FYI Astrum Foto-400 @ 200asa

Hello again. This is the last of the Astrum Saga's !

After the Foto-200 material, I ran two rolls of the 400 material in the Fed-3 / Jupiter- camera also used in the 200 testing.

Roll # 1 was exposed at 250 asa. Subject matter was my Sunday Farmers Market, with a mix of lighting.

Roll #2 was exposed at 200 asa. This was taken during my pm walk-about in the bright afternoon sun.

Both rolls were developed (separately) with 3.0 ml of Pyrocat HDC in a 450ml Nikor S/S tank for 12 minutes.

Roll #1 gave me a few fits in scanning, as the highlights were blown out in extreme lighting mixes.

Roll #2 had very few surprises. Shadow values yielded Zone II detail, with highlights falling right at Z 6-7.

My only "Gripe" about this film is the extremely thin PET base. It is a bear while handling. Flopping about and putting up a good fight while trying to return it into the Print-Files I use.

I will keep a limited inventory of this film, as it seems to produce decent results for me. Perhaps a further test on some overcast lighting conditions.

Aloha, Bill

OK. Must load everything manually !

Ah, the cursed Time Out feature !!

My only "Gripe" about this film is the extremely thin PET base.

That brings back vague memories of an attempt to introduce 72 exposure cassettes. By Ilford IIRC. It was a short-lived thing, but yes the film was a pig to handle, and no reels to develop it on! So it had to be chopped in half for processing anyway.

The base for the Astrum 100 & 200 emulsion is also PET, being somewhere between "normal" film acetate and this "Piggish" very thin PET. I have only seen this super thin PET is some microfilm stock I used for the Minox B, early 90's. Small Minox rolls were EZ for my fat fingers then ! Aloha, Bill