Today’s image is the latest in a series taken with vintage 35mm gear (either my Leica or Contax 35mm rangefinder). This image was taken with my Contax IIIa, and Russian Jupiter 8 52mm lens (Damn it’s sharp!!).
The real drama with this image began with the film development though. I have a number of bulk loaders (so I can save money by buying film in 100 ft. lengths and “rolling my own”). I had thought this film was Fomapan 100, one of my favourite films in medium format. When it is developed, its anti-halation coating is dissolved and turns the developer a cheerful shade of green when it is poured out of the tank. When I started pouring out the developer this time around though, it came out clear, meaning it wasn’t the film I though it was. I immediately stopped pouring out the developer, topped it the tank with water, did some mental math and added 75% more development time.
I dodged a bullet, and everything came out OK. (Perhaps a tad more grain than optimal, but I’ll take it). The sad thing is that the film has no edge markings identifying what brand/type it is, but at least in the future I know how to develop it. š
My Third Eye 
I have a bulk film loader, though I’ve heard it’s easy to scratch the film. Is that your experience?
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On occasion — some film stocks are very soft š¦
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You say that you usually see the antihalation dyes come out in the first step (I usually pre-soak.) However, my 35mm versions of similar emulsions never change the color of the water, since the antihalation layers seem to be built in to the base. Is this the first time you’ve used the film in 35mm? It could very well be Fomapan.
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Just remember that all this talk about sharpness and grain is referring to very subtle and small effects. Most of the properties of the film are built in during manufacture. Though there are differences in developers and dilutions, IMO FP4 is very robust no matter what you develop it in. ID11/D-76 1:1 is the time honered one-shot developer. It’s inexpensive and gives good consistancy. If you want to see more difference, some have suggested ID11/D-76 at a 1:2 or 1:3 dilution. Just make sure you have enough solution volume to do the job. You should work out your own times for your conditions. Going the other way, though I haven’t tried it with FP4 , I’ve gotten very favorable results with Plus-X developed in full strength D-76. It’s cheap enough, so I one-shot that as well. Tonal quality was excellent and grain was nearly invisible. Any loss of sharpness was purely theoretical, as the prints were very crisp. Before TFDC few people talked about acutance. Now, everybody wants a high acutance developer. IMO, it’s not right for every shot, and there’s a place for many developer types and dilutions.
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