I’ve just run a roll of ADOX Black and White film (ISO100) through my Nikon F100 camera. I’ve never used Adox film before, in fact I’ve never even heard of it! I ordered two rolls, one rated at ISO100, and one at ISO50 from Stuck in Film.

One of the first things you should notice about ADOX is that, strangely, it is not DX Coded. You need to be sure to set the camera’s ISO manually before you start to shoot with the film.

It’s not the most expensive film, at just £8.85 for a roll of 36 – and it must be popular, for it seems to have sold out quickly enough. It was only when the film arrived, and I had loaded it into the camera, that I found out that ADOX film prefers ADOX Atomal Developer, which again I’d never heard of! And to get Atomal is not easy. I found some at Analogue Wonderland.

It’s a powder based developer, which needs to be mixed before use, and the instructions are not terribly clear. I’d bought enough power for 1 Litre, and that includes three airtight packs, – which thankfully, are clearly marked A,B and C, to indicate the order in which they are to be added. The method is to add 900mls of water at 20 degrees C, then stir in each of the packs, making sure that the powders are properly dissolved before add the next packet. When all three packs are in the water, and energetically stirred, the water is then topped up to 1 Litre. This 1 litre becomes the ‘stock solution’ and apparently, it can be successfully stored for quite some time in that form. 

The Massive Developer App on iPhone sets the development time for ADOX100 at 10 minutes in a diluted stock solution of 1:1. 

Overall, it’s not a bad film for the price, although the limited developer options makes it a little awkward to use. But the grain is fine, and the contrast are acceptable.