I finally got around to shooting some Arista EDU Ultra 400 black and white film. I mostly shoot Tri-X or Hp5+ and I am happy with both of them. What convinced me to try out some Arista film was the low price.

For this first time using this film, I decided to shoot it at the box speed of iso 400. I used a Nikon FM and a Nikon 50mm F1.8D lens.

Arista prints a handy development guide inside the box. For development I went with one of their recommendations.

I used HC-110 mixed 1+31 for 6.5 minutes at 68f. Arista recommends agitation for the first 30 seconds and for 5 seconds every 30 seconds there after, for a total development time of 6.5 minutes.

At the 6.5 minute mark I dumped the developer and gave the tank one fill and dump of water at 68f. I don’t use a stop bath.

I then poured in the fixer. Fixer was Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1+4. I fix for 5 minutes with gentle agitations for 10 seconds every minute.

After fixing, I open the tank and set it under the water faucet for a 5 minute rinse. near the end of the rinse I add one or two drops of Kodak Photo-Flo.  I finish rinsing and hang the negatives to dry. I usually give them a gentle squeegee to remove water after hanging.

Arista prints a handy developing guide right inside the box their film comes in. It covers several types of developers and methods. 

In my opinion this is a good bargain priced alternative to Kodak Tri-x or Ilford HP5+, at least when shot at box speed. As for pushing to 1600 ISO or 3200 ISO for night shots, I think I will stick with Tri-x.

Here are some photos taken with Arista EDU Ultra 400.

If you would like to see my Youtube video on Arista EDU Ultra 400, here is the link….

I hope this helps anyone who might be considering this film. It is priced a couple dollars a roll cheaper than Ilford or Kodak. At that price can afford to shoot more film, get more practice and make more memories.

Jeff