Best film ISO for use with an M-body

[Mcary]

Depends on what time of the year and what I'm shooting.
For street and candid's usually go with Tri-X/AP400 in the winter or AP100 in the summer.
For when I'm shooting a model generally go with the slowest film that allows shooting handled mainly generally ISO 100 speed films,, unless of course shooting in doors under available light in which case its Tri-X at 400 or 800.

 

[Tom A]

I have always found that triX and the M were a perfect match. Slow enough not to run out of speeds or f-stops in bright sun and fast enough to handle even dark and gloomy stuff.
The big advantage with a Rf is that you can handhold it at speeds that a SLR cant cope with (mirror slap). I frequently shoot low-light stuff at 1/8 sec with the 50mm lenses and down to 1/4 sec with wider lenses.
You be surprised how dark it is when you are doing 1/8 sec with a 50f1.4 and 400 iso film.
Modern bl/w film is very good. Check out Tmax2-400 - ten years ago we would have been happy with a 100 iso film with that kind of grain.
In extreme low-light the problem is not film or lens speed - it is simply to find a point of focus that you can lock in.
Of course, if you know that the day will be bright and nice - grab a slower film, but as a general "go to it" film - 400 iso fits my bill.

 

[Pirate]

I was shooting 25 ISO for the last year and only in the last month started shooting 400 with Tri-X, 2TYM, and BW400CN. I'm really liking the 400 ISO. It does show itself as an all around best so far.

 

[softshock]

If I needed to shoot with only one film, I'd use P3200 TMZ as I almost always end up doing everything at night.

 

[jsrockit]

ISO 100 for me when using a f/2 lens and 1/1000th camera in bright light. Too fast at times for wide open still though.

 

[Michiel Fokkema]

I've used iso 25 to 3200 and they all fitted very well. Just depends on what you're going to sdhoot and which lens you use.
But before I had the 35/1.2 I moslty used 200-400 iso. Now with the 35/1.2 it's changes to 50-100.

Cheers,

Michiel FOkkema

 

[johannielscom]

Bright light, sunny outdoors: RolleiRetro 100 rated @ 80.
Regular light, overcast days: RolleiRetro 400 rated @ 320.
Low light , indoors, etc: RolleiRetro 400 rated @ 1600.