As my regular readers probably know, I like to test different new, old and obscure emulsions. Another one that recently popped up from the kamerastore guys was Santa Rae 1000. As usual with “new emulsions”, they are secretive as to who produced it and what it actually is. There are very few manufacturers who can coat film any more, so usually these are some sort of aerial film that are being repackaged. See for example the Silberra films and JCH Streetpan that are Agfa Aviphot emulsions.
The problem with these “new emulsions” that are actually Aviphot et. al., is that they were made for different circumstances. They are thin as holy heck, on PET so they attract dust like magnets, scratch easily, you get light piping issues, etc etc. And all of this is true with the Santa Rae too.
What makes Santa Rae stand out however is the speed. ISO 1000 is probably pushing it with the contrast, but even if it was a true ISO800 film or possibly an ISO1000 emulsion that is a few years expired, it is not an Aviphot because there never was an Aviphot that fast. So what could it be? Most likely a traffic surveillance film. But did Agfa ever produce a traffic film this fast? Ilford had some SP-films for traffic surveillance and Kodak had their Hawkeye-line. Also, there is Tasma in Kazan, Russia. Finland has Russia as a neighbour, and Tasma is still coating film for industrial purposes.. If anyone knows anything more, please let me know.
So what about the images then? As usual, the ISO rating is a bit jacked up, I shot two rolls at ISO 1000 and I would probably go down to ISO 800 for the next too. Not too bad anyhow, not like JCH Streetpan that is probably closer to ISO 200 in reality. The grain is not too bad to be honest, it is a grainy film but the grain structure is not “lumpy” like with Aviphot. The tones look pretty decent, pretty normal. And I say that as a good thing, I’m not a huge fan of the extended red sensitivity commonly seen with aerial films, it makes skin look weird in sunshine..
I developed these two rolls in XTOL 1+1 at 20c for 13,5 minutes, and shot at ISO 1000. Next time I will probably go down to ISO800 and develop for a minute less.
The rolls say they contain 24 shots per roll, but I got 20 per roll due to the first 3-4 frames being totally light leaked from loading in daylight. So if you want actual 24 shots, I recommend loading and unloading your camera in semi-darkness.
Here are some example pictures:
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