Foma Fomapan 100 Film - 35mm(36Exp)

Fomapan has some really great characteristics that I love. Firstly, it blooms light, giving a very cinematic and retro feel to shots - especially backlit shots. Secondly, I find that, although coarse, the grain is quite pleasing for many different types of images and is certainly not distracting in the ISO 100 variant. It also renders mid tones fairly dark which can help produce moody images and it is particularly sensitive to the colour red, with red objects appearing far lighter than in many other black and white film stocks. The film also produces incredibly sharp images (when you nail focus, that is). Finally, the price of this film is excellent. The film does have some limitations however. Firstly, it's reciprocity failure is immense with exposures over 10 ... MoreFomapan has some really great characteristics that I love. Firstly, it blooms light, giving a very cinematic and retro feel to shots - especially backlit shots. Secondly, I find that, although coarse, the grain is quite pleasing for many different types of images and is certainly not distracting in the ISO 100 variant. It also renders mid tones fairly dark which can help produce moody images and it is particularly sensitive to the colour red, with red objects appearing far lighter than in many other black and white film stocks. The film also produces incredibly sharp images (when you nail focus, that is). Finally, the price of this film is excellent. The film does have some limitations however. Firstly, it's reciprocity failure is immense with exposures over 10 seconds needing to have shutter speeds increased by 8x and exposures over 100 seconds needing to be increased by 16x! This makes it highly impractical for long exposure photography - unless you wanting to do some incredibly long exposures or maybe you want to try out some long exposure photography but don't have dense enough NDs. Second, the dark mid tones don't help separate vegetation very well, making this film a relatively poor choice for landscapes. Being a 100 speed film, you will also likely need to take your tripod with you (unless it's a very bright day). There is a 200 speed variant (which I haven't tried) and a 400 speed variant, which I find to have grain that is far more pronounced and that I find distracting on most images (though it is still incredibly sharp so makes a great film for shooting close-ups and details). Once you know where this film struggles, you can use it on shoots which play to its strengths: portraits (especially when backlit to bloom the light); shoots where you want to add mood; shoots where you want to get a retro look; scenes where there is a great deal of light available; shoots where you want sharp images; shoots where you want to capture some (very) long exposures but haven't got a dense enough ND filter.

I'm shooting this film for the Frugal Film Project this year, and it's a very versatile all-rounder. I've shot it at box speed, and pushed it as far as 3200, and it still does the job. Yes, there is some grain in this film even at box speed, but nothing that detracts from the photos, and at this price it's perfect for beginners or to experiment with.My latest roll was shot at "The Greatest Free Show on Earth"...The Whit Friday Marches, a century old tradition in the North of England, where Brass Bands (yes, I'm also a lifelong Brass Band musician) from far and wide come to compete playing March music, and we had bands from overseas, including Switzerland, Norway, and even Australia at the Denshaw contest this year. Sadly I was only a spectator on this occasion, ... MoreI'm shooting this film for the Frugal Film Project this year, and it's a very versatile all-rounder. I've shot it at box speed, and pushed it as far as 3200, and it still does the job. Yes, there is some grain in this film even at box speed, but nothing that detracts from the photos, and at this price it's perfect for beginners or to experiment with.My latest roll was shot at "The Greatest Free Show on Earth"...The Whit Friday Marches, a century old tradition in the North of England, where Brass Bands (yes, I'm also a lifelong Brass Band musician) from far and wide come to compete playing March music, and we had bands from overseas, including Switzerland, Norway, and even Australia at the Denshaw contest this year. Sadly I was only a spectator on this occasion, though I've played many times in the past.

The film itself is nice when correctly exposed. It reminded me of HP5, as it is not overly contrasty and with fairly small, smooth grain for the price. It had something of an ethereal quality to some of the photos, and I think it complimented the lens used. It's slow, so this did make it harder to use for people shots, but it worked surprisingly well for flowers and plants. I used it in my Zenit-E with a Helios 44 lens.