Response to best grain in 400 speed?

Yes, Fortepan films generally have more visible grain than other films, BUT their emulsion is rich in silver, thus giving beautiful separtion and a superior grayscale compared to many of the modified crystal films, suchas Delta or TMAX. They respond very well to different developers and that way they can be finetuned towards high accutance or (relatively) low grain. Calbe A49 (previously mentioned) is the best developer for fine grain and speed output. It is based on good old AGFA Atomal F and achieves its fine grain effect by using an agent also used in colour developers. You can order this excellent developer from Fotoimpex Berlin (www.fotoimpex.de). They mail to the US for little money, since they send parcels in a container to the US and US customers basically only pay domestic postage. Still Forte is not my favourite film and I would not recommend it, since there are better alternatives. Forte papers are excellent, their line of film could be improved. Try Fomapan T200 /Paterson Acupan 200 (it is the same film) if you can sacrifice a little film speed. It has phantastic grayscale and high accutance (which the TMAX or Deltas do not have) and it does not compress the midtones as many modern films do. I get the best results in Calbe R09 (which is "old style" Rodinal and very different to the recent stuff AGFA sells under this name). If you need true ISO 400 (basically no film really gives you the speed you find on the box, mostly it is about half of that) use HP5 developed in Tetenal Emofin (which you can also get at Fotoimpex, also Fomapan T200) or Calbe A49. The grain is very moderate and the "looks" are very pleasing. In overal quality there still is no alternative to classic emulsions. Many modern films may have very fine grain, but they sacrifice other qualities.

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