Unfortunately, Foma 400 isn’t actually a genuine 400 film.
It performs quite well during exposure at 200 ASA.
But I wanted to find out whether it could be ‘pushed’ to 400 ASA after all.
I tested it with
HC-110 – which is supposed to cause hardly any base fog on the unexposed film. 21 mins at a 1:60 dilution, tilting the tank three times every 3 mins.
XT-3 – because it’s well-suited for pushing. Replenishing the XT-3 stock solution: approximately 12 minutes, agitating three times every minute.
Here’s my result:
It works, but…
HC-110
:
The film didn’t develop any base fog at all. But the dynamic range isn’t ideal. Zone II is already too dense, whilst Zone VIII is too light.
XT-3
:
The film has developed a noticeable base fog, but the contrast range is better than with HC-110.
Zone II is just right, as is Zone VIII.
Zone V is darker than Zone V with HC-110.
In my opinion, the longer the development continues in HC-110, the less improvement there will be, because Zone II would then become even darker if Zone VIII were to become brighter. Developing for a shorter time doesn’t seem to be the solution either; whilst Zone II would be brighter, so would Zone VIII.
With ‘normal’ subjects featuring a particularly large number of shadows, the negative produced with XT-3 is more vivid, whilst with HC-110 the contrast is harder.
As things stand, XT-3 is better than HC-110.
Apparently, after about 20 years of HC-110, Kodak went on to invent an even better developer: X-Tol.
And ADOX has improved it further after 30 years, resulting in the current XT-3.
Conclusion
:
Pushing to 400 ASA works, but it’s not ideal.
