Arista Legacy Pro (35mm, 400 iso) User-Review

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This crazy cheap and incredibly versatile B/W film is now available in Europe – time to check it out! Legacy Pro 400 looks great and contrasty in almost all developers and can be pushed and pulled a loooong way!

I first read about this film in a certain forum for analogue photography, but it wasn’t available in Europe until some time ago. When I saw that my favourite mail-order service had it in stock, I immediately ordered a brick to check out if it was as good as everybody said. And I also had to check out another rumor: There were certain references as to the manufacturer being Japanese and that development times were very similar to my favourite B/W film of all time..

I can confirm these rumors now. The film is VERY good and that must be because it is “made in Japan” and there is only one film company in Japan and they only make one 400 ISO black and white film and… go figure!

YIPPIE! I now have this great film for a great price! It is rich in tonality and gives great, deep blacks and a contrasty look, especially in HC-110 Developer. But it also looks very nice in Rodinal, where it has a little more of that original, sharp grain!

I have pushed this film one and two stops (ISO 800/1600) with HC-110 and it is beautiful! This means you can use this film in low light and indoors and it will still give great results by just developing it longer! As it is a very forgiving film, it will tolerate under- and overexposure fairly well – so this is the go-to-film for unknown territory and cameras like my Fisheye (when it is on a diet from that yummy color films, that is).

As it is – on the other hand – a state-of-the-art professional B/W film, it will reward you with stunning images if you nail it (or your camera, that is)!

I recommend this as a great black-and-white film for lomographers, fine art printers and forum eggheads alike!

written by gurkenprinz on 2009-12-03 #gear #film #black-and-white #review #b-w #iso-400 #gurkenprinz #legacy #legacy-pro-400 #made-in-japan

3 Comments

  1. kips
    kips ·

    what ratio/time do you use with your rodinal?

  2. stouf
    stouf ·

    Weird... I can't see all the shots... But form the ones I see it's really great, with a super contrast ! And you did a great job on the processing !

  3. gurkenprinz
    gurkenprinz ·

    Hi kips, I usually go for Rodinal 1+50 @ around 20°C for 11 min. Agitation is very low, half a minute at the start and then once a minute - and just softly! How to get more grain: Agitate more (but shorten the time a little) or use it 1+25 (but shorten the time to 6 minutes). How to get even less grain (who would want that?): Use Rodinal 1+100 and at lower temperatures like 18°C. But I havent tried that with this film, so I dont have a time. Should be around 20-30 minutes, though... Now I have to go pray in the Church of Rodinal ;-)

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