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Which film and why ?
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Prompted by damien’s sell of of 35mm film here and he’s only using Tri-X, I was wondering which film(s) do you use
and more interestingly perhaps why ? What properties do they have which makes you choose them etc… ?An interesting question..
Seeing Selbastiao Salgado’s work shot on Tri-X, has been the most visually impressive black and white imagery I’ve experienced. Twinned with it’s classic usage by photojournalists of a certain era and the images created with it, have meant Tri-X has always been one of my favoured films for its look. As most, I experimented with various films at first, but having now found a very reasonably priced supply of TriX, I am now quite happy to shoot just this one film for the most part, as I seek to reduce the variables in my workflow from camera to darkroom.
For the most part, I think it will come down to a choice of the main 400 iso films out there for most people, at least if you shoot handheld. 400 iso offers the great flexibility to be able to shoot in available light both outdoors and indoors with the same film, from 1/500 f16 to 1/15 f2.8 respectively, and the choice was always between HP5, Tri-X and Neopan400 for me.
Ultimately it comes down to the look you prefer, and think it will be quite interesting listening to people talk about what drew them to their film(s) of choice. I definitely want to explore the looks offered by other films, but for now I am happy shooting just Tri-X developed in D76 :)
On a related note, it will be interesting to see the effect of film format on peoples choices, with the effects of processing and enlarging differing by format, and often resulting in many people preferring an emulsion in one format, but perhaps not another..
i have a couple in my bag on my holidays
fuji pro 400
ilford delta xp2why – well they were the ones they had in the shop :-)
do i understand any more than that, well one is B&W & one is colour, that enough :-)
I am impressed Steve, last time I looked for film on holiday, I was lucky to find iso 200 colour negative film and that was in Disneyland! :)
I have a lot of Acros 100 which I am planning on keeping for
the Mamiya645.I plan on doing some long exposures, I believe Acros 100 does
not suffer from Recriprocity failure the same as other B+W film.I use Shanghai 100 in the Holga for bright days as its goosd and
cheap and doesnt curl much.Other films I use a lot are the Fomapan films 100, 200 & 400.
All in 120 format
My favourite film is Ilford Delta 400 which I now use in both my 35 mm cameras and my XPAN. I develope it in stock ID11 and I nearly always like the results. There is very little grain and I like the contrast that I obtain. My other film of choice is Kodak HIE (now long out of date) until it runs out.
The fuji films really are in a different class when it comes to reciprocity failure it seems. Believe Neopan 400 is similar to Acros in that respect too. I think if I ever get around to some b&w night shooting, it would almost definitely be Acros 100 for any tripod exposures.
In all, I like the gritty edginess that is possible with the fuji b&w films, in particular Neopan in 400 and 1600, and are both emulsions I would consider when exploring some night time street shots in the future.
At the moment, I need an iso 50/ 100 film for some daytime shooting, and am considering Kodak Plus-X as a complimentary film for the Tri-X I shoot mainly. Either that or a 2/ 3 stop ND filter to lower the effective iso of Tri-X for daytime shooting. Another Kodak film that interests me is the 5222 Double-X movie stock film, which gives a great classic b&w movie look, but you would need to roll your own, ala bulk film loading, so thats perhaps more an academic curiosity for me at the moment.
Re: Delta, found the few rolls of Delta I shot almost glistened when put on a light table, and was very impressed. I believe Delta 400 in Xtol is supposed to be particularly highly regarded, but more in the vein of a modern, clean black and white look.
The other Ilford emulsions I’ve liked also, and the tonality offered by the likes of HP5 and Delta 3200 really is beautiful, although for my tastes I found the darker look and feel of some of the Kodak and Fuji films more to my personal taste.
Whats the Shanghai film like, by the way? Is that the same film as the Lucky branded films ?
mainly ilford delta in 35mm, 120/620 and 4×5. before that HP5 across the formats, have also used and liked neopan and fujichrome for slide I shoot very little colour negative but normally grab fuji when I do. also intend to fire a few rolls of Kodachrome while the chance is there.
For b&w I tried a few films but settled on Neopan, I like the tones. And while I usually use ISO400 (for street), I also use 100 (acros) and 1600 and so get some consistency across a range of films.
The Fuji Pro Color films are probably my favourite all purpose colour films. They have strong but natural looking colours
Ektar 100 is great too, I have used it a lot, bright colors and fine grain.I tried some film Shanghai, very dodgy, the emulsion can be scratchy, but the most annoying thing for me was that I couldn’t see the numbers through a red window.
MartinOC wrote:
I tried some film Shanghai, very dodgy, the emulsion can be scratchy, but the most annoying thing for me was that I couldn’t see the numbers through a red window.
Heard this about some of the cheaper Asian and sometimes east European films, with regard to the emulsion being weak enough at times, and wonder if using hardener when fixing the film would help there. Many films in the past required the use of a hardener at the fixing stage, but this almost went out of fashion as emulsions became tougher, and didn’t require it such hardening.
This is an interesting thread, interesting answers too-
All time favourite film is Polaroid Type 55, though I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to say that-
I’m rationing out my last sheets.Imperceptible grain, skin tones that glow, and that border that challenges you to compose full frame.
Fomapan in sheet- I’m using 100 now, the 200 is out of stock while they search for a replacement component.
recently it has been showing some defects, pinholes in the emulsion, which isn’t good, but probably acceptable at the price, for what I do.
Not very noticeable in contact printing, easily fixed in photoshop for enlargements.
Good tonality- bad reciprocity.
There’s rumored to be a 400 T-grain film coming soon, I’ll definitely be trying that-I did try Shanghai once, not a bad film, definitely worth a go, provided you’ve not already made a decision to stick with the big three.
I usually buy 120 film in batches- the most recent three being Tri-X, Neopan 400, and Fomapan 400. Also a little dabble in Ilford SFX.
All good films, though I only scan those- I’m sure an enlargement might see me choose a favourite more easily-Interesting that Damien mentioned the gritty edginess of the Neopan, I found it to be the smoothest of the 400 films.
Chemistry and developing technique counts for as much as the choice of film itself, I developed mine in Hc-110, dil. H.
Right now I’m back to D-76, and it’s working well with the Foma-jb7 wrote:
Interesting that Damien mentioned the gritty edginess of the Neopan, I found it to be the smoothest of the 400 films.
Chemistry and developing technique counts for as much as the choice of film itself, I developed mine in Hc-110, dil. H.
Right now I’m back to D-76, and it’s working well with the Foma-It is an interesting film alright, and I should probably qualify my comments to 35mm, where it can impart a great sense of darkness in some of the broody 35m street work I’ve seen from it. Gritty was probably the wrong word to use, as I meant to refer to the mood of the images I’ve seen from it, rather than the grain which seems to be rather smooth.
The effect of format can be quite interesting, with the lesser degree of enlargement required from 120 and larger negatives, often peeling back the layers of an emulsion to reveal other distinct aspects of its personality. I have read of many people who love a film in 35mm, but do not like the same film in 120, and vice versa. I feel like that with regard to 120 films, that despite having formed my own impressions of certain films in 35mm, those films are probably quite different in 120.
Sounds like a great idea to buy blocks of a film at a time. I’ve only started to do this a while back, and it’s probably the best way to get to know a film. Best way to get a good price on film too.
I use mostly 120 films:
Tri-X for handheld in my Mamiya 7 Rangefinder and Acros for my RZ on a tripod. I dev the Tri-X in Tmax but sometimes in Rodinal if I want a grittier look. I dev Acros in Rodinal Special for a fine grained smooth look. With these two films I pretty much cover every type of subject I shoot.
I’ve never done any side by side comparisons of the films above with other films and I’m not too bothered to do so either. But what I did do was proper film speed and development testing, so I know I’m getting the best out of these films and I’m very confident of what to expect when I use them and I like the results I get so feel no need to try others. Although one reason why I might consider another film is cost. I have heard some bad reports on the Foma films but I’ve also heard many (and probably more) good reports so I may give them a try now that Gunns have them in stock.
For Infrared I use Efke Aura as its the strongest of the current IR films available with a look all of its own and I have tried and tested every IR film out there.
For colour I’ve recently tried Ektar as I’ve heard great reports about it but I have yet to make any prints so I can’t comment yet. I have used a lot of Reala over the years and always loved it as an all rounder colour neg film. For Transparency I’ve mostly used Provia as its probably the most accurate colour wise of Fuji’s tranny films.
Good point re: film testing. Always good to know how you like to expose and develop your films to get the result you prefer.
Likewise with price. I need to settle on an iso 400 film in 120, in the next few months, and film cost will definitely be a consideration.
I use Ilford FP4. Why? Because that’s the 100 speed b&w film in 4×5 size that they always have sitting in the fridge in Gunns.
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