I just got a roll of the new Fuji Acros B&W film, and I have been told to expose at 50 ISO and process normally (i.e 8 minutes at 20C/68F in Xtol stock).

I searched in the forum and on the Massive Dev Chart but there isn't much about this film yet...

Comments/suggestions???

-- Remi Lemarchand (remi_lemarchand@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001

Answers

Hello. I have tried a number of combinations and what works perfecly for me is the following: asa 32, 2 1/2 min water pre-soak, develop in pmk double strngth (for one roll of 120 film: 12 ml solution A, 24 ml sol. B, 600 ml water) agitate first 30 sec continuously and then two full inversions every 30 sec, and fix in alkaline fixer (2 1/2 grams sodium metaborate, 160 ml amonium thiosulfate 60%, 540 ml water. No sulfite to maximize stain, but use as "one shot fixer"). Stunning results! Very, very cool film. Hope this helps.

-- Marcel Perez-Calisto (marcelperez@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

Sorry, forgot to put time of dev: 6 1/2 min at 70F. Wash for 20 min, no hypo clear.

-- Marcel Perez-Calisto (marcelperez@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

I'm getting EI 50 for D-76H 1:1 and EI 64 for D-76H 1:3, developed to "normal" contrast. Probably diluted Xtol, Ilford Microphen or DD-X would bring it closer to EI 100, if that's important.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), July 06, 2001.

Where are you guys getting Acros film? I've tried B&H and Adorama twice a week for over a month and they haven't had it.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), July 09, 2001.

Last time i checked, Calumet had plenty of Acros 120 film. No idea about 35mm.

-- Marcel Perez-Calisto (marcelperez@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

Well, I finally found some Acros 35mm at B&H ... but they are out of it already! I got the last 4 rolls (7/13/01) till they get another shipment.

My first impressions are very favorable. It's sharp and it's very fine grained. But I do not feel it exceeds TMX in either measure; they appear dead even to me in terms of acutance and grain. Also, I've become a rabid fan of TMX because of its magnificent gray scale; it's the best film I've ever used for values from, say, Zone 4 to 6. TMX seems to separate those values better than anything else. Acros does this extremely well, too, but I think TMX is *slightly* superior. They actually look a lot alike. However, Acros scale extends beautifully into the higher values, suggesting the beautiful highlight separation of Delta 100, and here is beats TMX. It also seems to hold detail in the deepest values better than either TMX or Delta 100. On that note, none of these films handles much below Zone 3 very well. I far prefer to place key dark (-2 or below) values up the scale and print down, unlike, say, HP5+, which has considerably more latitude.

Acutance wise, of the three, Delta 100 has a slightly crisper look than either Acros or TMX, which share a very similar signature. However, in actuality, under a loupe Delta's resolution of fine detail does not quite equal the other two.

On balance, Acros is a beautiful film. I found it interesting that in so many ways it seems to split the difference between Delta 100 and TMX. One thing for certain, it's a formidable contender in the ISO 100 category. I wonder if there is an Acros 400 in the works?

I saved mention of processing and IE for last since I develop my film in a developer of my own formulation. The formula I used contains phenidone, which is said to offer increased speed with some emulsions. I was, however, concerned about EI since I had read accounts of EI's ranging from 32 to 64 for Acros, with a thin concensus in the area of 50. Nonetheless, I set my spot meter at 80, which is what I use for both TMX and Delta 100, and, since I was using 35mm, bracketed in 1/2 stops. I shot with two cameras--one loaded with TMX and the other with Acros--so that I could compare them as objectively as possible. With each, I tried to shoot the same images, in the same light, using the same exposure bracket. This changed, however, when my shooting went on into evening. As my exposures exceeded 2 sec, I began to compensate for TMX (which as you all know, requires much less compensation than most films). I have TMX's reciprocity table taped to my spotmeter, but I didn't have times for Acros. So, rather than guess, I decided to see what would happen with no compensation. I shot some exposures on Acros at 8 seconds (in rather soft light) and I'd be hard pressed to say those exposures needed anything more than another 1/4 stop. Pretty impressive. Of course TMX only needed a 1/2 stop. Neither film seemed to gain significant contrast with the 8 sec. exposure.

Anyway, to my surprise--delight!--I found Acros' EI the equal of TMX. For now I'll call it EI 80. I was hoping Acros would not turn out to be a film I loved with an EI of 32!

I had to guess the processing time for Acros, and thus chose a time of 11 minutes at 70F--exactly between my times for Delta 100 (10 min) and TMX (12 min). It turned out to be a good guess, since the density of Acros nearly perfectly matched that of the TMX roll. Both films printed, on average, with a #3 setting on my VC Aristo cold light. I found it interesting that, even in terms of processing, Acros seemed to split the difference between TMX and Delta 100.

To those trying Acros for the first time, I suggest a time of 11 min @ 70F using D-76 1:1. D-76 1:1 generally yields times pretty close to my developer.

I think you'll find as I did, this is a very fine film, and one I intend to use a lot more. Now, if only Fuji offered Acros in 4x5 quickloads! Are you watching this board Fuji-san...?

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), July 14, 2001.

FujiFilm does make Acros 100 4x5 quickloads, but they are not imported by FujiFilm USA. I believe that Badger Graphic has them, but don't expect them to be priced like TMAX or Delta quickloads.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), July 14, 2001.

Thanks, Michael. I don't get Fuji. Why in the world don't they have a US distributer for their LF and enlarging lenses or pro b&w products?

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), July 14, 2001.