Edit:
Guys, I might be wrong on this one. It has come to my attention that this film has NO IR SENSITIVITY, this would mean that it is NOT Aviphot but some other aerial photography film. One rumour says it might be Tasma Type-42L. I have dug up another roll from the fridge and my IR-filter to verify this. However, even if it is not actually Aviphot, I think it looks awfully similar.
Edit2:
The information I got was totally wrong. I took some shots with an IR-filter and it does indeed have sensitivity up to infrared. However, I shot a rool of Astrum and another roll of Silberra Pan 100, and developed them both the same length of time, and the Silberra roll came out way underdeveloped. So tests inconclusive.
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Short version: It’s Agfa Aviphot Pan 80. Also sold as Rollei Retro 80s.
Longer version: Maybe you are not familiar with the Aviphot line of films. They have been made for a long time Agfa (who are actually still around in a way). The films come on a clear polyester base, have extended IR sensitivity and harsh contrast. It had something to do with how aerial photography works, it’s taken from straight above straight down, so there are no shadows.
Silberras Pan line of films are also Aviphot, and JCH Streetpan.
Anyway, what I have concluded about all the different Aviphot:s I’ve shot is that they are difficult films to work with. The harsh contrast, bad shadow detail and extended IR-sensitivity lead to images having blown out skies, too bright skin tones, no shadow detail. All of them benefit from some pull processing, rate at maybe 0.5-1 stop lower, develop for ~15% less than instructed.
QC seems to be a bit lacking also, there is some strangeness here and there on a few frames. So don’t shoot anything really critical with this film..
Grain is a little bit blotchy and strange, although smooth. Skin looks really smooth and nice if you manage to expose it just right. If you dont, you will get blotchy grain. Example:
As you can see it looks very grainy, consdering it is an ISO100 film. And the grain is not uniform and small like HP5. But if you look at some other examples here below you can see it is sometimes very smooth.
All the Aviphots dry very flat, and very quickly. That is a nice plus. They are pretty easy to scan too, maybe since they are on a clear base.
D76 1+1 looked worse than HC110 I think. Here are some shots of D76 1+1.
And here are some shots done in HC110, several of these were with a yellow/green filter, and the one of the building with a 3 on it is with red filter:
Some good sides of Astrum is that they come in reusable cartridges, the old USSR type that have a screw top you can just open up by twisting. Also, it’s cheap. If you use a red filter I suggest giving it a stop or two more light than the light meter says. Always err on the side of overexposure, the grain in the shadows is not nice.
All in all, if you find this film cheaply and you havent tried any Aviphot - go for it. It’s not crap. There are just better films out there.
That’s it from me this time. As always, would make me happy if you dropped some comments on your thoughts!