800-1200 ISO B&W Film/Developer Tradeoffs

[bwcolor]

I'm thinking of mostly 35mm scanned and wondering where to start when needing to shoot in low light.

What film/developer/time/agitation etc are you using when wanting:

1. Long tonal range
2. Fine grain
3. Maximum Sharpness or Resolution

I list these in numbered sequence, because I recognize that they are not all obtainable in one film/developer combination.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Tmax 3200 at EI 1600. 800 or 1200 isn't really enough speed for low light. Develop in Tmax Developer 1+4, 75 degrees (24C), 8 minutes. Agitate first 30 seconds, then 4 inversions every minute.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Slower film > finer grain

Fine grain developers > lower speed

Speed increasing developers > bigger grain

A slow fim in a speed increasing developer is usually finer grained and often within 1/3 stop of a faster film in a fine grain developer, e.g. FP4 approx 200 in DD-X, HP5 approx 250 in Perceptol.

You can't have it all: speed, fine grain, sharpness, tonality. Personally, I prefer Delta 3200 to TMZ: 1/3 stop faster in most developers, sharper, better tonality, but coarser grained. At 1600 in DDX or Microphen it's 1/3 stop over true ISO and tonally very nice, and I'm quite happy with it at 2000 or 2500. At 3200 you start losing the shadows and the tonality isn't as smooth but I'll sometimes put up with that (and with 6400 and higher) for dramatic effect. Or HP5 is very good at 800 in DD-X: again, only 1/3 stop over true ISO.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Tim Gray]

Tonally go with one of the high speed films. Ilford 3200 or TMZ. I prefer TMZ. Neither are fine grained. If you want to minimize grain with these films, pick Ilford and shoot it on a medium format camera. I'd shoot at 1600 for normal purposes and go to 3200 only if you have to. But if you do, don't fret over it.

Another option is Tri-X in Diafine. You can get a convincing 1250 out of it, it's going to be much less grainy than any of the 3200 films (which as we all know aren't actually 3200 speed films). Contrast will be different since its a compensating developer. Then again, you could always shoot it at 800-1600 and push it in a speed enhancing developer like XTOL.

As far as Neopan 1600, I don't like the look of it. It's finer grain than the other two high speed films, but its also slower. I wouldn't be surprised if Tri-X was almost the same speed. From where I stand, people who tend to like Neopan 1600 tend to like the contrasty pictures without much shadow detail that result. Which is fine, but just illustrates that 1600 is a decent push for that film.

I've also heard good things about the new T-Max pushed to 800 or 1600. Going to be the finest grained of all these options most likely. Also going to sacrifice some shadow detail.