A few weeks ago my friend Keith asked me if I had ever tried Foma Retropan 320. The simple answer was no, but I was intrigued enough to join him in buying a roll or two and seeing what the fuss was all about. According to Analogue Wonderland, Foma Retropan 320 is said to be "a soft emulsion that delivers low contrast and gives a gentle final look. It is also commonly used in technical photography to reproduce images
without imposing harsh contrast constraints." I ordered two rolls of 120 medium format and waited for a nice spring afternoon to head into town. That day came in mid May and, as I had to shoot a roll of Foma 200 for the Frugal Film Project, I loaded a roll of Retropan 320 into my Agfa Isolette 1 and off I went.
The breeze was quite soothing on this warm spring afternoon, but it also meant I would not be looking for mirror shots on the canal. I decided a day of shooting around town was the order of the day and I went exploring. Wigan is a fine town that has undergone many changes in it's long and rich history. many of the buildings in the town centre are "Mock Tudor" in design with a few more modern facades that give the town centre a variety of architectural styles. They also look good on black and white film so a couple of shots on Retropan 320 was definitely the order of the day. I also wandered over to Wigan Parish Church and took a couple of shots there and then headed to the Wigan Life Centre, home of our local council, to grab a shot or two of the statues there.
I think have got the hang of my Agfa Isolette 1, it has given me a great introduction into medium format film photography. The addition of the Watameter rangefinder made a big difference to my skills at using the camera. With it being a viewfinder camera it is important to be able to judge distance accurately, as I discovered with my first couple of attempts being way off the mark. The Watameter improved my accuracy and helps me find the camera's sweet spot whatever conditions I find myself in.
As with all good film photo walks it
soon came to an end and I returned home to develop my film and see what
results I had achieved. I developed my Retropan 320 in HC-110 dilution B
for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and used Ilford stop bath and Ilford rapid
fixer before letting my negs sit is Ilfotol wash aid whilst I tidied up.
I left them hanging in my bathroom to dry overnight.
I used a new toy to help me with digitising my film, one of Hamish Gill's excellent Pixl-Latr scanning masks. It is suitable for several sizes, 4x5 large format, 120 medium format up to 6x12, 35mm and also has options for slides too. I will do a review of the Pixl-Latr in a future blog once I get the hang of it, but first impressions are very promising. I used my Nokia 5.3 to digitize my film and it hasn't done a bad job at all. Who needs a macro lens when a phone camera will do? I edited my images using Adobe Photoshop Express which is available for free in the app store of your choosing.
I am quite pleased with how this film performed in my Agfa Isolette 1. It may be into it's 7th decade but it can still produce the goods when asked. The images have come out great and I have another roll for a sunny day that I am actually looking forward to using. Here are a few of my images from this roll and as usual I have placed them in an album on Flickr so you can see them all in full resolution. I hope you enjoy them.
Foma Retropan 320
Lovely shots! I'm glad you had better results than I did with my roll of 35mm that came out with lots of blotches and "marks" that I believe was due to a bad batch of film from the factory. I knew it was capable of much more than my roll gave me, and your shots prove I was right.
ReplyDeleteMine have blotches too, Keith and they are all at the top of each frame. I am thinking it is down to bubbles in my developer during the development process although I don't recall seeing bubbles on the film as I hung it to dry and I didn't use a squeegee. I will see how the next roll goes.
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