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Has anyone used either or both and can directly comment them - works out as pennies difference. Also is there a better developer to use - currently have Rodinal and a satchet of Xtol to hand, though it looks like fotoimpex.de will be getting Diafine back in stock soon. . .

Currently I'll just be using them for test shots (needing to replace the Bellows on my Toyo 810G has kind of blown the film budget) - as I don't have a dark room all I've got to process is a JOBO 2800 or a Patterson Orbital tank, so if they're both using double sided emulsions stripping one side may be required - So an I right in thinking a ball park ISO to start metering at would be in the region of 64-80?

[Corran]

I use HR-T when I shoot x-ray.

Your ISO estimate is right on, and yes you'll have to strip the backside after development if it gets scratched. Not a big deal.

I've used Rodinal, Pyrocat, Acufine, and other developers with this film. Rodinal works great. Acufine with a bit less exposure (100 or so) is quite good too.

Have you looked at or read through the big x-ray film threads elsewhere on the forum?

[DKirk]

Thanks Corran, just about 3/4 the way through on the Images thread and similar for the other one - just seeing if I can get my dislexic mind round a summary - CARESTREAM EKTASCAN B/RA Film has also been suggested but the only supplier in the UK I can find quickly wants about £245.87 and it's not clear if that's with VAT which works out as £304.05 AND if that is just for 100sheets or a box of 5 packs of 100. . . Still waiting on the eBay guy getting back to me for the Bellows quote If he can do it cheaper than the fitted cost of £198 from Custom Bellows so I can see how much I've got to play with to put towards film. . .

[StoneNYC]

Thanks Corran, just about 3/4 the way through on the Images thread and similar for the other one - just seeing if I can get my dislexic mind round a summary - CARESTREAM EKTASCAN B/RA Film has also been suggested but the only supplier in the UK I can find quickly wants about £245.87 and it's not clear if that's with VAT which works out as £304.05 AND if that is just for 100sheets or a box of 5 packs of 100. . . Still waiting on the eBay guy getting back to me for the Bellows quote If he can do it cheaper than the fitted cost of £198 from Custom Bellows so I can see how much I've got to play with to put towards film. . .

To give you a comparison, in the U.S. I can buy ektascan for $80 +shipping (so less than $100 (U.S.) for me) which is only $1/sheet.

At the price you're quoting I would just buy normal panchromatic film.

I hope you can get it cheaper somewhere else in the UK. Or hope the price is for a pack of 5 that would be awesome!

[DKirk]

To give you a comparison, in the U.S. I can buy ektascan for $80 +shipping (so less than $100 (U.S.) for me) which is only $1/sheet.

At the price you're quoting I would just buy normal panchromatic film.

I hope you can get it cheaper somewhere else in the UK. Or hope the price is for a pack of 5 that would be awesome!

Hope so, I'm covering Live Chat in the evening tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'll give them a bell and find out - as painful as the initial expense would be it would then, minus the expense of some Extra chemistry and storage/neg sheets work out at 60p per sheet plus whatever Royal Mail or courier charges on top. . . . But hopefully that's 500 shots

[Jody_S]

I have used both, I much prefer the Agfa. Just my $0.02. I was never able to tame the contrast of the HR-T and get good tonality, but when I ran out and started the box of Agfa I got from the same purchase, I suddenly had beautiful, full tonal range images. I have since re-ordered Agfa film twice. Yes I strip the reverse side. I use Ilfotec HC or HC-110, very dilute.

[DKirk]

I have used both, I much prefer the Agfa. Just my $0.02. I was never able to tame the contrast of the HR-T and get good tonality, but when I ran out and started the box of Agfa I got from the same purchase, I suddenly had beautiful, full tonal range images. I have since re-ordered Agfa film twice. Yes I strip the reverse side. I use Ilfotec HC or HC-110, very dilute.

Funny you should say that, that's what thr apparent difference price wise seems to nearly work out at :)

[Deval]

Live chat?

[mdarnton]

I've been using that Fuji film in your link--you can look at my LF Flickr page and see what I've been doing with it (everything newer than the photo of the camera is xray film). This weekend, however, I went to buy more, and realized that they have a whole line of different Super HR films, and in the current catalog that film doesn't seem to be one of them, which makes me wonder if it's a discontinued version. All of the current ones on the Fuji site have longer suffixes to the HR, and all of them give different contrast. I found only two films currently listed on their site, T30 and U30, but somewhere there was a pdf with other ones, and comparing all the brochures I discovered that the T30 was the high contrast offering, U30 the lowest, of the current films. [brochure links at bottom of post]

Figuring that if it was discontinued I'd have to make a choice, I decided to solve the problem now rather than later, and ordered the HR-U30. It just arrived yesterday, so it will be a while before i get to it. I suspect that it will be slightly lower contrast than the plain HR-T one.

The caveat from me is that I'm scanning and printing digitally, not wet silver printing. From the current stuff you linked to I am getting the best scans I have ever had from any film. But I don't know how it would wet print on silver. I'm betting not too well. However, my long term goal is to print with several old processes that demand higher contrast negs, so I'm not worried.

I don't strip one side, and my process is to shoot at EI 50, and develop in D-23 diluted 1:6, 15 minutes at 75 degrees, agitation at 0, 5, and 10, in Kodak hangers and Vinny's tanks. I keep and reuse the developer for about a month, then throw it out--it doesn't seem to mind.

I'd had (given to me), but not used, a 5x7 camera for several years before I discovered xray, but feeding it just didn't make money sense to me. Then I discovered xray as a cheap alternative, and now it's all I shoot, and mostly 8x10. I much prefer the results to regular film, and my poor Leicas are getting no love at all these days.

Here are the relevant Fuji pdfs:
http://www.wmi-t2.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/fuji_spr_hr_bro1.pdf
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/medical/brochures/pdf/index/XB_411E.pdf
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/medical/brochures/pdf/index/XB_412E.pdf

[DKirk]

Live chat?

For a Camera manufacturer on their UK site. Aimed to help guide customers to which products best suit their needs.

[DKirk]

May go for both, though looks like there'll be a little hiatus while I get the bellows replaced, and Thanks to my brother's girlfriend we've just adopted a 5-7 month old Rescue Staffy bitch. . . Poor lass at the age of about 3 months, her previous owner had neglected to take her to a vet after trapping her front left leg in a fence and it had to be amputated. She'd just came to the centre after her recovery at the Cardonald branch that morning, due to pick her up at the weekend, as she's had a jag today so it'll be 3days after she gets to come home. . . It'll take some time, but looks like I've got myself a little canine model once she gets settled in.

[Michael Cienfuegos]

May go for both, though looks like there'll be a little hiatus while I get the bellows replaced, and Thanks to my brother's girlfriend we've just adopted a 5-7 month old Rescue Staffy bitch. . . Poor lass at the age of about 3 months, her previous owner had neglected to take her to a vet after trapping her front left leg in a fence and it had to be amputated. She'd just came to the centre after her recovery at the Cardonald branch that morning, due to pick her up at the weekend, as she's had a jag today so it'll be 3days after she gets to come home. . . It'll take some time, but looks like I've got myself a little canine model once she gets settled in.

I'm happy that you are able to adopt the pooch. You will have a genuine canine tripod. :)

m

[DKirk]

Cheers Michael, just waiting on final confirmation if she's joining us Tomorrow (depending on the timing of her last jag) or Sunday. Just hope it's Saturday, I only get Friday and Saturday off with the current Live Chat Rota and Sunday I'm on 11-4. . . So she'll be joining me as occasional model and artistic director for a series I'm working on "Acts of Dog". With the X-Ray film coming it works out at 50p a sheet so we've got room to work with on training her to "Wait"