Fomapan R and other Reversals

robhooley167

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Hello all

Ive been tempted by a Fomapan R kit recently but im not sure what to expect, and it isnt cheap either, i know Ilford do a datasheet on how to make slides from any black and white film. Has anyone here had any success or have any tips with DIY reversals?

Thanks
Rob
 
I've not done it myself (obviously!) but I have used the DR5 Chrome B&W reversal service in Colorado. The actual service itself is only about £10 for a 36 exposure film, but unfortunately the postage costs really push it up to about £20 for one roll. However you can fit about 5 films in for that postage rate so its more worth it for multiple rolls. The actual slides are very good, but make sure that the film type can be reversed as its a special "secret" chemical reversing process which doesn't work with some film types like Acros.

The actual results from a roll of Tri-X were quite pleasent, but high contrast even though I exposed it at 320 like they recommended rather than 400. Other film types like FP4+ may give nicer results, theres a comprehensive overview of what films look like after going through it along with shooting ISO recommendations here:

http://www.dr5.com/blackandwhiteslide/filmreview.html
 
Funny, I just read up on black and white reversal on wikipedia.

I'm wondering if one couldn't do it at home as well. The chemicals don't seem that complex and maybe it is possible to expose the remaining silver halides chemically. Kodak used to make a reversal kit, no?
 
You can quite easily, you develop the film but don't fix it and bleach the silver away before re-exposing it to light and developing it again and then fixing it, giving a positive image.

Unfortunately using that method you are limited to film speeds of 200 or below as otherwise the contrast of the final positive image will be extremely low because obviously your reversing the rules of film, now the slower the speed of the film, the higher the contrast rather than the higher the speed.

The DR5 Chrome process that I mentioned above is different in that its a chemical reversal process rather than an optical one so the same rules apply and you can reverse most films, even Tmax 3200 or Delta 3200 but unfortunately most don't quite meet their box speed so your limited to ISO 1000 with both of those. A lot of popular ones such as FP4+ and Tmax 100 and 400 can be shot at practically box speed with perhaps the loss of 1/3rd of a stop.
However you can shoot above or below the recommendation with push and pull processing because they act like slides now with the more limited exposure latitude so up to a point you have a lot of control because you have to inform them of the ISO you shot it at.

Its just a shame that the only lab that does it is in Colorado and its a secret how its done as its a great service but then it is a unique process and requires a unique processor as well. It would be nice if they would license it to somewhere in the UK though.
 
You can quite easily, you develop the film but don't fix it and bleach the silver away before re-exposing it to light and developing it again and then fixing it, giving a positive image.
Do you have any practical experience or maybe even a guide how you would go about doing that?
 
I've not done it myself, but Ilford do a guide here:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=90&t=Developing+Black+and+white+film

Which says pretty much what I just said above. I have a habit of remembering things that I read.

Thats actually almost the same method as the E-3 and previous E processes worked when developing Ektachrome, you would have to re-expose it to a uniform light source, hence why many developing reels up to the mid 80's were translucent, so that you didn't have to take it off the reel for re-exposure.
 
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Just after you posted that I changed the link to the same place as yours and added some extra info to the post, don't know if you noticed.
 
Just after you posted that I changed the link to the same place as yours and added some extra info to the post, don't know if you noticed.
No, that's why I was a little confused. :lol:
 
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