Film Washi E 4x5

Overview

"E" is an industrial phototooling stock — the film PCB imagesetters expose to make printed circuit board masters — which Film Washi buys by the industrial roll and cuts into 4x5 sheets, twelve to a pack. Because those imagesetters write with a red laser, the emulsion is red-sensitive with a stated maximum around 700 nm and no sensitivity to green whatsoever, the mirror image of an orthochromatic film. So the darkroom rule inverts: the datasheet specifies a GREEN 500 nm safelight, and the red safelight you would normally load ortho sheets under will fog this film. Load holders under green light or in complete darkness — bottom to top, with the notch in the upper right corner. Film Washi rates it 3 ISO / 6° DIN with very fine grain and strong contrast, machine-coated onto a blue polyester base 175 µm thick, about twice the 100 µm base of its other converted films; the sheets are noticeably stiff and the finished negative carries a blue transparent base rather than a clear one. The maker publishes no developer, dilution or time — its only processing instruction is that the film can be processed like a classic RC photo printing paper, which makes tray development the natural approach. At ISO 3, exposures are long: sunny-16 arithmetic puts a bright sunlit subject at roughly a quarter second at f/16, so the tripod is not optional, and green areas of a scene record very dark — Film Washi recommends the film for still life and portraiture rather than landscape.