Fuji Neopan 1600 grain type?

Is Fuji Neopan 1600 a conventional grain, or T-Grain type film?

conventional grain but fine.

Thanks.

Fine for a fast film maybe. Please don't expect it to look like a slower film. You'll be disappointed. High speed and large grain go together, just a slow speed and fine grain do. There's no getting around it.

"Please don't expect it to look like a slower film."

I have no such expectation.

 

"High speed and large grain go together, just a slow speed and fine grain do."

This is obvious.

 

"There's no getting around it."

No doubt.

The only time I used Neopan 1600, I pushed it to 3200 using straight D-76. I found the grain to be finer than Ilford Delta 3200 rated at 3200 and developed for that speed in D-76.

I like the results when I would expose it at E.I. 800 and develop it in stock D-76. One thing to remember, ISO 1600 for this film is a push. It's true ISO is lower, not sure exactly. I've heard different values ranging from ISO 640 to 1000. The best E.I. 1600 results I got were when I used Microphen. YMMV.

Awesome film. Best low-light film on the market. Grain isn't much worse than most finer-grained in Rodinal. Delta 3200's is huge by comparison, and only a a little faster. Neo 1600's speed is around 1000 in Microphen. Great developer for it, too. That said both films are excellent, but Neopan 1600 has much lower fog, price, and development times to boot. Delta 3200's dev times are obscene.

I've just taken a look at some frames of Neopan 1600, TMZ and Delta 3200 with a microscope. This is a good way to get an indication of the grain type of a film. The data sheets show that TMZ is a monosize flat-grain emulsion and Delta 3200 is an epitaxial monosize emulsion. This is supported by microscopic observations. Neopan 1600 appears to be a traditional cubic emulsion, but the grains appear to be of very even size. It seems likely that Neopan 1600 is a monosize cubic grain emulsion. There is no mention in Fuji's datasheet about the grain type. They refer to Acros as having "Super Fine Sigma" grain, but make no such claims for Neopan 1600 in any of the literature or datasheets that I can find.

 

Marty

I have been shooting this film for a couple of years and it is by far the best film for low light/no flash documentary photography. I almost exclusively push to 3200; longer developments are the key to controlling your results, obviously running tests is the other key. Mine are in the 11 min range w/ medium agitation using D76 (fast agitation + 1-2 min longer dev. when you need to get images out of impossible situations).

 

I ran numerous tests between Delta 3200, Fuji 1600, and Tri-X pushed 2 stops in various developers/situations prior to choosing fuji and one thing i'd say on that is that i would never bother with delta 3200. But that's my preference.

 

Bibiana