Best "All Around" 400-ISO B&W Film & Developer for 35mm B&W Leica "M" Street Shooting

[sparrow6224]

I would add the late lamented Fujipan 1600 @ 800 in Xtol 1:1 or, equally good, divided D76. Very rich blacks.

 

[GSNfan]

Agfa APX 400 - pulled to 200 - developed in Rodinal.

I still have some Agfa APX 400 and hoping Adox eventually brings it back this coming spring.

 

[Harry Lime]

I'm still looking for a film/developer pair that:

- Has good shadow detail at 400 or higher
- Is less expensive per roll than DD-X

I used to shoot Tri-X with DD-X. Great combo, but DD-X is expensive if shoot a lot.

I ended up with:

Tri-X @ 400asa in Barry Thornton's 2-bath or Divided D76 mixed from scratch.
Tri-X @ 1250 in Diafine. A gallon of Diafine can easily handle 50 rolls.

All three developers are dirt cheap and because they are divided developers they are completely idiot proof and produce extremely consistent results.

You can buy chemials here:

http://stores.photoformulary.com/StoreFront.bok

Buy Arista Premium 400 from Freestyle. It's repackaged Tri-X for a fraction of the cost

 

[taskoni]

XP2? It doesn't give you the option of easy home development. We still don't know just how archival that black dye might be in fifty years, or one hundred for that matter. All I know is that I threw out an awful lot of C-22 negatives and many of my older C-41 negatives are probably ready for the landfill too. Maybe a pure black image will hold up better than the tri-color dyes. To me it's not worth the risk. Sorry, Eric.

Well, here's a shot I took on XP2 right after my camera arrived. I didn't wait and processed it as B&W in Ilfosol 3 (1:9) for 22min @ 20C. Don't mind the crappy bokeh...
Now I do a lot of XP2

Eric +1

Regards,
b.

 

[Turtle]

TriX with Xtol 1+1.

D76 or ID11 are kinda similar but will give you 1/3 to 1/2 stop less film speed. Some prefer the look of one over the other but its neither here nor there really.

I love various 400 speed films more than TriX in specific circumstances, but when it comes to one film that really wont let you down, it is TriX. Great at box speed, pushes really well and just bulletproof.

 

[ailardi]

For last couple of years I have used TMax (TMY-2) in TMax developer; my local camera store stocks TMax, but not Tri-X, so when I started shooting B&W again I tried T-Max. Generally, I set the meters to 320 and reduce the recommnended times by a very small amount -- more habit than because of any scientific testing. I find that TMax pushes well to 1600. In years past I used mostly Tri-X in D-76 (1:1) or HC-110 and for a while Microdo-X(1:3). I keep thinking I will give Tri-X a try again, but each time I look at my prints (all of which today are inkjet) I find I am reasonably happy.

 

[chrispoole]

HP5+ in XTOL 1+1 at 20°C. So, so beautiful.

martin

agreed!!!!!

 

[semilog]

I would add the late lamented Fujipan 1600 @ 800 in Xtol 1:1 or, equally good, divided D76. Very rich blacks.

Gorgeous. I've been using exactly that combination a lot lately.

I also like TMY-2 in XTOL 1+1. This is probably my favorite, most suitable for my own work.

HP5 in D-76 is also an old favorite. Will try HP5 in XTOL soon, and am optimistic.

The truth is that any of these setups can work splendidly.

 

[rogerzilla]

Not Tri-X. I don't think it's any good now; 20 years ago it was all I used.

Neopan 1600 is still freely available in the UK.

 

[kram]

I use XP2 super in my Minox all the time (my old XP1 negs from 30 years ago, look fine-darn is it really that long🙁 ) however, I don't like the look of XP2 super it in my Mamiya 7 (weird). I seem to use slower film in my ZI (Delta 100 and Rollei ATP 1.1) so can't really comment on other films.

 

[Field]

It depends...

Street shooting day time? Night time? Flash? People or scenes? How big are you going to blow up the images?

Things I use...

Ilford: Their different stuff offers a slightly softer look that Kodak's Tmax for example, so it is nice for shooting people. The grain is still good enough to enlarge.

Tmax: is almost annoying in how fine the grain is.... It is ok for people to me if you blow it up large. I also do recommend setting your ASA a little lower unless you are just doing shots of something lacking people in them. I prefer 100 ASA for flash work because it is easier to choose the DOF and amount of fill you want (with my vivitar 283). (actually I prefer it for everything, more in a minute) It might be more accurate for true contrast but the problem is true contrast can be awfully boring. Architecture and space... I wouldn't even consider using something else; it is straight eerie.

Tri-X: I never use it, and here is why...

Fomapan 400: One of my FAVORITE 400 speed films... It is cheap, tears super easy if you wind to hard on what you think might be that extra shot... The grain is very high. Why do I actually like it? For $2.80 a roll I get that grainy look at 400 ASA and can totally avoid higher asa's that are almost impossible to use in daylight.

(Yashica GSN, Fomapan 400)

SO what do I recommend? It depends...

I would not even recommend 400 ASA unless you use slower lenses. I hate not being able to control my DOF, I prefer ASA 100 most of time. I am a flash-fill whore though so it never bothers me. Not all of my flash-fill photos come out how I want though.

Decide what you feel your general tendencies are, what your appreciations are... Different films offer different things. After you know what you want them decide on chemicals to best compliment.

 

[smk]

Tri-X or Neopan 400 in mostly DD-X (fine grain, smooth tones), and sometimes Rodinal (for the Rodinal look).

 

[Tom A]

You can't really go wrong with TriX and D76 1:1 for 10 min. I think it is more getting used to a specific film, it's exposure latitude, developing skill etc than which film, which developer. I ended up being a TriX user as that was the film I started with 1957. Could just as well have been Ilford FP3, and later HP 5 and ID 11.
Toronto 1983, Leica M2 and Summicron 35f2 1st version.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I spent a week in Marrakesh in July shooting XP2 Super (via a Leica M6TTL) which pretty much sealed it as my favourite 400 ISO mono film.

 

[Pavel+]

Good to have the usual consensus here! Now that we've solved this question ... which is best the 50 or 35?

 

[Colin Corneau]

you will always get conflicting answers because the result is always subjective. Some like it coarse and grainy, some medium and some like very fine grain and smooth. Some lik high contrast, some normal and some low contrast. So which do you prefer.
The question you should have asked is: Which film+developer combo gives me a certain look and posted a link to an example you have seen. Then you would get answers specific to your aims and not just everyones personal favourites which really means nothiing except to to them unless you have seen their work and like the look of it.

Exactly. Interspersed, of course, with an avalanche of personal snapshots which is more about a person showing off their images than about actually learning something related to the OP.

 

[paulfish4570]

tri-x/arista premium 400 and hc-110, dilution h ...

 

[Peter_S]

Surely there are many answers to this, because - as previously pointed out before - this is subjective.
That said, "allround" for someone who has not found his perfect combination yet and is relatively new to developing, I think easy developing and forgiving characters and the ability to over-/underexpose are something to look for.

There are some classic recommendations and they have shown here too....mainly Kodak Tri-X + HC-110 or D76 and Ilford HP5+ with DD-X or HC-110. I prefer HP5+, but shot at ISO 800, dev. in HC-110. I never warmed up to Tri-X (and it curls, HP5+ dries flat)

For ISO 400 I personally prefer Neopan 400 in DD-X.

In the end you need to try around. "One film one developer" is a nice concept, but finding that "one" is a journey...I gave up on that all together, and have now rather a "one film one developer" for each ISO.
For street (not that I shoot that much anymore) I prefer FP4+ in ID-11 over any ISO400 stuff.

Good luck!
Peter

 

[Ronny]

Tri-X D76 1:1

 

[Messsucherkamera]

Tri-X and D-76 at 1:1 dilution.

Amen to that.

I had the good fortune to take a week long workshop with a well known Magnum photographer. During the course of the week, I asked many questions. One was "in your experience, what is the best B&W film for documentary and street photography? "

His reply was direct and unequivocal: Kodak Tri-X is the greatest B&W film of all time."

I cannot disagree with this august gent's assertion.