Film choice.

mfogiel said:
Your question is incomplete, because you do not mention if it is colour or B&W.
In colour, I feel the only reason to use film is the negative print film like Portra, which is probably the most appealing, but last time I shot colour was many years ago.
In B&W, I feel the main reason for using film is the tonality. Some also do not disdain the grain. If you can stick to MF, you might as well limit your choice to HP5+ or Tri X for a combination of beautiful tonality, good edge sharpness, great exposure tolerance, and a hint of grain. In 35mm there is scope to look at some good delta grain films, as well as at old style ISO 100 films that go well together with Rodinal development. A mention apart would be Acros, for it's reciprocity benefit up to 1 min exposure.
I would say, that before you experiment, stick to one film and developer for a year or two, in order to learn well the basic tricks.
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Thanks mfogiel. I deliberately did not distinguish between mono and colour, just film in general, with the opening question, as that is another personal choice. I see like me you shoot 100% mono and I like your photos and your flickr uploads very much. I am now in the happy situation that I can shoot Tri-X or HP5+ or Delta400 with predictable results and that pleases me.
 
mfogiel said:
Your question is incomplete, because you do not mention if it is colour or B&W.
In colour, I feel the only reason to use film is the negative print film like Portra, which is probably the most appealing, but last time I shot colour was many years ago.
In B&W, I feel the main reason for using film is the tonality. Some also do not disdain the grain. If you can stick to MF, you might as well limit your choice to HP5+ or Tri X for a combination of beautiful tonality, good edge sharpness, great exposure tolerance, and a hint of grain. In 35mm there is scope to look at some good delta grain films, as well as at old style ISO 100 films that go well together with Rodinal development. A mention apart would be Acros, for it's reciprocity benefit up to 1 min exposure.
I would say, that before you experiment, stick to one film and developer for a year or two, in order to learn well the basic tricks.
Click to expand...

Two things:

1. 400H film is every bit as good, possibly even better, than Portra.
2. Acros has no reciprocity failure up to 2 mins, not 1 min as you stated.
 
I've tried a fair bit of different film but honestly it comes down to price more than anything. I don't think I've yet found a BW film that I've thought was unusably bad, but there are plenty of films I find are prohibitively expensive for regular use.

Most of the time I'm using Fomapan 100 developed in rodinal or Superia 400. I'd like to think I shoot more Tmax400 and Porta400 but looking at the undeveloped rolls of film on my desk says otherwise.
 
Same thing for me, I am mostly driven by price. However if I see a bargain (bulk) I just grab them and start shooting. Usually though I obviously choose Acros.
 
I've shot film since early 1970's and tried all sorts of colour and B&W, slide and print. I've probably shot mostly Ilford films down the years as their factory is a few miles from where I used to live and I had friends who had relatives that used to work there in film's heyday.

These days I'm a bit more promiscuous, film-wise. The one thing I try to do, though, is shoot in what I call blocks. I try to shoot five or ten rolls of something in succession rather than jumping from one type / brand of film to another. That way, shooting different subjects on one block of film allows me to see whether I really like it or whether I prefer something else. At the moment, I'm having a Tri-X period on 35mm. 120 is currently Delta 400.

On the "Travel" thread, there's some stunning shots of Myanmar taken on Kodak Pro Image 100. You can't get that in the UK, as far as I'm aware, but my wife has just bought me a load for my impending birthday. I don't shoot a lot of colour and I doubt I'll get the vibrant colours of Myanmar living in East Anglia. However, if we go somewhere warm on holiday this year, I'm going to give it a run out...
 
I shoot Agfa Precisa because it is the only non-insane priced slide film available, and I rarely shoot anything other than slides in 35mm anymore.

I really like Plus-X and Neopan SS, but alas both of those are gone now.

In 120 I just shoot whatever I feel like at the time.
 
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