In Japan, Fujifilm NEOPAN 100 ACROS was the least expensive black and white film. However, with the film no longer being made, I needed to find a replacement. This is where New Oriental Seagull 100 comes in. This film is nearly the same price as ACROS at about $6.50 US dollars (650 JP yen). I bought a roll and ran it through my Canon AV-1 and Canon FD 50mm f/1.8. If you don’t know, the Canon AV-1 is aperture priority, the opposite of the AE-1.
From my understanding, this film is produced by Harman Technologies exclusively for Japan. I have never used ILFORD or Kentmere films, so I can’t compare it to those. Online it has been compared to Kentmere.
Not really sure how this film would turn out, I decided to go out on a walk with my family on a sunny day. I am pleased with what a got and can’t complain too much since I’m doing it for fun. Personally, I would have liked a little more contrast to the images but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed on the computer.
To home develop my film, I decided to use the most affordable chemicals which is Fujifilm. I’ve been using Fujifilm Microfine developer. There is no documentation in English on developing time for Oriental Seagull 100 with Microfine. I was able to find a developing time for this combo in Japanese. What I ended up doing was using Microfine diluted 1+1 for 12 minutes and 30 seconds at 20 degrees C. It was agitated for 5 seconds every 30 seconds.
I still have some rolls of ACROS waiting to be used. However, I plan on getting more of Oriental Seagull in the future. There is also a 400-speed variant which costs a little more. So maybe one day I will go ahead and give that a shot.
~ Orrin
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