Film solutions

[kentdunne]

Thanks for all the follow-up guys! I think I'm going to order a good amount (probably 50) of the Astira 400, and be good for the next year or so.

You guys rock!

 

[Chris101]

Cool Kent. I found Arista Premium 400 to be very similar to trix in speed and grain qualities. In my own testing, I found it to be slightly contrastier than trix. Wet prints, scans and inkjet prints all seem to have about a quarter of a grade more contrast than trix for the same development time.

As pointed out by Marke above, be sure to order the Arista Premium 400, as there are several 400 speed Arista films.

 

[Chris101]

... I'm not a real fan of buying things like film and chemicals over the internet, because that just leads to threads like "My photo store no longer carries film 🙁"
...

I hear you on that. I buy all of my Kodak and Ilford film, paper, and chemicals, as well as most hardware, locally. I'll talk to them next time I buy about carrying Efke 25 and 820 films. Arista is a Freestyle exclusive though, and I wouldn't want them to go out of business either!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You can save money by shooting less! Be more careful and selective about what you shoot and just shoot less frames. Unless I'm at an event or on a trip I shoot less than one roll per month.

Wow. I've shot over 100 rolls this year, which is my average. Some years I have shot as much as 200. Of course, I mostly shoot 120 film, 12 or 15 exp. to a roll, so that's like maybe 30 rolls of 35mm film in a year. I don't think I could do just one 36 exp. roll a month!

 

[mh2000]

Not really... more like shooting "enough" to learn from, not "the more you shoot the better you get;" look at all the digital hackers that shoot 1000's of shots a month... I know a number who are not getting better at all.

I personally find that the better I get the less I shoot... and the more good photos I get. A little experimentation is a good thing, but a lot of experimentation becomes distracted nothing...

>>BTW the way to get good is by shooting more, not less ...

 

[noah b]

Check ebay for film and www.ultrafineonline.com for good deals too. Bulk loading isn't too bad, sometimes film already loaded ends up cheaper. Either or is nice.