Adox CHS 50 is a thin layer black and white film that produces the second finest grain from the Adox film line. According to Adox's website, the film has a wider latitude than the CHS 25. You can expose the shadows and also develop the highlights. I wish I could provide an expert opinion on pushing, pulling, exposure and development of this film, but I have yet to dive into the world of home development. My lab, Blue Moon Camera and Machine, have handled the processing of this film.
I can tell you that I've shot six rolls of the Adox CHS 50 and I've been very pleased with the results, even in a few extremely low light environments. My first impression of this film is that it has a wide tonal range and provides significantly less contrast than the black and white film I'm most familiar with - Kodak Tri-X 400. It has a vintage look that's very pleasing on the eye, especially when used for portraits. Adox CHS 50 was the first professional film that I used in my Hasselblad 500 c/m when I wandered around downtown Findlay, Ohio during the FPP Midwest Meet-Up earlier in the summer. The films' grain structure was perfect for some of the urban decay/landscape images that I was after. It was very forgiving for any exposure misreading I may have obtained since it was my first experience metering for myself. Below are a few results from that first roll; notice the grain structure and the tonal range in the images.
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f/4F/4 @ 1/125 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F4 @ 1/500 second
My second experiment with this film was for a project that I've not discussed at length. I've simply previewed it on this blog, but it was a project that was a number of steps outside of my comfort zone. Portraiture was the main focus of the project and the film performed extremely well. Again, it provided a nice tonal range and it was well suited for the portraiture work. The main flaw for me wasn't the film, but mastering the focus on my Hasselblad and it's 150mm lens. In the sharpest images, the details were presented perfectly. At the completion of this project, I had shot a total of 4 1/2 rolls of the Adox CHS 50. Following the portraiture project, I had an impromptu visit to East Texas and decided to bring a roll of Adox and my Hasselblad to shoot. I'll get to that shooting experience after the following images shot on the Adox CHS 50 ART for my portraiture project.
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F8 @ 1/60 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F8 @ 1/30 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F5.6 @ 1/60 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F4 @ 1/15 second
As I mentioned, I took a trip to East Texas and decided to bring the Hasselblad and a roll of Adox to take a few images of Gilmer and Fort Worth while I was there. I shot about half of the roll in Gilmer, during a hot, sunny day. The second half of the roll I shot at night in the historic stockyards of Fort Worth. I wasn't worried about the Gilmer shots, but I was a little leery about how the film would perform at night with very little light. It's a slow film, with an ISO of 50; so, I knew I would be mounting the Hasselblad on my tripod for long exposures. The night shots weren't perfect, but they came out better than I expected. When I have more time, I would like to test this film in additional night settings. Below are a few results from the Texas trip.
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F16 @ 1/30 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F11 @ 1/60 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F16 @ 1/60
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F16 @ 1/60 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F4 @ 1 second
Camera: Hasselblad 500 c/m
Lens: 150mm f4
F4 @ 2 seconds
The last roll of Adox that I shot was a roll of 35mm. I shot this roll throughout the summer. I started it at the FPP Midwest Meet Up, I continued it through my unnamed portraiture project, and I finished shooting it at various locations throughout Ohio. The 35mm performed quite well, however, I did notice that it provided much more contrast than my rolls of 120. Below are a few images of the 35mm Adox CHS 50 ART.
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
F4 @ 1/60 second
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mmF8 @ 1/250 second
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
F4 @ 1/500 second
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
F2 @ 1/500 second
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
Shot on Program Mode
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
F2 @ 1/30 second
Camera: Canon AE-1P
Lens: 50mm
Shot on Program Mode
So, after six rolls of Adox CHS 50 ART, both 120 and 35mm, I would say that I can establish a pretty fair opinion of the film. The film has a very smooth tonal range, composed of whites, blacks and a very large range of grays. It has a vintage look and feel to it and it's well suited for both urban decay, urban landscapes and portraiture. It wouldn't be the first film that I would grab for an outing of low light and night time shooting, but with a tripod and long exposures you can still achieve satisfying results. It's low speed will also work well in vintage cameras with fixed shutter speeds, such as Kodak Brownie box cameras. I will definitely be shooting more of this film in the future and I highly recommend testing it out. For home developers and technical spec junkies, here's a link to the film's data sheet. To learn more about Adox, check out their site here.
No comments:
Post a Comment