Fuji Acros 100 through my Leica

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Tried Fuji Acros 100 - and I must say I like it.
The tonal range seems really nice and it handed a few tricky situations quite well when it comes to not blowing out the highlights completely.
Anyone else here had any experiences with the film (I just loaded the second roll into the M3).

Here are some photos with that film from a strike downtown SF last weekend;

#1

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Kris · 07-19-2004

I like No. 4 the most. That screaming woman (she looks as if she was screaming) really creates the atmosphere.

This film has nice tonal range. I will try few rolls too next time. Have been using FP4 Plus most of the time.

back alley · 07-19-2004

man, are those shots crystal clear!
and nice tonal range also.
i love that first one especially.

joe

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Thanks Kris - I also had a light yellow filter on as well by the way.

Stu :) · 07-19-2004

I'm a HUGE Fuji Acros fan. Use it about 90% of the time.
I use it mainly in 120 (6x6) and 4x5. I've only used three times in 35mm as the former NZ Fuji distributor doesn't import it... but that's another story.

Grain is incredibly fine, I recently printed some 16x20 prints from 4x5 negs and final result as grainless.
Contrast is excellent. Like you said it doesn't blow out the highlights, which is very important for me as I combine the zone system and 'exposing for the shadows'. TMax 100 goes nuts when I do this.

Do you develop your own Acros or send it to a lab?

Stu

Rich Silfver · 07-19-2004

Stu, I'm a slumbering self-developer...meaning I haven't quite started

So I have a neighbourhood lab develop for me for now.

I'm looking forward to trying a roll of Acros in 120 through the 'blad - and I share your frustration with Tmax (I by the way hate Tmax 400 in 120 and Tri-X 320 is REALLY hard for me to get the highlights under control with - Tri-X 400 is much more forgiving).

Fun to hear from another Acros user (well...I've used ONE roll so far!) :-)

Stu :) · 07-20-2004

Well when you do start to fumble in the dark...

Fuji Neopan Acros in a Agfa Rodinal 1:50 brew at 20C for 12 minutes. Lovely. XTOL is good too, but because Rodinal is acutance developer it produces a sharpness and contrast that makes the images 'sing'

Ever since the boys at Kodak lowered the silver content in Tri-X for "envirnomental" reasons, I now shoot with Neopan 400.

Stu

GeneW · 07-20-2004

Richard, this series really convinces me to try out Fuji Acros. Do you do your own scanning or have that done at the lab? The images are not only crisp, but the highlights are not blown and the shadow areas are rich. It's been a long time since I shot any B&W that wasn't iso400. Time for a change :-)

Gene

taffer · 07-20-2004

Wow, #1 is clearly my favorite, not only is he walking through the crowd and against the 'flow' but also against the common color by dressing with that white tshirt.

Another personal favorite is #4

Keep 'em coming Richard !

Todd.Hanz · 07-20-2004

I used Acros in 4x5, 120 and 35mm and it is a great film especially rated at ISO 50-80. It really shines for studio potraiture lighting. I like to use it in my Yashica 35 CC because of the slow top shutter speed of 250. You shots are great, nice open lighting. Have you looked at you negs, mine always look thin but when printed or scanned they have all the detail in them. Nice shots!

Todd

pvdhaar · 07-20-2004

Hi Richard,

these photos look great! (Something that is not entirely attributable to film and gear alone of course).

What makes me curious though is that the subjects seem to 'hover' in front of the scene; there's a tremendous feeling of depth in the pictures. But that can't all be because of the film. Some must be because of light and shallow DOF.

Would you care to tell about the focal length and aperture used?

Rich Silfver · 07-20-2004

Thanks for the comments and yes, I scan at home on an Epson 3200 flatbed scanner (yuck).

Peter,
they were all shot using a Summicron 50/2.0 from 1964.
One thing I've noticed with that lens is that it in some cases can create a very 3d-like effect (like #3 above and the one attached below).

Even though I was shooting at 50-64 ISO (had a yellow filter on) the sunny day I was still getting a shutterspeed of about 1,000 at f4. Most shots were at f4-f5.6.

Rich Silfver · 07-23-2004

and.. #5

SolaresLarrave · 07-23-2004

I really like these shots, Richard, and I don't believe they're oversharpened, as the crowd in photo.net said. To me, it's hard to pick a favorite...

Time to go to a strike event and copy your shots!