pick of film

Adam Muir

Adam Muir

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Jun 13, 2006
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this must have been done a hundred times but I'm new so please forgive me.
what are your favorite film stocks at present, why, and how do you treat it.???

I love Illford Delta 400 because of its fine grain and I generally rate at 800 and push a stop.

like using the amature trany (sensia,elitechrome) and treating it badly (push,pull,cook in car, whatever on the day ) and occasionally rating at correct speed and processing normal. It is very forgiving of my abuse.

If it matters E100GX slightly under exposed and pushed a third for people (good skin tones)and VS or Velvia for anything else(punchy).

EPP rated at 50 and pulled a stop when cross processing because it can't be beat.

And I just suck with colour neg. I have seen good results from NPH though.
 
I have seen good resaults with alot of negative films, expecialy on medium format, but I still have to get good negative shot, I allways get washed out colors and very low contrast, though my wife took nice portraits of me with kodak portra :)
 
Ilford Delta 100, 400 & 3200(rated at 1600) are my favorites, though I'm having some good success scanning XP2 rated at 320. Fuji Reala also scans well for me, not much luck with their new films Pro160S & Pro400H, though they are supposed to be opyimized for scanning, whatever that means.
 
I used to use a whole bunch of different films and developers, but now I'm trying to settle on just a few.

My reasons have to do with availability of supplies, convenience, and ease of scanning (and digital ICE for the 120 film).

35mm B&W
Neopan 1600 @ 1600 in Diafine
Tri-X @ 1000 in Diafine
Tri-X @ 250 in D-76

35mm Colour
Superia 100 and Porta 400 VC

120 B&W
Plus-X @125 in Rodinal
BW400CN @800, push development by 2 stops

120 Colour
Porta 400VC
 
cool, I love this stuff. think I will buy a 4000 dpi scanner in a few days and that may change my choices.
 
I've used Fuji exclusively for years, but will have to try some Portra to see how I do with the scans. It's funny...I frequent dpreview on occasion and read so many 'film is dead' and 'my 3mp p&s is better than 35mm film' posts that my neck is sore from shaking my head so much. Though I have a D200, which I use when needed, film is very much alive and well for me.
 
charlesfoto : I also have D200, and last couple of weeks my mother was visiting me, so I took quet alot of portraits of her, with negatives with slides and with D200, yesterday I printed them out, I have to say film is still alive!! yeah D200 has more details because I scanned my film with coolscan 5000 but slides are amazing (taken with planar 50mm ZM) anyhow I wanted to say that film is alive and it is damn great :)
 
Delta 100, TriX, XP2

Delta 100, TriX, XP2

The past six months I tried a gazillion brands and types of film in a bend backwards kind of an effort to catch-up with what seems to be already known for others. (N.B. I neither scan nor process, so my comments are solely based on how these films actually look to me printed). Here's the résumé of my experience so far:

For B&W I use (a) Ilford Delta 100 for creamy tones and impreceptible grain (b) Kodak TriX for its gritty grain and push properties, and, (c) Ilford XP2 for its sheer versatility and lovely skin tones. It's a pity that Agfa APX100 is not easily available any more as I liked it very much - but, still, I would prefer Delta 100 over it.

For colour negative film, I 'm sitting on the fence. I like the Fuji products, esp. Reala and Superia 800 but Kodak is not bad at all. I 'm not so keen on the Agfa Vista.

For slide film, I am head over heels in love with Kodachrome. With what must be less than a month before the last Kodachrome lab in Europe closes down, I 'm fully aware that I am shooting my first and last frames with this wonderful film :( . When it's gone, it will be business as usual with Velvia 50/100 (punchy colours verging to garish) and Provia 400 (preferable). I also like very much what I have seen from Agfa Precisa 100.
 
Thanks Peter. You 're right to point out that APX is not scarce yet. And you do find it occasionally in Jessop's in the Uk.
 
telenous said:
Thanks Peter. You 're right to point out that APX is not scarce yet. And you do find it occasionally in Jessop's in the Uk.
Click to expand...

Time to pop into the local Jessops stores.

My stuff, B&W neg well Ilford HP5+ (most used and bulk loaded) FP4, Kodak TMAX 400, Agfa APX, Fuji Velvia colour tranny and Agfa vista colour neg. Got some Agfa Ultra colour neg yet to use.
 
most film is still available in New Zealand but bulk 35mm takes time, I havn't noticed any brands becoming unavailable, perhaps it is all coming from asia?no idea really but it is still in most supermarkets and most drug stores still process
( badly ). there are still Pros choosing film for some jobs, still heaps of stock in Pro suppliers and options on processing in the big citys ( 3 )
Plenty of chemicals and paper available.
I do worry that this may change so I'm keeping tabs on things here and hording film as well. heaps of old 120 Tri-X 320 iso in my fridge that is still giving good results.
 
In the beginning I used Tri-x as my normal film for 90% of my photographs, always developed in D-76. Then I slowly lost interest in processing my film and went for color negative, Kodak Gold 400 mostly just because it was availible everywhere and cheap.

A few years ago I started to take B&W pictures again and develop them myself. I tried a lot of different film brands just to se what I could expect. Efke kb50, Efke kb400, Iford HP5+, Ilford FP4+, Fuji Neopan 1600, AGFA APX400, Plus-X and of course Tri-X. Well, they all gave me a good result. If not, it wasn't because of the film.

Now I've just decided to keep it to Tri-X because I just like the result. The only thing my test period gave me was a love affair with Plus-X when light conditions allow it. Really nice greytones and fine grain. I'm gonna keep on using Plus-X in Sweden during outdoor photography in the summer.

I develop most film in X-tol nowadays. It doesn't affect the environment that much they say and I think it is good when pushing the film. If I want crystal crisp sharpnes I go for Calbe R09 (Rodinal).
 
Time to pop into the local Jessops stores.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking the other month. I was shocked: no photographic cameras anymore. It looked like Dixons or Currys. Worse - PC World.

I'm finding it hard to think of why someone would just want one film, rather than a selection.

Miffy Picks:

Slow speed film is great for enlargement and tonal scale --------> Efke/Adox 25

Dev. in Rodinal/Calbe or Neofin Blue

Medium speed film for fine grain and smooth tones ----------------> Fuji Acros

Dev. in Perceptol or Microphen

Faster ISO 400 film ---------------> HP5 [grainy and fast looking]
---------------> Neopan 400 [Finer grain]

In Kodak HC110 (both) or Microphen

Faster film still ----------------------> Fuji Neopan 1600


Medium format fast film -----------> Ilford 3200
(the 35mm is too grainy for my taste)


And for seasonal film ------------------> Maco IR films - support these small guys!

xoxoxox

Miffy

http://carrotblog.livejournal.com
 
BW:
Fuji Acros, Ilford PanF+, Tri-X

Color: ....er? what's that? If I shoot it at all I usually shoot Reala, recently ran some Astia through my M6, nice realistic hues.

Todd
 
PanF 50 and Neopan 400. I rarely find a need for ISO 100.

O.T. Anyone know what slide films are good to push? I have a stock of RDP 100F, I wonder if they can be pushed to 800 or even more.
 
Tri-X in Rodinal. I'm trying to stay with one film and one developer and work on doing interesting things with it. I've been trying to get my hands on some APX 100, though...may just try Fomapan instead. Not yet, though...I have mountains of film in my film drawer yet.
 
well , I have just got a load of chemicals. Sleepyhead, you have inspired and motivated me, and you also Miffy. I bought cheap crap ( jessops universal ) and have no real idea what it is so I'm unsure about processing times. I had to buy a tank, jugs,thermometer,those funny colapsing storage jars, the works. The shop also gave me heaps of old chemicals. I havn't processed for a few years and have only done it a few times but I think I can remember how, but times may be a guess if I cant find info. fun fun fun.
I know digital truth have a lot of info on there site but is there another?

Neopan..? don't know alot, it can be pulled because it is contrasty anyway. Have heard this works well.

E6 to push......Kodak E200 is supposed to be made for this, I find you can do it with cheap E6 a stop no trouble
 
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