Hi everyone,

I am here to confess that I am one of those folks who asked a film and developer question. If the question offended some of the forum participants you have my apology. I would now like to re-post my question in a fuller form.

Over the past couple of years I have been refining my developing times and combinations for PMK and the 4x5 sheet films I prefer to use. I currently use FP4+ and Bergger with PMK and find that I favor older film formulations with this developer. With that said I did some research and found that Efke film are the same formulation as the Adox KB films. These are single speed emulsions with "chunky" silver grains. The density curves posted on the Fotoimpex website seem promising for zone work and I am interested in giving it a try, however, the film is not available in sheet sizes in the U.S. and must be special ordered.

Before I order this film I would like to have any input from members of the forum if this combination is worth pursuing. As I have limited access to a dark room any starting times for development and exposure would be particularily appreciated.

Thanks to everyone who has provided advice in the past and your tolerance of this reworded question.

-- Kevin (kkemner@tateandsnyder.com), November 16, 2000

Answers

I've never used Efke's sheet films, but about 15 years ago I used their 35mm and medium format films extensively and was very pleased with the results. The old KB-14 emulsion had a spectral sensitivity that differed from other black and white films in production then and now--it rendered greens somewhat lighter than other films. I loved it for landscape work. If you do order and use this sheet film, I would be very interested to hear how it works out for you.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), November 16, 2000.

Efke KB/R 25 (former "KB/R14), and KB/R 50 (former KB/R50) are orthopanchromatic and made for use with lamps, but are excellent for landscape too. KB/R100 is panchromatic and has a spectral sensitivity as normal pan-films, and this is the emulsion Efke use on their sheet films, called PL100.

I love Efke films, especially the low speed films that are very sharp and fine grained.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), November 18, 2000.