Fujifilm Neopan Acros for scanning purpose

<p>Does anyone have experience with scanning this B&W film? How about grain, dynamic range and details? Could you post me some examples? I'd like to give this film a try, but I would like to know your opinions. Thank you very much, Alberto.</p>

<p>It's been several years since I used Acros or film for that matter but I remember it scanning very well. Grain was very easily controlled as well as the highlights and shadows. Sorry no samples around right now but I will see what I can find.</p>

<p>Acros has VERY tight, sharp and fine grain. I shot a roll of it while in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, photographing Spider Rock. It maintains highlights very well, but isn't as forgiving as conventional films like HP5 or FP4. The grain is fine enough that from 35mm, I was able to produce very nice, sharp 16x24 prints after scanning on a Minolta Scan Dual IV. <br>

I processed in HC110 dil B.</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/photo/8267691</p>

<p>Acros is my absolute favorite (slowish) film. It is razor sharp and effectively grainless. Highlights sparkle in HC-110 dilH. It's even a bit sharper and shows excellent midtone separation when developed in Xtol 1:1.</p>

<p>One absolutely unique property of Acros is its reciprocity beahvior. No compensation is needed out to 2 minutes, and just 1/2 stop after that. Practically, this means getting full tonality images for low light photography. This is a challenge with more traditional emulsions as highlights tend not to need compensation and thus get blown out.</p>

<p>As I recall it also has very low base fog and a nice clear base. This probably helps reduce light scattering when scanning.</p>

<p>I recently revisited Fuji Acros in 135 for some casual portraits of my Mum and her husband. The film is absolute magic. Crisp, sans grain with a suppleness in the tones that somehow feels as though I should be able to reach out and feel texture on the print.<br>

I scanned it quite easily with my Nikon Coolscan 8000.</p>

<p>I've only used one roll of Acros. I developed it in D-76 1:1, and upon scanning (N9000), I found some soft, mushy grain. What developers are people using, because I obviously screwed something up.</p>

<p>Alberto, I processed Acros in Rodinal 1:50 and 1:100 semi-stand, in Xtol, but the best for scanning, in my opinion is processing in diluted Perceptol. I rate Acros @64 and process it in Perceptol 1+3 for 13min @20C. Result is very smooth and soft negative, no highlights are blocked, scans perfectly. I did this for 120 format. See some results <a href=" and around -- this was shot in bright afternoon sun. This dilution works nicely with TMax-100 too. Rodinal in MF gives more contrast, but still quite easy to scan. I haven't use Acros in 35mm, some people think Rodinal will produce more visible grain with this format. Acros generally is good for scanning, unless you overdevelop it.<br>

--Sergei</p>

<p>I did a search on my stream in Flickr, there is number of images scanned from Acros in all kind of developers. Most have some technical details See it result of search <a href="

--Sergei</p>

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<p>Last moth, I finished scanning a project for one of my clients. It was 60+ frames of 6x6 Fuji Neopan Acros 100 & some 400.<br>

I used my Howtek 7500 drum scanner to scan all of the images, full frame at approximately 150 mb.<br>

During the scanning, I came up with a few observations. I hope they can help.</p>

1. Acros is very sensitive to proper care in development. The ones i received from my client are covered in scratched, dust and wetting agent marks.

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Acros seems to be more fragile than Kodak or Ilford film when wet. Proper care should also be observed in storing the film.

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Loose strips as i received them is a bad idea. They can scratch each other in the paper lab envelopes.

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2. The film base also feels thinner than Tri X, HP5 or Tmax. This makes it nice and floppy.

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Not a problem for drum scanning but flatbeds might have a problem with sharpness due to film flatness. Care should be taken to dry it properly to avoid the tendency to curl.

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3. Developer also makes a difference in the apparent grain. I was told that these were souped in D76 and a few in Xtol & HC110.

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They were processed by a so called "pro" lab. They used either deep tank or D&D. But with the damage, im not so sure they are "PRO".

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When i process Acros for myself, I use Tmax Dev 1:5, only because my PhotoTherm rotary tube processor requires it.

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But in Tmax 1:5, the grain structure is much tighter and less crunchy in my combination. The film I received was much more coarse. More than I expect from Acros.

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4. A pre soak is also a good idea. The AH layer is very dark and if its not removed, it leaves the film much darker than normal.

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It can affect the scanning process and introduce more apparent grain do to the additional base density.

 

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I hope this helps anyone who is scanning Acros.

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Best,

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-ian

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www.prepressexpress.com

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<p>Thank you so much for your contribution to this theme!<br>

Regards, Alberto.</p>