What's your fav MF film?

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bawang

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Perhaps this question has been asked before. I received my TLRs over the weekend and quickly went to the shop to get some films. Unfortunately, the only surviving brick/mortar photo shop here does not have any 120 in stock. That leave me no option but to go online. Being a MF newbie and the bewildering choices available online, eg. Freestyle, I am seeking advise from the more experience users here. I would one day process my own BW, but for now they will have to go to the labs/or Walmart for color.

Anyway, what would be your film/s of choice for what kind of photography?

Thanks.

KBZ
 
I really like Portra 160NC for slow speed and Fuji Pro800 Z for higher speed.
The first renders amazing skin tones. The second has very good colors and is also suprisignly sharp.
Can't recommend BW film, since I hardly use them.
 
david.elliott said:
Well, what kind of photography do you do?

Low light? Plenty of light? What subject matter?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the question.

Being purely hobbyist, I really don't' have any specific type of photography or subject. When using 35mm with 24/36 exposures, I guess, if the film in the camera is for low light, I would probably leave it at home if I am going to the park on sunny day. But 120 with only 12 exposures, I would probably be able to change film speed a little like DSLRs (just not on the fly as digital). Perhaps you can list down you fav for low light as well for well lit situations. With my DSLR I do take a lot of family and travel pictures.
 
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B/W: I like Agfapan 100 or 400, Ilford Pan F and FP4

Color: Kodak Portra 160NC, especially for portraiture

Color slide: Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX
 
In B&W you would be best off to start with something very forgiving, so either XP2 (expose at ISO 200), or if you want to process yourself one day, Tri X . In colour, abstain from slides as they are more difficult to expose correctly, use a 400 ISO colour film from Kodak or Fuji and rate it ISO 200 for best results.
 
In 120, I have only used Fuji 160s and 800z. I really like both of them. 🙂

You could go to flickr or flickriver (easier to use for browsing in my opinion) and search for some examples there.
 
Trix-320 or Ilford Delta 400. Once your negative size increases, you pay less of a penalty in terms of grain, even at moderate enlargements (e.g. 10x10). I tend to use MF cameras hand-held and I like the extra stop of speed. It compensates for the fact that most MF lenses are a little on the slow side (f:2.8 being the blazing speed king on a Pentax 6790, a Hassie 80, a Rolleiflex 80 and so on). I find sending out color 120 to be developed to be a pain -- I prefer to develop my own -- hence B&W).

Ben Marks
 
All of the Portra varieties are pretty great, and I would definitely recommend trying slide film. If you can limit yourself to gentle morning or afternoon lighting situations, Velvia, Sensia, Ektachrome, etc. can be incredible, and each with its own character...
 
With MF you have to stop down a little more to get the same 35mm depth of field (which you can't see on a TLR). Also, your lens isn't as fast as your 35mm -- if you are doing low-light street photography. So for these reasons, you may need a faster 400 speed film to start with.

Slow 120 slide film (with TLR parked on a sturdy tripod) will cream just about anything else you've done, however.
 
Color - I really like the new Ektar 100

B&W - Ilford Delta 100 and XP2. The nice thing about XP2 is that it is quite forgiving and has incredible latitude. It might be a good film to start with. It also is C-41 and can be developed at a local lab, if you have any in your area that do 120 still. It also looks great if developed long stand with Rodinal.
 
My MF work is studied with a slr - and on a tripod. I shoot Ilford Delta 100 and process it in Ilford Perceptol. Virtually no grain, and lovely grey scale. Prints easily on Ilford or Kentmere FB VC.

In 35, I shoot Delta 400 in the "walk around" rf camera and Delta 100 in the big slr beast. The Delta 400 gets good old D76 1:1.

Cheers

Morry Katz - Lethbridge Alberta
 
Tri-X, HP5+, Plus-X, Acros, Ektar. For 135 and 120 both.

Reala, Velvia and 160NC are good, too, but they're not my favorites (for my particular needs).
 
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