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Tim V
17-Nov-2017, 13:47
Anyone out there tried this film in 4x5" and processed in the specialist developer? I see this is the newer emultion and a new developer, Adotech CMS III has been developed for it. I'm interested to here of peoples impressions.

Also, anyone know why no one has it in 120 format? Am fine to shoot in my Technika, but would prefer to shoot roll film with my Linhof Techno and RS APO lenses.

Pere Casals
17-Nov-2017, 16:06
I'm a user of CMS 20. I use it in 35mm, 120 and 4x5.

CMS 20 is both an amazing film and a pain in the ass. It is not a film designed for pictorial use but to store microfilmed information.

CMS 20 is one of the variants of Agfa COPEX document microfilm, it is a monodisperse emulsion, this is halide crystals (or say grains) are all of similar size, while a pictorial film has crystals of a range of sizes in order to have wider latitude and delivering a grey scale.

So CMS 20 is very contrasty, with a common developer, or with developer recommended by Agfa for its document application it tends to deliver black or white with no grey scale.

For pictorial usage of CMS 20 a very low contrast development process should be performed. The Adox recommended choice is Adotech, you also can mix POTA developer. Diafine is said to work ok, and also Rodinal 1:150 should work, but to start with it better to use Adotech.

As it is a microfilm it has very, very small grain and ultra high resolution reaching 800 line pairs per mm, Adox says, this is a crazy high resolving power that no lens will reach (by far :)), so in the image you will see how the lens performs with no image quality degradation coming from film.

Manufacturer says ISO 20, you can shot 20 but it would be better at ISO 16 or even ISO 6, with the right development time.

To use that film you should meter the scene very carefuly, it has no room for errors, latitude is narrow and it's easy to lose shadows and higlights.

Spectral response is not as usual, if you see the datasheet you will notice two deep valleys, one at 475nm and the other at 550nm, this may help to separate skin tones like some old films, giving a particular skin texture in the faces. This is not good or bad, simply it is different.

Yes, a PITA, but also damn, damn sharp. If shot is technically perfect with a sound lens working at its sweet point you may get incredibly sharp images, with a capacity to record fine textures (even of low microcontrast) that cannot be matched by other films in the market today, also no FF digital sensor has a pixel density that can be compared to it.

Here you have a flickr album from Mr Leo Velimir, a very skilled cms 20 user I follow: https://www.flickr.com/photos/55873497@N04/albums/72157631623052598

CMS 20 it is a nice adventure, not for all situations, not for all photographers, allways a PITA, but also it always ends delivering another set of wonderful photographs.

Jim Andrada
21-Nov-2017, 23:16
I shot somea couple of years back. I developed in Adotec II though Still have a few rolls of 120 around here somewhere. So it exists. BH shows it as back ordered though.

Itwas hard to keep the contrast down even with the special developer as I recall. After all it's basically microfilm. The backing is pretty springy as well.

Photo Impex shows it as expected in stock mid February

Pere Casals
22-Nov-2017, 03:37
I shot somea couple of years back. I developed in Adotec II though Still have a few rolls of 120 around here somewhere. So it exists. BH shows it as back ordered though.

Itwas hard to keep the contrast down even with the special developer as I recall. After all it's basically microfilm. The backing is pretty springy as well.

Photo Impex shows it as expected in stock mid February

Yes Jim, always very contrasty, anyway rating a lower ISO it's more usable with contrasty scenes. That behaviour may be good to record delicate textures that are not contrasty, pictorial films lose a lot of sharpness performance if low microcontast (from 200 to 50 lppmm in tmx case, from 1:1000 to 1:1.6 contrast), CMS 20 still outresolves the lens by a large margin with low microcontrast, still this may be useful only sometimes, IMHO.

Regards

sdzsdz
1-Dec-2017, 06:23
Pretty much everything said here. If you need maximum resolution or want to bring a lot of contrast in your scene, go for it.

Acros vs. 24MP digital. 5000dpi Scan for the film. Digital file uprezzed. 50mm on D600, 80mm on Mamiya 645, both F8

https://flic.kr/p/NHvTkU

Now CMS 20 vs 24MP

https://www.flickr.com/gp/88626385@N03/d5QZ9V


https://flic.kr/p/P2AH5B

Pere Casals
1-Dec-2017, 06:46
This is reversed 35mm cms 20



162122

162123


http://www.adox.de/Photo/adox-films-2/cms-20-ii-adotech-ii/

John Layton
1-Dec-2017, 07:46
Looks like a potentially great film for a subject with lots of middle tones (zones 4 (high 4) 5,6, and maybe low 7's) and good micro/contrasts.

...nice 356 by the way!

Pere Casals
1-Dec-2017, 08:26
...nice 356 by the way!

yeah !!! like the one Kelly McGillis was driving at Top Gun, but silvered ! See Tom Cruise as copilot :)

http://c-6rtwjumjzx7877x24anlsjyyjx2ebnpnfx2esthttpnjx2esjy.g00.wikia.com/g00/3_c-6ytulzs.bnpnf.htr_/c-6RTWJUMJZX77x24myyux78x3ax2fx2fanlsjyyj.bnpnf.sthttpnj.sjyx2fytulzsx2fnrfljx78x2f2x2f28x2fN557176.oulx2fwjanx78ntsx2fqfyjx78yx3fhgx3d75675874757604x26n65h.rfwp.nrflj.yduj_$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$