My efforts at film splitting to produce 127 from 120 roll film have been complicated by poor results from the film I have been using in the project, Arista Edu Ultra 400. While it seemed a good idea to use cheap film while sorting out my DIY film splitter, the results only made life more difficult.
In the past, I've gotten perfectly fine images from Arista films, usually combined with my favorite all-purpose developer, HC-110, both with dilution "B" and as a stand developer. This time, though, the first roll resulted in images with extreme grain. The next roll had images that were barely discernible.
An on line search turned up quite a few experiences similar to mine with Arista 400. A lot of people showed perfectly fine images made with the film, while others like me reported a mixed bag with inconsistent, sometimes disastrous results. So, when I put in an order this morning for some film, it won't be Arista.
5 comments:
I wonder what is causing the wild fluctuations in this film?
I had the same issues with some Ultrafine 100 film I bought. Some rolls were just fine and others were a mess.
I've seen speculation that the problem has to do with freezing and thawing in storage, but I think we are unlikely to get a definitive answer. I'm just going to stick with stuff with which I have had few problems. I just ordered some Lomography 100 color which is cheap, but has presented no problems so far for me.
I've tried non-Kodak, non-Fuji films in a bid to economize, but with rare exception end up back with Kodak and Fuji because they behave consistently. A bargain film is not a bargain if I can't count on it.
I never really like Arista 400. I have one roll left and will not order anymore. I do however like Arista 100, it is my main film.
It is a frustrating situation. There has been a lot of good work shown with Arista. It is just about impossible to sort out the problems based on just the anecdotal evidence which comes up on line. It seems like FreeStyle should take some responsibility for finding out what is going on with this film.
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