A First Time for Everything

Film Review
Written By Mark Moran

I’d read Fomapan gave better results when rated lower than box speed so I loaded up my camera and went for a wander.

Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. What to do during lockdown? How about loading up some film and going on a wander?

I had some Fomapan 400 in the fridge so I grabbed my Canon A-1/50mm f1.8, loaded up and dialled in iso to 200. I popped into town for a wander on my way home from work firing off at anything that moved, stood still or leaned against a wall for no reason other than to finish the roll and get it developed.

What could possibly go wrong?

A couple of hours later I was back home getting set up to develop the roll. I’m precise with my water temp and mix ratios and have my own little routines and methods when developing.

I stuck to my routine and poured the developer into the tank. Ilford’s Ilfotec HC is 7 mins @ 21°C according to the Massive Dev Chart. I pulled the film a stop but stuck to the developing time as though it was shot at 400 ISO. 7 minutes later I poured out the greenish developer and poured in the fixer. 30 seconds to a minute then pour in the fixer… Oh wait NO! I screwed up!! I’d poured in the fixer already. I missed the stop bath.

Well that’s a first, NEVER done that before. My routine won’t allow it. Damn.

I gave the film another couple of minutes in the fixer and washed expecting a disaster. Fortunately the negatives had images, not too dense, not too thin.

Once scanned with very slight adjustments in Lightroom they looked ok-ish and here they are - Fomapan 400 rated at 200 with screwed up stop/fixer.

~ Mark

Mark Moran https://www.markmoran.co.uk
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