Is it the film?

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

I don't quite understand what happened here - is it the film or is it the lens? I shot this in '75 or '76 on a Pentacon Six. I was probably using the 50mm flek but it could have been the 80mm Biometar, both of them coated. I realise it is difficult to look beyond the adorable Ann (or Mike if you are female) but check out the background trees. How did that paint-like effect happen? The neg is marked "Kodak Safety Film" but doesn't have the type on it.

So can anyone tell me how I got this background effect, and if it is the film does anyone know which it would be or - more important - if there is a similar one available today?

The second shot is from the same roll and is more normal, so maybe it is the lens (Flek 50?) being used wide open with a distant background.

This will have been shot with the Biometar wide open, I still remember the moment - I was stunned by the way the light was falling on her towel and had to capture it. I guess I should have realised then that what I really wanted to do was take photos but it took another quarter-century for me to work it out.

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

To get that shallow DoF in bright/hazy. If I shot at 1/1000 at f4 it would require a 100 ISO film...

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Interesting effect, Paul. Have you tried Fomapan 100? Thinking it might be
close.

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

I need to get some of that. It is a leading 1950s film repackaged under another company, isn't it?

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

technical pan or panatomic-x?

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

Definitely not anything as specialist as technical pan, maybe panatomic, it was something I could pick up easily from a camera shop, anyway.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Plus X Pan is rated at ISO 125. Did Kodak make Plus-X for medium format? I have some in 35mm that dates back to 1983 and it reads "Kodak Safety Film 5062" on the margin. Has a slight blue cast from being developed in D-76 with Kodak Rapid Fixer.

To me the scene looks normal, like you shot it with a close-to-normal focal length lens set at a moderate aperture. I would expect to see about that level of background blur at f/5.6 or f/8 with a normal lens.

gary2881 · Joined: 22 May 2010 Posts: 135 Location: Scio, OR

I think that Foapan 100 is the same as Arista EDU 100. Check out Freesyle's website. I believe that its the Adox CHS film that is 50's film.

BTW, I have one, 35mm, roll of Panatomic X left. Its ASA 32.

Gary