Film Review Blog No. 106 – FPP X-Ray Film

Shooting X-ray films has been relatively niche in the still photography field, but it can often be a lower cost per shot when shooting sheet film. This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed or used a former medical X-ray film stock; the first was Washi F, which produced some magical results. The second was a non-medical X-Ray film, Washi I. So when I was offered a chance to try out the FPP X-ray film in 35mm, I wasn’t about to say no. This is a reasonably fast film for what it is, rated at ASA-200 but can be shot up to ASA-400. It is unique because the film is sensitive to green light (which makes sense as X-rays are positioned at the blue end of the electromagnetic spectrum). And while this film won’t allow you to photograph through walls (you need a special camera for that), you can produce some bright, spectacular images through everyday visible-light photography.

Film Specs
Seller: Film Photography Project
Name: FPP X-Ray Film
Type: Orthochromatic X-Ray Film (Green Sensitive)
Original Film Stock: not disclosed
Film Base: Acetate
Film Speed: ASA-200, Latitude: -1 Stop
Formats Available: 135 (35mm) & 120

Roll 01 – Kodak D-76
Kodak D-76 was one of two listed times on the FPP site and a relatively common one for FPP films, six minutes in stock dilution. The day I shot these was around noon, and the lighting conditions were bright/mixed, so the sun was high in the sky. Pulling the negatives out of the tank, I noticed the frames shot under bright open light looked either overcooked or over-exposed. But the images looked a little better as soon as I got under mixed cover. But it still took some work to get workable images out of the negatives; thankfully, with all the density, there was enough detail to pull most of the images out. The results were mixed, but I like them. I much preferred the shots taken in McCraney Valley over the ones shot on campus; they have a dreamy quality, with open shadows and blown highlights. You get the full effect of halation in the trees. There is a lot of contrast here, but that’s a good thing, as it works well. Unlike my last time working with a former X-Ray film with such low contrast, the images looked terrible. Lots of character here, with excellent edge sharpness and grain structure. These were much better than I had initially expected after getting the negatives out of the tank.

Roll 02 – Ilford Ilfotec HC
To figure out an Ilfotec HC/HC-110 time I went with my parallel processing technique and landed on Ultrafine Extreme 400 for my film of choice as both share the D-76 Stock time of six minutes. But I wanted to see if I could smooth things out and used a ten minute time with a 1+63 dilution, then dropped it by 10% to land on nine minutes with constant rotation using the B’s Processor. And after seeing the results with the previous roll, I dropped the time by another minute to see if I could drag back the density a little bit more to make scanning easier. And upon pulling the negatives out from the tank, I had far less density so I had achieved the results I was looking for and after scanning I knew I had some winners. The one thing that struck me is the contrast, it’s a dark almost film noir look and feel to the images. While the contrast is a little compressed it rather works here, again understanding that the film is designed for a specific application under consistent controlled environment. The greens are often rendered a rich dark grey rather than white and reds are almost totally black. And finally there’s how sharp these images are, there is still a bit of visible grain, but nothing too strong or distracting even in the negative spaces. And yes there is still halation in the black-lit images.

Roll 03 – Diafine
Diafine has yet to make an appearance in a regular film review, but given that it was the other of the two listed times, I went ahead and used the stock dilution and a 5+5 time for the two baths. I also went and exposed the film at ASA-400 instead of ASA-200 after seeing the results from the first roll. I also did the standard agitation pattern for Diafine according to the instruction sheets. And the negatives came out from the tank looking thin, but I could see plenty of detail. The negatives did scan in a little dark, but I managed to pull out some details from the scans and ended up with pretty pleasing results, similar to what I got with the second roll. While dark, there’s a richness to these images, you get the same dark rendering of greens in many cases, but what struck me is how sharp the images are. The draw back is that there is a bit more visible grain, but nothing too bad to be honest. There is a decent tonal range in these although compressed. I think going all the way up to ASA-400, I probably could have gotten away with shooting at ASA-250 or ASA-320 to achieve better density. But Diafine, while specialised, s a good choice for the film stock.

Final Thoughts
With this being the second X-Ray film I’ve shot, the FPP X-Ray film is far more accessible to a new film photographer than Washi F, you can easily achieve results that can be used in an everyday manner. The FPP reccomends exposing the film between ASA-200 and ASA-400, I think the sweet spot is somewhere in between at either ASA-250 or ASA-320. When working with the film you want to try and have as much green in the frame as possible, it would make for a great landscape film. Scanning the film is not difficult, it scans flat with no cupping or curl, and if you’ve exposed the film and developed it to a way you want you don’t have to do a lot of adjustment in post-processing. FPP X-Ray comes in rolls of 36-Exposure and at a cost of 17.00 USD and is available through the FPP Store and at their partner shops.

Further Reading
Don’t just take my word on FPP XRay Film, you can check out the reviews by other awesome camera reviewers!
Random Camera Blog – FPP X-Ray Film, Now in 35mm