Which 1 Film Forever?

That made me reach for my calculator ... by bulk loading my results/savings are as follows:

I shoot twenty four exposure rolls of Arista Premium 400 which I bulk load into used cassettes from the local Kodak one hour ... by doing this as against buying packaged Arista Premium 400 in twenty four exposure rolls I save forty three cents per roll!

That's more than a 'few pennies' laddie! :eek:

Someone in my family was Scottish from memory! :p




Hmmm ... replying to my own post, now that's a worry! :p

I've calculated that the same exercise as the above with Legacy Pro 400 actually saves eighty two cents per roll ... !!!

Bulk loading twenty four exposure rolls with the stuff works out to $1.16 per roll! :eek:

Surely that's cheaper than digital? :angel:
 
I have it on 'good authority' that Arista 100 is (wink, wink) Acros 100, and Arista 400 (wink, wink) is Neopan 400.

Or as I also heard it put, if in other packaging the box just MAY be green.

So, based on that, I think it seems a safe bet it is really Fuji.

And, I would call this a REALLY good source.
 
It is interesting that 3 things happened almost simultaneously in 35m photography that put it on the map, around the mid-50's: the Nikon F came online, the Leica M3 hit and Kodak introduced Tri-X, originally rated, I believe, at 160 or 200, with a heavy-duty exposure safety factor built in!

Plus-X had a rating of 80.
 
I've settled on 2TMY as my "only film" -- for now. If I were suddenly told I could only shoot one film for the rest of my life, though? HP5+, without any question whatsoever. I've already shot more frames of HP5 or HP5+ than all others combined. I know what it can do and I know how to make it do it. But 2TMY looks like Plus-X, even at 640...
 
2TMY:
761072081_eUevz-X3.jpg
 
I tested this month Arista Premium 400, with my Tri-X 400 times for direct sun, overcast, and low light / interiors, all with Rodinal 1:50, exposed (incident) at 50 ASA (yellow filter), 400 ASA (no filter) and 2000 ASA (no filter), and got perfect tonal range for my usual three ways of exposing it: I bet it IS Tri-X and nothing else.

As I wasn't sure it was going to work this good, I just bought 20 rolls (36 frames is better for me) from Freestyle. Next time I'll go for 100 or 200 rolls, because the film is really marvelous... By the way, well exposed and developed in Rodinal, I don't consider it a grainy film at all: very small and sharp, beautiful grain, both for printing and scanning, and the tone is gorgeous.

I have shot dozens of b&w films for years, and nothing comes close to this... It's so cool Tri-X and Rodinal exist... You should buy a lot of Arista Premium 400 without any doubt. If you don't like it, just PM me, and I'll buy it from you.

Cheers,

Juan
 
Neopan 400. It might not push like TriX but it can pretend to be a 100 speed film in the right developer. In fine grain brews is comes close to FP4+ in grain but in regular use makes 400 comfortably with Xtol 1+2 or DDX.

Delta 400 might otherwise get a look in but I have not used it enough. TriX is wonderful, but for me does not have the resolution in small format to be a film for all reasons.
 


Very good find, John!
That is consistent with my experience. After all, how many B&W films turned the developer purple? :p

Don't know about Arista Premium 100 being Plus-X though, isn't PX rated at 125 ASA?

To answer Steve's question, I'd go with FP4 also, although currently I'm enjoying loading 12-frame rolls (approx.) with the bulk loader that I purchased along with quite a bit of Arista Premium 400 in it :)
 
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