The middle is not mediocre - Enjoying Fomapan 200 Creative Black and White Film May 23 2025, 0 Comments

Regular customer and film photography aficionado Ryan Flatters shares his experience working with and developing Fomapan 200 Creative film. Fomapan 200 is available at Camera Trading Company.

All Text and photos by Ryan Flatters.
 

Creating a classic look with classic gear

Fomapan 200 film and Cameras
One of the joys of photography is striking out aimlessly to find inspiration in what presents itself. Creativity thrives when visualizing compositions in unexpected subject matter and making the most of the light that materializes. Heading out on a photo journey there are a lot of decisions to make. Which camera(s) will I use? Will I be shooting handheld or on a tripod? Most importantly, what film will I shoot?

Most film photographers, like me, have been stuck in bleak light with low speed film and no tripod. Maybe worse is to get caught in unexpected clear, bright conditions with high speed film and a classic camera with a top shutter speed of 500.

A possible solution is to target the middle of the road. 200 iso film seems like an ideal compromise, but many report that 200 speed films are a lackluster no-man’s land. For this reason I had avoided Fomapan 200 without giving it a fair chance. Fortunately, I finally decided to try this film for myself and I was really impressed.

(Coincidently I am writing this on the day that Harman announced the release of Kentmere 200. I’m looking forward to trying it.)

 

Fomapan 200-120@200 Rodinal 1+50 10:00

Since I was looking for the flexibility of a 200 speed film, I needed to confirm that I could actually shoot this stock at 200 iso. I performed some very basic bracketing tests on the 35mm stock (trying 200 and 100 iso). I shot half the roll then, cut the film from the camera in the darkroom and developed it in D76 (ID11).

 

 

200 iso

D76 1+1

9:00 		Shadows slightly blocked, but still acceptable detail. Nice contrast. Lively sky.

100 iso

D76 1+1

9:00 		Shadows opening. Reduced contrast, but still nice.

200 iso

D76 1+1

9:00

Yellow Filter 		Lightening of yellow/browns in grass.

 

To my surprise, I got promising results shooting Fomapan 200 at box speed. With this great news I set out to shoot both 35 mm and 120 stocks over the course of a week. I shot on a slightly overcast day, in bright afternoon sun and also during the early morning hours with light mist hovering over the rivers and small streams.

Fomapan 200-35mm@200 Perceptol 1+1 - 7:30. 

 

Fomapan 200-120@200 Rodinal 1+50 - 10:00 .

The choice of developer made a big difference. Overall, D76 (ID11) (1+1 - 9:00) gave me the best results in my quick test. With persistence I am sure other developers could be dialed in.

Perceptol was quite nice, but a few frames suffered from bromide drag or surge marks (visible in the skies). This is the first time I have observed this and I am unsure if what I am seeing is drag or surge. Either way, this is ‘user error’ and can be addressed with a more frequent, yet gentle agitation.

Bromide drag and surge marks can be accentuated in 35 mm film where the sprocket holes project their pattern onto the image.

Bromide drag is a chemical artifact from insufficient agitation, while surge marks are from aggressive agitation.

Blazinal (Canadian Rodinal) at 1+50 provided nice sharpness, but did end up quite grainy. A different dilution and perhaps semi-stand development are things I might try in the future. If I used 1+50 again I would try 9:00 instead of 10:00 as contrast was starting to get too high for my taste.

I loaded the second half roll of 35mm into my Barnack Leica IIIF. Something went wrong with the loading or unloading (as can happen with a Barnack) and I ended up with a scratch across most frames. Oh well, I still love shooting with that camera….

 Fomapan 200-35 mm@200 Perceptol 1+1 - 7:30

Like other Foma stocks, the film base curls, but does not cup, making it easy to scan. The 120 stock is a bit foggy and does not have a lot of shine on the non-emulsion side. It also has an ‘excellent’, burnt electrical smell when unrolling it for the first time.

Overall I think the film performs impressively and provides a rich, pictorial look. Some may find the shadows in my examples to be too dark. Rating the film at 160 could be all that is needed to resolve this. My plan is to get more in my film fridge for those days where the middle of the road seems like the best bet.

 

Fomapan 200-120@200 Rodinal 1+50 - 10:00

Thanks to Mark Mongeau at the Camera Trading Company for supplying the forum and film for this article. Fomapan films, Blazinal (Canadian Rodinal), Ilford ID-11 (D76) and Perceptol are available for purchase at his online store at the link above and brick and mortar store in Perth, Ontario Canada.