Film Washi "W" 4x5

Overview

The 4x5 sheets carry the same emulsion as the 120 roll: an orthochromatic black-and-white layer hand-coated onto Moriki Paper's Tosa Washi, a 28 g/m² Kozo paper, with an anti-curl layer behind it — twelve sheets to a pack. Because the emulsion is orthochromatic (peak 545 nm, high sensitivity to blue, less to green, none to red) the sheets may be handled under a red 575 nm safelight instead of total darkness, which makes holder loading far easier than with panchromatic sheet film. Film Washi's loading instruction is specific: the sheets are more flexible than regular film, so load under safelight with the notch in the upper right corner reading from bottom to top, and make sure the end of the film passes correctly under the top lip of the holder and that the dark slide moves back and forth freely without damaging the film. Nominal speed is 25 ISO, though the maker's own table brackets the working speed from 3 to 25 ISO depending on developer, and the datasheet warns the film does not have a large exposure latitude and is not very sensitive to artificial light; long exposures are no problem, while flash works only at full aperture, close range and set to the lowest sensitivity. Development is a tray process in paper developer under the same red safelight: pre-wash in clear water, 2 to 3 minutes in developer, a plain water rinse with no acid stop bath, fixer until the remaining white emulsion has fully dissolved, then at least 15 minutes in cold clear water with no direct stream on the film. The datasheet rates both texture and contrast as very strong and transparency as medium, so the paper's fibres carry into every sheet; hand coating them one after another creates the small variations Film Washi says contribute to the product's graphic effect, and the emulsion is close enough to a darkroom paper emulsion that the maker says it can also be used as printing paper (grade 3). Film Washi lists "W" among the films that need special handling, so process it yourself or clear it with your lab before shooting. This size is produced in short batches and may require longer production delays, so treat restocks as intermittent rather than continuous.