A good b/w negative film for street use

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tominabox1

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I'm looking for a good quality 200 speed b/w film that I can use for my newly acquired rangefinder. I have Ilford HP5+ and I love it but I'm looking for something cheaper so I can shoot more! Are there any good brands to look at for a cheaper film but with good exposure qualities and some nice latitude?

Thanks guys!

Tom
 
Tri-X rated at 200 has great exposure qualities, I don't shoot HP5+ so I am not sure about price comparisons.

Good Luck,
Todd
 
Tri-x is a bit more expensive than my Ilford stuff but I cant find 200 speed Ilford so not too easy to compare to. I did find some Foma Fomapan 200 speed at Freestyle for 2.50 a roll of 24. Anybody know about that suff?
 
I would just like to be able to crop more of the frame when I enlarge to 8x10. I've been shooting 400 speed and its just too grainy sometimes. I guess a good 400 speed film can probably be just as clean.


pesphoto said:
Why 200 speed. TriX is great at 400 and above. I commonly shoot at 1000asa
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I can see that if you are enlarging it that much and cropping it a lot you might like the 200 speed more. But I dont mind grain if it works with the subject matter.
 
I havent been having much luck with my photos as far as getting finer grain. If I go any bigger than 8x10, the grain just pops out and usually not in a good way. IF I had a film scanner, I wouldnt care much but I dont and I wont be getting one soon..:(
 
I don't know of any 200 speed B/W films. However, you could pull a 400 to 200.
Another option is to use a fine grain developer such as Microphen with 400 film.

Peter
 
Get bulk film for convenience and roll it yourself. And develop it yourself. Cheap is not related to good
 
I cant afford to buy bulk film, way too much at one time. It would be lots cheaper though in the end, I know. I do develop my own film though adn that doesnt cost anything because the school provides developer and the other chemicals

lZr said:
Get bulk film for convenience and roll it yourself. And develop it yourself. Cheap is not related to good
Click to expand...
 
hp5 is great forr 8x10. I dont think you'll find a big difference with 200 films. I do think trix is a little bit less grainy though if you want to try that. I prefer hp5, but I also like trix.
 
Personally, I like Fuji Neopan 400 very much, as well as HP5+. Afaik, there's no ISO200 b&w film neither from Kodak nor Ilford (except the SFX 200 semi-IR film). If price is the matter, then have a look at the chinese Lucky b&w films which were reported not being that bad. Another option is bulk loading. If you're in the USA, try Ultrafineonline they have a big choice of bulk rolls. They also have their own budget film "Ultrafine" bulk and canned, in several emulsions
Didier
 
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You might try J&C Classic 200, not sure about the grain.

As Peter says, you can try a developer with finer grain characteristics, but often those developers contain sulfite as a silver solvent. Grain is reduced, but at the expense of apparent grain sharpness/acutance. So an alternative is to use a developer that works at higher dilutions and is a high acutance developer. HC-110, Rodinal and Ilfotec LC29 are examples.

Keys in using these developers are:

--- back off on agitation; too much agitation gives not-so-nice grain. My routine (with Rodinal 1:100) is 30sec of agitation to start, then 5 sec every three minutes thereafter

--- keep wet times short. When I can, I prefer 24C to 20C, as this speeds up processing (unless the time is short to start with) and reduces wet time. Also I use a rapid, non-hardening fix, hypo clearing agent and shorter (yet adequate) wash time.

You might also consider a ISO 125 film. A slight "push" to 200, if necessary, shouldn't hurt much.
 
One idea is to try a slower film, like fp4, and use a higher speed developer, like Microphen. You should be able to get 160 out of it. But fp4 doesn't have super fine grain to begin with (not for a 100-ish film). But the idea is that using a slower film with a speed-increasing developer will be finer grain, in general, with better sharpness than a higher speed film with a fine grain developer.

allan
 
Thanks for all the tips guys! LIke I said I will be using d76 (its what I get for free) and a rapid fix and then fix and hypoclear etc etc. So perhaps if I dont dilute the developer I can get better results? I've been going 1:1 as per instructions from my professor. I also agitate for the first 30 sec then do 5 inversions every 30 seconds. From what it sounds like, I might be able to get better results with less agitation.
 
You just need to experiment more to find what works for you. I usually agitate about 5 seconds every minute. after the initial 30 sec agitation.
 
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