Bluefire Police with Developer....

[raytoei]

I have been curious about this film for a long time
recently, I googled as much as I could,
the best reference i could find was this:



"David Foy , Aug 26, 2003; 06:57 p.m.

(Disclaimer: I'm the owner of the business that makes and sells Bluefire Police and Bluefire HR.)

"Bluefire Police" is Tura Pan Line, a panchromatic EI 100 microfilm, packaged in 24-exposure 35mm cassettes. Tura does not sell it in retail quantities.

The Bluefire HR developer is derived from the H&W Control formula but has been modified for longer shelf life. When processed in Bluefire HR, the film must be exposed at EI 80. The recommended development is a compensating procedure (15 minutes, little agitation) that is meant to give pictorial contrast at relatively high acutance with microfilms. Acutance is more usefully considered a property of developer and development technique, not of film.

Since Bluefire Police is a microfilm (very thin, very hard, monodisperse non-tabular small grain emulsion), it gives a different image than tabular films (or any non-microfilm, for that matter), one the photographer may or may not prefer, depending on taste. Ann Clancy's description of it mirrors my experience.

I tested it against Kodak TMax 100 during product development (same camera and lens, same scene, shot immediately after the Bluefire roll) and the Bluefire grain is finer. The super-enlarged bolt-head on the web site cannot be detected on the Kodak negative. The super-enlarged man's head image is not distinct and would be not be acceptable as identification in court (the Bluefire image would be). At the extreme of enlargement, when enlargeability is the goal, Bluefire is the more useful choice.

This is an extreme test and the differences between the two films, in terms of grain's effect on enlargeability, is unlikely to be significant for many photographers. However, the difference in overall image appearance is definitely noticeable at any degree of enlargement, and it is my hope that at least some photographers will find the Bluefire film's tonality a useful addition to their palette. In my own personal photography, I treat it like a conventional EI25 film (AgfaPan 25 or Efke KB25) that I can expose reliably at IE80. The Bluefire HR developer also works beautifully (in my opinion) with Fuji Super HR microfilms. Unfortunately they're not available in perforated 35mm, but the 16mm size can be used for submini camera loads.

It works well with Agfa Copex Pan Rapid AHU, which is available in 35mm perfed, 30.5m bulk length (minimum order, 50 rolls if you buy from Agfa or a microfilm house). That was the 35mm film packaged by Holden and Weichart in the '60s as H&W Control VTE Pan.

Archaeology Museum, Split, Croatia: Bluefire Police film, October 2002"

So, 15 rolls + developer appeared on my doorstep today....


stay tuned...

 

[raytoei]

from the pdf file:

* Panchromatic film, insensitive to infra red
* Does not degrade details at extreme magnification
* records 21 stops of gray
* develop between 12m to 16m at 20C with the special Bluefire Police Developer
* practical enlargement is 40x or 1m x 1.5m, can enlarge to 100x without losing image detail to grain
* Can resolve more than 800 line pairs per millimeter under lab condition


okay so far this is in my too-good-too-be-true category... going to shoot a roll today.

raytoei

 

[raytoei]

okay...i went out to shoot a roll today as a test.

this is one of the strips of the negatives.

Note that I used a Pen-FT with 40/f1.4 lens.

This is a half-frame, so instead of 6 frames of 36x24mm, it is 12 frames of 18x24mm on a strip of negatives.

This is how the negative looked like, I redact the first few frames of family photos

Now, ideally, if we want to very clinical, then:

* a tripod should be used
* optimal aperture, ie. 2 stops from widest is optimal or usually 5.6-f8
* film flatness when scanning
* Optimal development process etc

i felt that frame 4 and 5 yielded the best possible pictures from this negative.
I shot it at around 1/60 and f8, however I was inside a car and not immune to shake.

from frame 4 and 5, i noticed that frame 4 was sharper, frame 5 was starting to blur.

... to be continued....

 

[raytoei]

This is how frame 4 looks:

going at 100%, this is how the parking signboard and the signboard at the end of the road looks:

not bad for first roll, but i think i can do get better results next time.

 

[raytoei]

As a pictorial film, it is prone to high-contrast, with little or no grains,
metering needs to be spot-on as the latitude is less than traditional films.

here are two more images taken today on the half-frame camera:

In my next and last post, i will write a summary of what I think about this film.

 

[raytoei]

as you can see, the film base is very clear and thin, but thick and curly.

Thin here refers not material thickness as it is very thick, thinness refers
to the negatives which looks like it is underexposed, a lack of highlights.
Despite the curl, this film scans alright.

Regarding development, it is recommended to develop Bluefire Police with
the Bluefire HR development. around 15ml to 235ml of water for around 12-16mins@20C

I developed it at 6mins at 30C in my Rondinax tank. I think it is underdeveloped, and I
should develop it for 7-8mins in future.

Summary
=======
+ No grains, great for enlargement, able to capture a lot of details, great for half-frame cameras which
is plagued by large grains with normal film.
+ Unlike other technical Pan films which is usually 20-50 iso, this film is rated at 80 with the HR developer.
+ Relatively cheap at 2.65 usd for roll of 24 exposure film, before s&h.
- 21 shades of gray sounds like a lot, but actually is quite a lot less latitude compared to other B&W film
- many of the histogram is very steep, showing a lack of gray scale.
- Accurate metering is important, Sunny-16 is not easy with such a low ISO film.

Works best where contrast isn't too great between shadows and highlight. Of course the high-contrast
effect may be a look that is deliberately being achieved.

Here is a nice picture which works well, considering that is half the normal negative size.

Many things to try out with this film in the future.

thanks for viewing.

FIN.

raytoei

 

[Riotbmx]

Thanks for sharing. I think you should
Shoot full frame the next time round and get it wet printed on a large paper. Looking forward for more updates

 

[raytoei]

1st image is a grab shot from a car...
2nd image is a blow up from the 1st image
which says "No Person under the age of 18 is allowed to buy beer/liquor at this premise"
3rd shot captured in KL shopping mall.