Arista Edu. Ultra 100 in 120

[Gerry Harrison]

Hello,

Just Developed my first roll of Arista Edu Ultra ( supposedly Foma ) 100 in 120 size.....I used D 76 1:1. The film plastic base has a blue hue once developed...I have never come across this too date as I have only experienced clear bases...I'm interested on how this will print. I was told by Freestyle this is a good replacement for Agfa APX100..time will tell. Does a blue hue base cause a different tone to blacks and white ?

Thanks Gerry

[rwyoung]

The blue base is pretty common in Foma brand films (.EDU ULTRA is rebranded Fomapan). It will print through just fine. You may have a slightly different FB+F than you are used to and your printing times may shift up or down a tic. Likewise, your "normal" contrast may slip up or down 1/2 grade. All films, exposures and developing combinations can cause these minor differences. Just shoot a few test shots, get your processing standardised and experiment!

All in all, it will be fine and not cause any serious problem.

Remember, a new (to you) film is a fun film.

[Donald Qualls]

Having never used APX 100, I can't say how good a replacement Foma/Ultra 100 is for it, but I can confirm it's good film. I first used it in 9x12 cm not quite three years ago; it's now my standard ISO 100 in 35 mm, 120, 9x12 cm and 4x5, and I sometimes use offcuts from resizing to 828 or 127 in my 16 mm cameras. ;)

I like it in Parodinal and HC-110, and it's also quite nice in Diafine, though it doesn't gain much speed (no more than a stop, really more like 2/3). It doesn't seem as nice in Caffenol as some other films, but it's so good in the other developers I don't really care... ;)

I will admit the grain isn't quite as fine as Plus-X or FP4+, but I can buy two rolls for the price of one of the big brands...