Fomapan 200 Creative - The Best Budget Film Stock?

Fomapan 200 Creative is a film stock that is produced by Foma Bohemia, a company based in the Czech Republic. The company was started in 1921 and produced their first black and white roll film in 1932. Whilst this film stock is not particularly new, it’s not quite an old one either. Being released around 20 years ago or so.  Fomapan 200 is rated at 200 ISO/ 24 DIN, however it does feature a wide exposure latitude. Whilst there is a large range of black and white photographic films available on the market today, Fomapan 200 prices itself in the budget range of films. Now what does that mean in terms of results with this particular film?  Low budget doesn’t always mean poor results and that’s definitely not the case with Fomapan 200. Fomapan is unique film stock compared to other manufacturers offerings in the same price range, as it features T-Crystals, much like Kodak T-Max and the Ilford Delta range of films. This creates a uniform look to grain.  In the 35mm format, Fomapan 200 is offered in 24 and 36 exposure rolls, as well at 17.5m, 30m and 50m bulk lengths. This makes it one of the cheapest options for bulk film loading. It is also offered in 120 roll film and in large format sheets of varying sizes and quantities.

I’ve used two developers with Fomapan 200, those being Adox FX-39 II and Orano Gradual ST-20. I found both of these developers to work very well with the film stock and yield sharp, high contrast negatives which this film is known for. I find that this film stock has a lovely grain structure, whilst it is quite pronounced for the speed of the film, it is pleasing to the eye with a uniform and tidy look, especially in 35mm. One of the major things to note about Fomapan 200 is that in the 120 roll film format, There have been several issues reported online relating to black flecks/marks on the film, and I too have ran into these issues during my testing. This has become such an issue, that now Fomapan has mentioned it on the datasheet for the film stock.

“FOMAPAN 200 Creative emulsion contains T-crystals providing high resolution and very low granularity of the film. Relating to this it may emerge its higher sensitivity to mechanical strain mainly during movement of the rollfilm throughout some middleformat cameras. That may result in occurrence of desensitization records on developed negatives. Within the first usage of FOMAPAN 200 Creative type 120 it is recommended to test its compatibility with the particular camera.” - Datasheet for Fomapan 200 Creative, Foma Bohemia.

Several people have contacted Foma Bohemia regarding this issue, with some stating that replacement film was sent out free of charge.

I found that with the developers I used, there was a nice balance across the tonal range, with both shadows and highlights containing plenty of detail. Underexposure can be an issue compared to other film stocks on the market. If underexposed by more than 2 stops, the shadows drop off very quickly, with the majority of the details in the shadow areas disappearing with it. There are a fair few photographers that shoot this film stock at 100 ISO or 160 ISO and adjust the developing time accordingly. When exposed correctly, the film stock gives pleasing results, with fine grain and high sharpness. The film has a fairly high contrast, some might find this a little off putting, but for the genres of photography that I mainly do, being nature and landscape, I think it’s perfect and helps set a tone or mood in the image.

If you haven’t shot Fomapan 200 before, or perhaps you haven’t used any of the films offered by Foma Bohemia, I’d thoroughly recommend trying Fomapan 200 Creative.  Whilst Fomapan 100 and 400 offer good results, In my opinion Fomapan 200 is the best film stock that Foma Bohemia have offered on the market currently. In recent years, film costs have been steadily rising and it is becoming more expensive to shoot film. Fomapan 200 sits within the budget range of film stocks offered from other manufacturers and these usually have a lower content of silver halide to keep costs down.