This Budget 4x5 Film Surprised Me (Fomapan 100 Review)

In this video, I’m off on a day trip in the UK, testing and reviewing Fomapan 100 in 4x5 large format.

While stocking up on some of my regular 4x5 film (Ilford FP4), I came across Fomapan 100 and was intrigued by the price, costing less than half of what I’m used to. So, I decided to pick some up and spend the day testing it out to see how it performed. I head out with the Horseman 45FA for a day trip along the England and Wales border. I ended up shooting several different scenes and doing a final review back in the office. Overall, I’m quite impressed. More than I thought I would be!

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[ckhicks]

You are the most courteous photographer I’ve ever seen, love hearing you interact with folks. Seems like this stock held up well! Thanks for the video.

[robertwaffel]

Foma 100 is my everyday go-to film. I shoot it in 135 and 120. It is great developed in XT3 (=XTOL) 1:3 or even in Rodinal (1:50).
The only issue is that the Foma films may have more defects on the emulsion than Ilford products (i.e. spots or scratches). However, I digitise the negatives and that use Lightroom's AI erase/heal tool to remove these defects. So no real problem for me.

Thanks for the video. It fuels my GAS to one day get into 4x5 🙂

[kaipbowe]

I'm relatively new to film photography (1 year or so in) and I already enjoy it more than shooting digitally. It just feels much more special and thoughtful. thanks for inspiring us kyle!

[derekhope]

Great video. The first location is around the corner from where I grew up! It's great to see these images being made so close to home.

[ruudmaas]

At this moment I use the most Fomapan 200 of all the Fomapan sheet films. I really like the tonality of this film. I develop it with Rodinal and the grain is well controlled. Sometimes you will have a box with some spots/scratches on it but always manageable when the post processing is digital. And no doubt the retail price of this film is not as high as other brands. The only gripe i have is the reciprocity factor of Fomapan film.

[julien.]

Kyle, you should find someone to help you print some of your negatives in a darkroom. I'm so curious to see the difference between your digital editing an what can be achieved in a darkroom. It would make a very cool video I think

[rodbland]

I love the suggestion you made about possibly doing a direct comparison with fomapan 100 and FP4. Keep up the good work!

[rogerharrison]

Great video as always. I love Fomapan in large format. I've used 100 and 400 in the past but over the last couple of years I've settled on Fomapan 200 for 5x4 and 10x8. I shoot it at 100 and develop in 510 Pyro (which I mix myself). Works great for alternative prints (kallitypes) and silver gelatin prints. Church interiors need very long exposures due to Fomapan's extreme reciprocity failure, usually between 5 and 20 minutes, but I don't mind that.

[Dan_photo]

Always good to catch another one of your videos. Particularly loved that church scene!

[WesleyVerhoevePhotography]

Foma 100 is so lovely even in 35mm, great work man

[florianguillonantigny]

Another Great video Kyle. Foma delivers, Great film overall even though I have had a couple of bad box in the past with weird patterns I am still working with it from time to time for some work.

[enloupevin]

This is awesome. Thanks for such an honest review as always- having an affordable 4x5 film really lowers the barrier to entry... especially when its good! Maybe its time I pulled the trigger sooner rather than later...

[DLivingston]

The lighting on that church was so good before the cloud came in. Glad that it came back out for you a tad bit! Great video as usual. Thanks for sharing!

[GeraldFigal]

Just for kicks last week I shot some old (but refrigerated) 5x7 Arista Edu 100 (aka fomapan 100 but even cheaper) and was very pleased with the results metered at 50 iso and developed as if 100 iso in Rodinal 1+50. Liked it enough to order a 50-sheet box of 8x10.

[peter]

Been using Arista 100 as I understand it it's repackaged Fomapan. Really like it with my Speed Graphic, got some 8X10 in the mail the other day, looking forward to using that on my 1903 Century 8x10. The price makes it sting less for a relatively new large format photographer.
Always enjoy your work, thanks.

[Thorpal]

So far, in 4x5, I found that Foma 100 yielded much pleasant results thant Tmax 400 and Tri-x 320 - and I'm a die hard fan of Tmax and Tri-x in 35mm and medium format. I knew it was good in the smaller format but paired with xtol like developer you can pretty much recover from any lighting situation or even overdevelopment without loosing too much of the highights. Definitely the best of the Fomas and one of my favorite B&W, whatever the format !

[haydenobryanphotography]

I'm always pleased with the results I get with Fomapan 100 in 9x12.

[joepphoto]

The comp & exposure on that church shot was amazing. When I saw the light in the glas at first It was rare for me to think I wish you got that frame on color film.

[MarkHickford]

I pretty much always shoot Fomapan 100 in 4x5. I have some FP4 and HP5, but I keep those for special occasions. It's nice to not have to worry about the cost too much.

I've had some really lovely results with Foma 100 on my Graflex Speed Graphic with 162mm Optar. One image in particular I had a high res scan done and the image printed A1 size. It's certainly no slouch!

I generally spot meter on the darkest part of the image that I want to retain some detail and place that at zone iii (close down my lens to 2 stops lower than the meter reads). Granted, if I were shooting a really high contrast scene like that church, I'd probably average the extremes too.

[EricsEdgeVideos]

Thanks for the review. Will definitely give this a try.