World cup (no not that one) B&W films

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Mads
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Had a quick shufty and couldn't see a thread on this already so thought I'd pop one up.

A link to kosmofoto came up in my feed this morning for the black and white world cup, where the films are ranked in order of number of votes. I hadn't realised it was going on, but they've just posted results 32-16th, so I thought I'd give it a share and see what all of my filmy friends think of the results so far.

Did not qualify

32nd to 17th

I'd imagine top 16 will be posted in a couple of days, looking at the gap between these two sets of results.
 
I was toying with Fomapan Retropan 320 soft on the auction site only last night, but the non-qualifying score here makes me think I'll probably give it a miss. (n)
 
I was toying with Fomapan Retropan 320 soft on the auction site only last night, but the non-qualifying score here makes me think I'll probably give it a miss. (n)

Dunno, Peter; this is more a popularity vote than a quality one, I think. There's a whole bunch of stuff in the DNQ set that most people will not have heard of, let alone tried. I think I'd look elsewhere for comments on the Retropan 320 (btw can you explain further what the "soft" implies?)...
 
Hmmm...

"21st place: Rollei Retro 80S (39 pts)

Rollei’s Retro 80S is a silver-heavy medium-speed emulsion perfect for making the most out of bright and sunny conditions, derived from aerial surveillance film. Hard contrast with rich, deep blacks."

I've seen a few films described as having rich, deep blacks. I'm not sure I quite understand this. Surely we're just talking about films where the shadow areas leave clear emulsion?
 
Dunno, Peter; this is more a popularity vote than a quality one, I think. There's a whole bunch of stuff in the DNQ set that most people will not have heard of, let alone tried. I think I'd look elsewhere for comments on the Retropan 320 (btw can you explain further what the "soft" implies?)...
I'm not entirely sure about the "soft" thing myself, but seem to recall that some emulsions are more easily damaged than others. The info on the eBay listing says
Retropan 320 Soft is a panchromatically sensitized special negative black and white film with fine grain, good resolution and contour sharpness. The film is characterized by a wide range of half tones and soft light

IMPORTANT NOTE: This film is NOT DX coded, if you are using it in a more modern camera you will need to be able to set the ISO manually so you achieve a correct exposure.
 
Hmmm...

"21st place: Rollei Retro 80S (39 pts)

Rollei’s Retro 80S is a silver-heavy medium-speed emulsion perfect for making the most out of bright and sunny conditions, derived from aerial surveillance film. Hard contrast with rich, deep blacks."

I've seen a few films described as having rich, deep blacks. I'm not sure I quite understand this. Surely we're just talking about films where the shadow areas leave clear emulsion?

I think it's where there is an image recorded in the shadows where other films might have just blocked up.

I'm not entirely sure about the "soft" thing myself, but seem to recall that some emulsions are more easily damaged than others.

I think this is using more traditional methods with less dyes which are used in modern films to enhance contrast and help with reciprocity failure.
 
I tried it once and didn't like it myself, but your taste might be different. I did a blog post about it at https://filmphotography.blog/2016/01/24/foma-retropan-320-not-for-me-thanks/
Thanks for this Kevin. I'm pretty much with you on grain in 35mm, so I'll definitely be passing this one by. As an aside, I'm currently halfway through a badly stored 120 roll of Delta 3200 that expired in 2002, so I'm interested to see what the grain will be on that. Hey, at least that meant the trip wasn't completely wasted by leaving all my other 120 rolls back in the cabin. :banghead:
 
Dunno, Peter; this is more a popularity vote than a quality one, I think. There's a whole bunch of stuff in the DNQ set that most people will not have heard of, let alone tried. I think I'd look elsewhere for comments on the Retropan 320 (btw can you explain further what the "soft" implies?)...

I'm inclined to agree with you on that it being a popularity vote. I dare say we'll see a lot of films higher up that get votes because they're better known.

As for the retropan, some of the samples I've encountered on flickr and whatnot have looked really nice, so I guess with all things thats a YMMV situation
 
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