Arista Premium film: is this stuff Tri-X?

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=&pid=1000003148

 

I haven't noticed this before $30 for 100 foot roll. From the website:

 

Introducing Arista Premium, the new line of black and white films that takes that quality to an all-new level.

Thanks to a new partnership with a major U.S. film manufacturer, Freestyle now offers two new films that are sure

to find a place in every photo education program.

 

Does anyone know what film this is?

Agfa made Arista II, so it may be them.

 

its probably not Tri-X, but ultrafine offers that repackaged. http://www.ultrafineonline.com/ult400bwspva2.html I think??!

it's made in the USA, are there any american manufacturers other than kodak?

At least up 'til fairly recently most generic or house-branded film labeled "Made in the USA" was made by 3M. AFAIK, Kodak does not repackage film, tho' this too may have changed within the past few years.

I did a bit more research to update myself on the current state of film manufacturing.

 

The Imation division of 3M that used to manufacture photographic film was sold off to Italian company Ferrania. Ferrania is a longtime manufacturer of film that is repackage and rebranded, commonly found in grocery stores, drug stores, etc. Ferrania now has a manufacturing facility in Oklahoma. It's a pretty safe bet that's the source of the Arista film.

 

Fuji used to manufacture film that was repackaged and rebranded for sales worldwide. They were actually the manufacturer for some of the color negative film once marketed under the Polaroid name. Agfa also made color films sold under other brands.

 

Again, I might be behind the times, but as far as I know Kodak has never manufactured film for repackaging or rebranding under other brand names.

I've used rebranded Ferrania color film before with decent results. I didn't know that they made any B&W films, though.

 

They don't seem to have posted any developing information for Arista Premium yet, so there's nothing to compare the numbers with. I have a shopping cart ready to go with Freestyle and I do need to replenish my stock of bulk film. Tempting.

At that price I may just order a roll and find out. I will wait a few days and see if they start to offer other types and sizes. In the fall Ultrafine is going to introduce some new B&W premium films also so I wonder if Kodak did stop their policy of not re branding and decided it is time to sell film.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Like Bryan, above, I'm fairly confident that Ferrania only make (made?) color negative films. When I saw the bit about "partnership" with a "major film manufacturer" (note, it's no longer "U.S. film manufacturer" on the product page) I was thinking it might be stuff from one of the plants in China that Kodak is connected with, but "manufactured in the USA" would seem to suggest otherwise. (Then again, if the base is made in the U.S, but it's coated in China, does that still qualify as "manufactured" here?)

 

I wonder if it's leftover stock of the "old" TMY, rather than Tri-X?

Actually I was just looking at the Porter's catalog today, and they have a "Porter's ISO 400 B&W" film which says "Develop like Tri-X".

However it is the same price as Kodak bulk roll of Tri-X.

If this stuff from Freestyle really is Tri-X at $30 a roll then put me down for two! In fact it will be huge for our community college students to

finally get a quality ISO 400 bulk film at these prices. Let's wait and see.....

 

I was not aware that Kodak was coating emulsion in China. Let's hope that someone in Rochester is still coating emulsions....

AFAIK, Kodak severed its relationship with Lucky a year or so ago. Ferrania's website shows only color films being manufactured, no mention of b&w. Offhand I can't think of another U.S.-based manufacturer of film. Puzzling.

I emailed Freestyle doubt if they will tell me but I tried.

Let's assume the wrapper wasn't the "made in USA" portion of the film! :-)

I'll tag this one more time: If you look at the list of "advisors" to Freestyle, you will see an impressive number of movers & shakers in the photographic community. Some are noted consultants to Kodak as well. This does not validate name dropping, but Freestyle would be crazy not to leverage such relationships and if the film partnership turns out to be with kodak, then whoa! fill up my freezer, again! I have purchased Arista pro 100 when it was Ilford Delta 100 and am pleased with the supply. I only have a couple of bulk Tri-X remaining, and will gladly support a vendor that supplies film & papers and forges new partnerships in that venue!

I think Lex is right in that Kodak has never been a manufacturer of film for re-branding, but things have changed. It'll be interesting to see if they come out with other speeds or with a 120-format offering...

here's the response i got from freestyle:<br>

 

<i>Hello Doug,

We are not at liberty to say who exactly manufactures our Arista

products. I can tell you that this particular Arista line is

manufactured in the USA.

Thank you for the question and thank you for supporting traditional

photography!

Sincerely, ~Sherry</i>

Well That about sums it up I will get a spool and see. even if it is TMY-1 still good stuff.

The developing data for the film should be a good indication of whether it is Tri-X, TMY, or some other film. Freestyle hasn't made a developing data PDF file available for it yet. Another possibility- maybe it is a a Kodak film that is intended for an overseas market. For example, Kodak Academy 200 black & white film is made here but sold in parts of Asia. It is nothing like Tri-X or Plus-X. It looks pink like TMAX films, but has conventional grain. I'm not sure if Kodak makes an ISO 400 film other than TX or TMY for the overseas market. The Freestyle product description mentions that there are two films, but didn't list the second one.

"Well That about sums it up I will get a spool and see. even if it is TMY-1 still good stuff."

 

Slightly off-topic but how do you tell the difference between TMY-1 and and new TMY?

Edge Markings I figure.

they have the dev charts up now. dev times for the arista premium 100 and 400 are the same as plus-x and tri-x respectively in hc110, rodinal, and xtol. the 100 has the same time as plus-x in d76, but they have a different time for the 400, which i am guessing is probably an error.

<i>Slightly off-topic but how do you tell the difference between TMY-1 and and new TMY?</i><p/>2TMY:<ul><li/>The box has a big red banner on it saying "World's Finest!"<li/>The film has 2TMY on it after development<li/>The emulsion is brown as apposed to magenta </ul> <p/>TMX (T-MAX 100) also has the big red banner on it saying "World's Finest Grain!" on it, but as far as I know, Kodak hasn't updated that emulsion. It appears they just did it with some of their 400 speed T-GRAINS:TMAX 400 & Portra 400. I don't think they touched Ultra Color 400 or any of their EKTACHROME line.

I don't know when Ferrania stopped making b&w film, but they surely made it when I lived there in the late 1950s. I used its P-3. a middle speed film for that epoch. Then again, that was a half century ago.

I think Kodak is making some changes in their film business to keep it making money and to slow the decline in

that business unit as much as possible.<p/>I've seen in a few places where folks would pool their money in order

to have their own run of a particular film and size from Kodak. I see this all the time with the large format

folks. I don't see why Freestyle, who's business is based on traditional film, couldn't do the same thing on

their own.<p/>I've been noticing little changes here and there with Kodak. For example; has anyone else noticed

that, rather recently, they've stopped putting development times on the inside of the B&W film boxes? I have a PX

box that expires in 2009 which has the chart: the PX that expires in 2010 doesn't. 2TMY never had the chart on

the inside.

Assorted opinions.....

 

1. I noticed, too, on a new box of TMY-2, no development information. I guess they save a half a cent a box times a few million, and anyone developing knows where to find that info. Not like Lucky, or something.

 

2. Ferrania, AFAIK, hasn't made a B&W emulsion in decades, see Lester's comment. Ditto for 3M. And even if they were to do so down in OK, wouldn't they use their traditional channels and rebranding before going into the prosumer market?

 

3. The fact that FS has the exact same development times for so many developers sort of tips the hat. Why 100 instead of 125? A red herring? I dunno.

 

4. There's no way they could market either T-Max without someone finding out with their first roll. And the development times are different.

 

5. I was about to order some respooled Plus-X from Ultrafine, now I'll wait to see if I can get the "Made in America" "100."

 

6. Porter's prices have always been astronomical, although I've bought a lens and a few things over the years. I don't understand how they stay in busines.

 

7. Don't wait around for Film Emorium to have any 5231 Plus-X short ends. I ordered last fall, they had to refund my money. Yesterday I got on the phone and the guy even "made some calls," but to no avail. 18 cents a foot, bummer.

 

Plus-X forever......and certainly since the demise of Verichrome Pan!

It will be interesting to see what edge markings, if any, these films have. Of course, short ends from motion picture film won't have frame numbers. AFAIK, the only panchromatic B/W motion picture films are Plus-X and Double-X. Many years back Freestyle did sell short ends. I have an empty can the reads: Special Double-X which was Eastman 5222 or Double-X.