p.5 #5 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
bwcolor wrote:
So, assuming that it is Scala 50 and you will develop it as a negative, what are the pluses and minuses of various developers?
Adox 50HR and Adox Scala are basically the same film, so you can develop it in the Scala reversal kit and it turns out fine. But the normal process yields a negative, same as 50HR.
Edit: btw they don’t recommend using D-76 or Rodinal, which makes me wonder if a lot of people will have a bad experience using this film as they or their lab won’t be reading the tech sheet
p.5 #6 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
fjablo wrote:
Adox 50HR and Adox Scala are basically the same film, so you can develop it in the Scala reversal kit and it turns out fine. But the normal process yields a negative, same as 50HR.
Edit: btw they don’t recommend using D-76 or Rodinal, which makes me wonder if a lot of people will have a bad experience using this film as they or their lab won’t be reading the tech sheet
I develop Ilford PanF+ 50 all the time with Rodinal and Xtol in a two step development process without having any issues. I never used Adox 50 HR film, but I suspect with the same low speed it is similar regarding development.
p.5 #7 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
retrofocus wrote:
I develop Ilford PanF+ 50 all the time with Rodinal and Xtol in a two step development process without having any issues. I never used Adox 50 HR film, but I suspect with the same low speed it is similar regarding development.
My suspicion is that 50HR and Monopan50 behaves more like Kodak 2415 Tech Pan, which required special effort to contain contrast for pictorial use - Technidol . This would be why conventional developers are advised against. The pre-flashing should make it slightly less fussy.
p.5 #8 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
If I’m honest with myself, after years of shooting APSc, FF and medium format digital, I prefer higher resolution images. I’m not saying that resolution is always needed to make an impactful image. I am saying that my sense of what makes a good image includes resolution, unlike my sense of things years ago. Based on the need to pick developers with these slow films designed for high contrast, high resolution imaging, it seems to be a challenge to get the desirable tonality. Another approach would be to just use a faster film in a medium format camera, which is my current direction now that I am re-entering the use of film. The added advantage of the larger negative is the greater ease in copying/scanning. I don’t like large heavy cameras, so smaller medium format rangefinders seems to be a good compromise. Others may disagree.
I will try this film, perhaps in my Contax T2, should the optics be up to the challenge.
p.5 #9 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
retrofocus wrote:
I develop Ilford PanF+ 50 all the time with Rodinal and Xtol in a two step development process without having any issues. I never used Adox 50 HR film, but I suspect with the same low speed it is similar regarding development.
Adox 50 HR is different than Ilford Pan F. The latter is a classic emulsion, while the Adox is based on a tech film.
Here's the translation from the German data sheet for Adox 50 HR:
"ADOX HR-50 is derived from an emulsion that was originally designed for technical applications and combines extremely fine grain with super-panchromatic sensitivity.
ADOX HR-50 is particularly well-suited for urban landscapes or other outdoor photography.
For portrait photography, we recommend a compensating developer such as ADOX HR-50 Developer or ADOX ATOMAL.
The base material is modified by ADOX before packaging.
As a result, the sensitivity increases to 50 ASA (ADOX SPEED BOOST TECHNOLOGY) and the contrast is reduced, making the film suitable for pictorial photography and processable in all conventional developers.
ADOX HR-50 can be used as an infrared film and responds very well to color filtering (yellow, orange, red, blue, green)."
And while they mention that it can be developed with "all conventional developers" the data sheet specficially says "not recommended!" for Rodinal and D-76.
D-76 is a very commonly used developer so if your lab is using that with the new Leica film, the results might not be great.
p.5 #11 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
Desmolicious wrote:
Haven’t watched this but maybe it is of interest?
Didn’t watch everything but I think one of their cameras shutter speeds might be off. Wouldn’t be too surprising given he used ancient Nikon cameras. Seems the Leica roll got more exposure.
p.5 #12 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
I watched the entire video and the consensus is the film is made by Adox but with a few tweaks. The biggest difference was how the films rendered green. Greens with the Leica film were consistently lighter but when a scene with little or no green, the films look identical. The Leica film also tended to lighten the skies. One thing was, the video was made in Portland with a lot of places I'm familiar with. If it actually does become available at the ten usd price that was quoted, it would be worth trying.
p.5 #13 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
Likely, this won’t be a film to send out, but rather develop at home in a developer that fits well with the film and your tastes. Sending out for D-76 doesn’t sound ideal. Perhaps, a few labs will, for a price, develop in a better developer. Are there labs that do this for any of the ISO 25 & 50 films?
p.5 #14 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
Andrew CD wrote:
---------------------------------------------
Quite!
I can’t help but wonder whether collectors will buy it, stick it on a shelf for a decade or so and then sell it for much more than 12€. Oh, wait ….
And even though objectively of similar artistic value as other images, it will be given the benefit of "glow" and "microcontrast", of just that "leica look"
p.5 #15 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
Just had 10 rolls shipped to me so they're in the wild now. I confess I bought 10 (they mixed and matched boxes for me) because of the cool packaging. We'll see how good the film actually is.
p.5 #16 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
crf59 wrote:
Just had 10 rolls shipped to me so they're in the wild now. I confess I bought 10 (they mixed and matched boxes for me) because of the cool packaging. We'll see how good the film actually is.
p.5 #20 · Leica Monopan 50 – the new black and white 35mm film from Leica
I don’t know about HC-110, but I’ve read that Rodinal is not a good choice for tonality and you can expect shadows to be blocked. You can get data sheets for Monopan 50 and Adox HR-50. You might want to follow their advice on best developers.
