Do any of you know anything about Arista film and paper? Is it good or bad? What is the pro and cons of it? Any opinion is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-- Hendra Warsono (hsw21@yahoo.com), November 18, 2000

Answers

My impression [and I must emphasize impression] is that it's Ilford material. I think this was addressed on this forum a while ago.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), November 18, 2000.

There was a discussion of this in the LF forum recently. The upshot seems to be that the emulsions are most likely conventional Ilford emulsions, but the film base is thinner, because it is designed for graphic arts use, where vacuum backs are common.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), November 18, 2000.

The films are basically the same as Ilford FP4+ and HP5+ and will soon be available in 5x7 film size as well. Ilford says it simply: "If it does not say Ilford on the film or on the box, it is not our film." That said, the film is made in England and there is only one film maker in England. I find it does curl a bit more in the darkroom than the equivalent Ilford film but after micrometer checks both films are the same thickness. Since I saw this upon openining a new box of Arista and an older box of FP4+ it could have been a humidity reaction.

In 8x10 the Arista films are the most economical on the market and the quality I am getting is excellent. There is also an article in View Camera sometime this past year or two comparing the two brands of film. No difference other than the name & notch code was found.

Nice stuff sold by an outfit that is easy to deal with.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), November 19, 2000.