Fomapan 100 Classic

Fomapan 100 is cheap in a way that changes how you shoot. At prices that run roughly half of Ilford FP4+ or Kodak T-MAX 100, you load it without the mental tax of not wanting to waste a frame. Photographers who want to slow down and work methodically buy Ilford or Kodak. Photographers who want volume and character for low stakes buy Foma.

The grain is old-school cubic, not the tabular or delta-crystal architectures that define modern Ilford and Kodak stocks. The look is closer to a mid-century European emulsion than to anything produced since 1990. This is either a selling point or a limitation depending on what you are after. For atmospheric documentary or street work it reads as authentic. For architecture or product photography where technical resolution is the point, FP4+ or T-MAX 100 will serve you better.

Latitude is narrower than HP5+ or Tri-X. A stop of overexposure prints flat; a stop of underexposure blocks shadows. Rate it at 80 in contrasty light and you will get cleaner results than shooting at box speed. The film is popular in large-format because the sheet cost is low enough to permit practice without financial consequence, and in 4x5 the grain is not the limiting factor in any reasonable print size.

Fomapan 100 also comes in bulk 35mm and in a range of sheet sizes including 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10. The 120 is fine. Processing in Rodinal 1:100 for stand development gives a compensating effect that helps with the latitude limitation.

The reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter corrects past one second. At ISO 100 in indoor available-light work, that threshold comes up regularly when you are shooting at small apertures for depth of field.