sharpest film currently on the market?

"Sam Carleton" wrote

I only have about 16 inch of bellow on the camera.
I would mount an enlarger lens to the front except for the fact
that I don't have a copal #1 shutter.

Why #1? #most anything would work.

If the enlarger has a flat lensboard it may be possible to hold
the enlarger lensboard in front of the shutter with duct tape.

If you have a speed graphic, problem solved.

I think the problem will be getting the nose in the right spot.

I suggest a wire frame that sticks out from the camera and delineates
what will be 1) captured by the lens and 2) be in focus. Nikonos UW cameras
do this. I think Kodak had a close-up attachment for one of its
box cameras (Star-something?) with a projected wire frame.

If I were trying this I would spend a few hours training my dog
to cooperate before shooting film. If I aim a camera at my pooch she
looks away, as she thinks _I_ am obviously no longer looking at _her_,
I am looking at a camera.

Digitals are great at taking those shots where it
can take a 100 tries to get it and you don't know if you got it
till you look at the result, which with film may be a week hence.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
To reply, remove spaces: n o lindan at ix . net com . com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

"Alan Smithee" wrote

Maybe the [Gigabit film] manufacturer is just down rating some
other brand

Apparently it is re-rolled Agfa Copex (?) microfilm.

and working some magic (or smoke and mirrors) with chemistry.

I heard the developer is similar to H&W Control, which is similar
to POTA [phenidone, sulfite and water] but with extra flavorings.

And kind of pricey at what $12-15 per roll plus shipping?

Not that bad. About the same as TechPan and Technidol when
bought at list price.

If you are willing to roll your own, microfilm is dirt cheap.
Some older cameras [Leica M and Nikon F/F2, Exakta ...]
take high-quality reloadable/reusable cassettes with no-felt
light traps. I use TechPan in a meterless F2 and in a
Leica M5 for snapshots. I don't know if the M5 takes Leica
cassettes. I am going to have to be respooling bulk Tech
Pan pretty soon, and after that I guess it's microfilm,
so I will be finding out.

The other half of using microfilm is the developer. POTA
has to be the cheapest developer around (apart from
Caffenol: old coffee and washing soda). TTTH, I haven't
tried it.

H&W Control, formulated for use with Kodak High Contrast
Copy, is no longer available. _But_ it was patented, and
the patent lists the formula. You can use patented information
freely if it is for personal use.

Delagi #8 is often used as a Technidol work-alike. I haven't
yet compared Delagi with the H&W patent, it might be interesting.
My results with Delagi #8 and TP were a bit contrastier than
Technidol and with a bit more grain.

I ran with horror from results with Rodinal & sulfite and
ultra-dilute HC-110.

It looks like the future is going to be home-brew.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
To reply, remove spaces: n o lindan at ix . net com . com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

For the record:

The sharpest silver base film is made for holography.

It can probably be bested by non-silver processes as photo-resist.

I have not heard of anyone using either for pictoral photography
but I am sure I will.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan

Andrew Price wrote:

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:35:24 -0700, Tom Phillips
wrote:

He asked what POTA meant, not where it came from.

True, but the additional information which Larry provided was not
without interest.


Info he didn't verify.

"MXP" wrote in message
. ..
I think the sharpest film out there is "Gigabit". A ISO 40 film which
should be able to
resolve 700 lp/mm.

Perhaps, but what is the sense in using a film that resolves far beyond the
capability of the lens?

For normal B/W film I find Agfa APX 100 very good. I think I like it
better than TMAX100.

The pure metrics of high-resolution might be against AXP100, but the fact
that it has grain, and yields well to occasional adjacency effects certainly
makes it a sharp-looking film. I like it best of all conventional films.

Kodak CN400 must be the most fine grained ISO 400 B/W film? .....I was very
surprised.


except that it isn't really a b/w film - however i agree with you. if
i didnt have doubts about the archival quality of cn400, i would use
400cn a lot mroe - even though i cannot process it myself. fast, fine
grained, huge exposure lattitude, sharp, contrasty.

"Neal" wrote in message
...

[...] huge exposure lattitude, sharp, contrasty.

Usually lattitude and contrasty are mutually exclusive.

The sharpest silver base film is made for holography.


Yes, it's called SO-253 Holographic. It has an ASA of about 2 and will do
about 400 lp/mm or more in noon summer sunlight.

Typical exposure is 1/125 at f-2

Larry

"Hemi4268" wrote in message
...
The sharpest silver base film is made for holography.

Yes, it's called SO-253 Holographic. It has an ASA of about 2 and will do
about 400 lp/mm or more in noon summer sunlight.

Larry, in your job did you ever mess with nonsilver photo sensitive
materials? Metal/Diazo? (1,000 lp/mm?) Applications are probably limited to
contact-printing circuits, but I was just curious.

Ilford Pan-F in Acutol.