Silberra PAN100/ULTIMA 100

Silberra PAN100 is panchromatic negative black and white photo film with ISO value of 100. Extrafine grain, wide tonal range, perfect sharpness and moderate contrast are typical for Silberra PAN100 film. There's also Silberra ULTIMA100 b&w film which is identical to Silberra PAN100, except the thickness of the substrate (the substrate at ULTIMA100 film is thinner, which makes it a bit easier media to scan and print).

Here are the main features of Silberra PAN series:
1) Low noise, low fog level and extremely fine grain are the special features of emulsion used for Silberra PAN films;
2) Silberra PAN films were derived from Agfa films for surveillance, by widening the dynamic range, lowering contrast and saving several specials, which include:

• extremely high resolution and ideal sharpness of the image;
• ability to provide superior detail level through the whole tonal range;
• higher sensitivity for near-IR spectrum of light, which not only provides you near IR-effects when shooting landscapes, but offers you higher detalization in twilights or while shooting the scenes with insufficient light level;
  3) The emulsion is coated upon clear polyester base which offers ultimate stability of the material and perfect optical properties; thickness of the substrate is 0.1 mm and it has excellent antihalo layer on the outer side to grant you an excellent sharpness of the image;
  4) Silberra PAN films have special anti-curling layer, which makes drying much easier (there is no need in additional weights or clips on the bottom of the stripe when drying: the film won't curl);
  5) Special formulae of the polyester base and protective layers provide scratch resistance, prevent water traces and offer in-built anti-static properties, which makes any Silberra PAN film very convenient for hybrid and classic processing;

Silberra PAN films are perfect for use in street photography, portrait photography, landscape and architectural photography. Special features of 2-layer emulsion make this film ideal to use at dusk/dawn, in winter and at complicated lighting ambience.

Developing process (depending on the specific developer) can infuse into final image such features as adamant gloss within bright areas accompanied by highly detailed shadows, or make the final image reasonably even along the whole light spectrum.

Silberra PAN films are optimal for use in natural light. Using the film in artificial light is subject to preliminary tests due to high sensitivity in red and near-IR light spectrum. We recommend shooting several frames and processing those prior to any professional photo sessions in studios. Choosing the color temperature of artificial light sources and their power is vital to obtain predictably perfect results.

Silberra PAN100 is able to provide excellent image at cloudy weather, in fog and at dusk; the final image will have perfect shadow details preserving the overall high resolution (240 lines/mm at 1000:1 TOC contrast).

Officially the exposure range for Silberra PAN100 – 80, 100 and 160ISO. Lowering the sensitivity below 80 may cause loss of reasonable contrast, while increasing the sensitivity over 160 could increase the graininess and noise level.

Using yellow filters provide increased contrast and lowers the overall sensitivity of emulsion. Using the filters you shall bear in mind the next exposition multipliers (besides the coefficient of the filter itself):
Yellow filter - 1.5;
Dark yellow/ orange filter – 1.8;
Red filter – 3 or 4 depending on the wave length of the filter;

Archival capacity of Silberra PAN100 is not confirmed practically; the guaranteed archival storage period thus is stated as over 10 years without image quality loss. Silberra recomends archival storage using special archival file sleevers (triacetate, paper of pergament) in cold (below 20 degrees of Celcium), dry and cool place.