FomaFomapan 100 Classic

Fomapan 100 Classic is an ISO 100 panchromatic black-and-white negative film made by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic and developed in standard black-and-white chemistry [1]. It is a traditional cubic-grain film [5] known for high contrast, crushed shadows and a look reviewers compare to the black-and-white films of the 1960s and 70s [7] [8]. It is reportedly also sold under other names, such as Arista EDU Ultra 100 and Kosmo Foto Mono 100 [7] [11].

Look and color

Fomapan 100 turns colors into grays according to its own spectral sensitivity, not the eye’s:

• Close to Tri-X. Converting our test RAW files with the Fomapan 100 curve instead of plain luminance made a sky 3.4 L* lighter, skin 4.2 L* darker and a pink shirt 1.5 L* darker. The Tri-X 400 curve gives +3.2, −3.8 and −1.2 [15]. This rests on an assumption, because Foma’s chart has no scale (see below).
• A vintage look. Kosmo Foto describes “a contrast black and white film with hard blacks and fine grain”, suited to “bright sunlight” [7]; Blue Moon Camera finds “an old world feel” [5]; Casual Photophile an “old-school newspaper archive look” [6].

Tonality

• Curves. In Microphen, the characteristic curves for 5, 7 and 11 minutes have a short toe and a long straight section that runs above a density of 2, bending slightly at the top for the longest development (our reading of the graph) [1].
• Development. Foma’s times aim at “medium-contrast negatives”. Its development charts give a gamma of about 0.65 to 0.75 in D-76 or ID-11 at the recommended 6 to 7 minutes (our reading) [1].
• Reviews find it contrasty, with shadows that drop fast. Blue Moon Camera describes “deep, ‘crunchy’ shadows” that “often fall off quite quickly” [5]; Japan Camera Hunter calls it “a high contrast film” that tends to “crush blacks” [8]; Casual Photophile says it “tends toward higher contrast” [6].
• Highlights: the reviews disagree. For Blue Moon Camera, tones above middle gray are “very rich, even and slow to move to full white” [5]. Casual Photophile warns that “highlights will be blown” and that the “lack of highlight latitude might give scenes a starker look” [6].
• Latitude: the maker and the reviews disagree. Foma promises good results from 1 stop over to 2 stops under without changing development [1]. Casual Photophile speaks of “narrow exposure latitude” [6], and Japan Camera Hunter finds it “unforgiving when underexposed” [8].
• Long exposures: no correction from 1/1000 to ½ s, then double the exposure at 1 s, ×8 at 10 s and ×16 at 100 s [1].

Grain and sharpness

• Foma measures its RMS in Microphen, developed to a gamma of 0.6, and gives a resolving power of 110 lines/mm [1]. RMS values from different developers are only roughly comparable.
• Reviews: “not a fine grained film by any comparative standards”, “one of the grainiest ISO 100 films out there” [5]; “a tad grainier than your average 100 speed film but not so much that it is distracting” [8]; “fine, but present enough to lend a kind of softness” [6].
• Sharpness: Blue Moon Camera finds it “sharp enough at least that you will never think of it as a soft film” [5].
• Halation. The datasheet lists an anti-halation backing for 120 and sheet film, not for the 35 mm film, which is coated on a gray base [1]. Reports are mixed: a Casual Photophile reader saw “burned-out high-lights that glow” and found the anti-halation “rather weak” [6]. In a forum thread about 4×5 sheets, one user reports bloom around highlights, while others see none in 120 or 8×10, and one of them blames strong overexposure [9].

Spectral sensitivity

Foma publishes a wedge spectrogram made under 2850 K tungsten light, with no scale on the sensitivity axis. The curve rises slowly from 400 nm, stays flat from 460 to 500 nm, steps up near 520 nm, shows a small hump near 577 nm, peaks near 640 nm and reaches zero at about 667 nm [1]. A 2850 K source emits about five times more energy at 640 nm than at 450 nm, so much of the rise toward red comes from the light itself. Once that is corrected, and assuming the curve spans about one log unit as on Ilford’s charts, skies render lighter and skin darker than in a luminance conversion, almost as with Tri-X [15].

Names, status and history

• Maker. Foma Bohemia is based in Hradec Králové, in the Czech Republic [1]. Its logo reads “since 1921”, and Kosmo Foto dates its film production to 1921 [7].
• Introduction date: the sources disagree. Wikipedia’s list of films dates Fomapan 100 Classic from 1991 [10]; Blue Moon Camera says it was introduced “around 2002” [5].
• Also sold as (reported, not confirmed by Foma).
  • Arista EDU Ultra 100, sold by Freestyle Photographic in the United States: Kosmo Foto wrote in 2017 that Fomapan 100 is “repackaged as Arista EDU100” there [7], and Wikipedia says the Arista EDU Ultra films “are currently the same” as Foma’s [10].
  • Kosmo Foto Mono 100: Analog.cafe reports that Fomapan 100 is “the same film, according to Stephen” Dowling, who created Mono [11]; Wikipedia lists it as rebranded Fomapan 100 [10].
• Status. On September 29, 2026, Foma’s catalogue listed Fomapan 100 Classic [3]. In June 2025, Foma added 35 mm cassettes of Fomapan 100, 200 and 400 in retro packaging [4].
• Formats. The 05/22 datasheet lists 135-24 and 135-36, bulk lengths of 17, 30.5 and 50 m, 120, and sheets from 9×12 cm to 24×30 cm and from 4×5 to 8×10 inches. Foma adds that the film can be reversal-processed into slides [1].
• Datasheet. The current datasheet is marked FOMA 05/22. The spectral curve on this page was read from the 07/12 edition, which prints the same chart and also listed 135-12 cassettes [2].