Fuji Super HR-21

This whole journey started with finding a 110 camera at a thrift store, and finding out I can’t really buy bulk film for it easily. Cutting your own perforations, or using a 16mm cinema film is possible, but much more tedious in a sense. This search brought me to the Minolta 16 line of cameras, and how they do not need sprockets on film. I found the cameras, but what about the film. There was plenty of old stock 16mm film and expensive alternatives, but I wanted something cheaper and somewhat in date. Eventually, I discovered the world of MICROFILM and its various uses in document reproduction to espionage. The microfilm Fuji Super HR-21 is dirt cheap and there is a good reason for that. It took a lot of testing at various ISO settings, different developers, development times and techniques.

The Struggle

Fuji Super HR-21 is a black and white medium speed film. It’s intended use is for copying and archiving documents on rotary and planetary microfilmers, whatever that is. This film is surprisingly still made today for this purpose, and there are a handful of other microfilms that Fuji makes for this purpose as well. It’s also intended to be developed by proprietary Fuji chemicals, so there is no officially posted ISO or development times. A few people online have tested other Fuji HR films, but what I gathered is that everyone had their own method and times. I based my testing off of a lot of these times, keeping the same ratios they had as a starting point. So buckle up because this was one hell of a journey, and a long one too.

The first Test

On my first roll I chose to base my tests off of a ratio and ISO I found on another blog post for a different HR film. I was using a different developer and film, so I converted the times the best I thought made sense. I shot the HR-21 film at and ISO of 25 indoors, with and without a flash, and stand developed it in HC-110 at a dilution of 1:79 for 44 minutes. These negatives were super small and scanning was a whole other challenge. I eventually went with taping the negatives to the glass as my go to method, and it worked well enough. Not the most amazing pictures, but I was excited to see if anything would show. I was floored that I got any image at all. Light leaks and dust seemed to plague my first roll as well, but only on some pictures. Overall the images were way too underexposed, except the one I took with flash aiming at the floor (there are some grays in there), and frankly, that gave me hope to carry on with the testing.

The second test

For my next round of testing, I went outside on an extremely sunny day to hopefully encourage some better exposures. I took pictures of a variety of things but wanted to see if I could get fine detail on the film. I decided to stick with the same developer ratio but a slightly longer time for the second test (HC-110 at a dilution of 1:79 for 60 minutes). A few more decent pictures came out of this roll and with a more even exposure. The dust problem got better and I didn’t have a light leak this time around. Fine detail was present in most pictures and I seemed to be getting closer to proper exposure. I also ran into the problem of low shutter speeds and shaky pictures, but that was a me issue. The picture of the railing got my hopes up that I was on the right track. Detail is present, there are grays, and the exposure is very close to what I’m looking for.

The Third test

It never occurred to me that there might be a dedicated Fuji developer for the film. I looked into the emulsion number and found out it's developed hotter than normal black and white developer. I finally found a spec sheet for the film and it stated that the film was medium speed. That indicates an ISO of somewhere around 100 to 200. I got perfectly usable images at 6-12 ISO stand developing for around an hour, so if I was able to consistently keep the chemistry hot, I could really cut that down or even push the film in development.

I tried a different developer for a quick test for whether or not the film could be pushed in developing. I decided to try out a new form of developing altogether, a test of two things you could say. I tried pushing the film three and a half stops in Caffenol LC, or a low contrast Caffenol Recipe. I cut the recipe by four and ended up with 4 grams of washing soda, 3 grams of vitamin C powder, and 10 grams of instant coffee in 250ml of water. With this I let the mixture sit for five or so minutes before I agitated for a minute and let it stand develop for eight hours. Quite a long time and I did have to wake up in the middle of the night to finish the process, but the results were promising.

I exposed the shots around 100-200 ISO and developed for ISO 200. Quite a bit of staining from the instant coffee, but workable images. There was a bit of vignetting on the negatives as well, which was most likely for the rigged up tank I’ve been using. Next time I would probably go with 12 hours, being that Caffenol is finicky and they seem a stop or two underexposed. But this test goes to prove my theory that the film can be pushed in development, and produces usable results

The Fourth And final test

This last test I intended to find a way to get workable images at a medium ISO with development that did not take a whole day. I develop my own color film at home, and I recalled that the processing time varied on temperature. My searches led to a complicated chart of how film development time changes with temperature. Thankfully there was an online calculator where I was able to find the changed time if I increased the temperature.

Same with C-41 processing, to have this work you need a consistent and accurate source of heat. This prompted me to finally buy a Sous Vide. This device is used in an alternative method of cooking. The Sous Vide heats the water to a specific degree and circulates it to keep the water temperature consistent throughout. I was skeptical of how the negatives would turn out but willing to give it a try. But as you can see, this did not work very well. There is an image present, but the negative seemed to be a strange color and very dense. I was not able to get decent results with this method but I do believe that it can be possible, but with a lot of tweaking and more experimentation involved.

The Results

Fuji Super HR-21 is a ridiculously high contrast film that was not intended to be shot in a consumer camera. There was minimal information from Fuji on the film and not very clear developing instructions within online forums. With just over a month of testing, I figured out three ways to get perfectly workable images from this film, and discovered three methods you can use to develop this film.

Method 1

• Shoot the film at an ISO of around 6-12

• Use a low contrast developer and dilute it significantly

• Stand develop to further reduce contrast

• Recommended Formula 1:100 HC-110 at 68 degrees for 70 min (agitation first minute)

Method 2

• Shoot the film at an ISO of around 100-200

• Use a low contrast developer and dilute it significantly

• Stand develop to further reduce contrast

• Push the film in the development stage

• Recommended Formula 1:100 HC-110 at 68 degrees for 8 hours (agitation first minute, optional at halfway)

Method 3

• Shoot the film at an ISO of around 100-200

• Use a low contrast developer and dilute it significantly

• Heat up the chemistry to speed up the development time (The heat needs to be consistent and accurate for this to work properly)

• Recommended Formula 1:100 HC-110 at 120 degrees for 15 minutes (This is an estimate, results may change with temperature)

These options result in equally the same quality of image, but all are somewhat viable. If I were to choose the best option, the safest bet you have is the first method, shooting at a low ISO. The other options are usable and workable, but it takes a bit more setup, time, and experimentation. This was an incredible experiment to do and hopefully doing these tests will help someone looking for development times. I am unsure if these methods work on any other Fuji HR film or microfilm, but I would say that it’s a decent starting point if you are looking for development tips.