Film Speed: indoors

[Huck Finn]

I'd like to shift the focus of the film speed thread to specifically talk about film speeds for indoors.

Does anyone have a film rated 800, 1600, or 3200 that you're happy with? I'm interested in both B/W & color.

I prefer not to shoot slower than 1/60 for hand held shots & not faster than f/2 & am looking for something for a wide range of purposes.

Thanks,
Huck

 

[pshinkaw]

I've been using Fuji 1600 color negative for basketball games. In the newest high school gyms around here it enables me to shoot at 1/125@5.6. That works well with a 135mm lens.

-Paul

 

[rover]

I have moved to Tri-X at either 1250 or 1600 which I can develop in Diafine. I would love to have a fast color film of quality that you don't have to worry about the temp of the lighting, but I haven't found one to my liking.

With the Tri-X I keep my yellow filter on the lens for an effective speed of 640ish or 800. I can keep at least a 1/30s speed like this, which I don't mind. You can drop the filter if you need a faster shutter. I have not done a lot with Delta 3200 or TMZ, but I have been casually looking for some DD-X which I think would be the best developer choice to push these films to 3200 or more if I want to go really fast. That will be my next experiment.

 

[JohnM]

Same exact deal as pshinkaw - I used color Fuji 1600 to shoot basketball games. The results are perfectly acceptable - I've even gotten decent results from a college basketball practice where they had perhaps 1/3rd of the bank of lights on in a 10,000 seat arena.

I haven't really used it anywhere else, but I'll give it a shot over the long weekend coming up.

 

[Max Power]

I was forced into pushing Delta-400 to an EI of 3200 once. I was shooting f1.7 @ 1/30. I developed in DD-X. I was surprised that it actually worked quite well.

Kent

 

[Kin Lau]

Colour film, Fuji Superia XTRA 800. I pick up multi-packs of 3 or 6 at the local grocery chain for about CDN$3- per roll. I've been pushing HP5+ in Microphen for 800 iso, and I'll be playing with HP5+ & TriX in Diafine for 800-1250 iso.

I'll shot a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 souped in Microphen and it's quite nice but it's about CDN$8- per roll.

 

[furcafe]

For B&W, I highly recommend Fuji Neopan 1600. Since I do a lot of night/low-light shooting, it's the emulsion I use most often (if they made it in 120 format, I'd use even more). For C41, I recommend Fuji NPZ because of its ability to handle mixed lighting or, if you want to save some money, Fuji Press 800, which is similar to NPZ. I used to like Kodak's Supra 800, but their current Portra 800 (don't know if that's still the current designation) is OK, too. I've shot a few rolls of Fuji Superia 1600 & while it was surprisingly good compared to what I was expecting, IMHO, it's noticeably inferior to NPZ, even pushed NPZ (graininess, ability to handle different color temps, etc.) & only worth using in extreme situations.

 

[vincentbenoit]

B&W: Fuji Neopan 1600.
Colour: Fuji Superia XTRA 800.

 

[nwcanonman]

I'll also recommend Fuji 1600 Superia Color film. As someone who tried 800 film 20 years ago (it looked like prints-on-sandpaper), I'm happily amazed at what the new 1600 looks like.
This was during our dark Northwest winter, in the dark woods.

 

[wlewisiii]

B&W: Tri-X@1600 in Diafine
Color: Fuji Supermarket (aka Superia XTRA) 800

William

 

[Roger Hicks]

Mono: Delta 3200. True ISO (see the free ISO module in the Photo School on www.rogerandfrances.com) about twice that of Tri-X or even HP5 and maybe 50 per cent greater than Neopan 1600: about 1250 in DDX. It pushes well (for my taste) to EI 3200; 6400 and higher are only for when you have to. But then, 1600 is only 1/3 stop push in DDX, whereas Tri-X @ EI 1600 is around 1-1/2 stop push.

ISO 400 films usually look nasty to me beyond about EI 1000 but a great deal depends on your subject matter.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[jtzordon]

Neopan 1600 & NPZ 800.

 

[dmr]

Does anyone have a film rated 800, 1600, or 3200 that you're happy with? I'm interested in both B/W & color.

I prefer not to shoot slower than 1/60 for hand held shots & not faster than f/2 & am looking for something for a wide range of purposes.

I've been happy with the stock Fuji 800 and 1600. This shot here (interior of casino) was shot with Fuji 800, 1/60, auto exposure but smaller than f2 I'm sure:

http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/vegas4/0729534-R1-004-0A.jpg

It was taken with the GIII. I've shot Fuji 1600 in the Pentax and I would like to recalibrate the GIII so I can easily use it as well. The jury is still out on that one. 🙂

 

[dmr]

Oh, one thing I forgot. Run, do not walk away from the Walgreens store brand 800 film! <_gag_> To say that it stinks is to compliment it! 🙁 I ran out of Fuji 800 on a recent shoot and bought a roll on a whim and I'm sorry I did. The difference between the Fuji shots and the Walgreens film shots were like night and day. Walgreens was much more contrasty, too grainy, and had very poor solids. 🙁

 

[Roman]

I like the dramatic 'film noir' look of Neopan 1600, but getting away with EI 1600 with this film is always a bit of a gamble, even with my favorite 'full film speed' developer, Calbe A49; I#d rather shoot NP1600 at EI 1000, if there is enough light.
If there isn't, I like to shoot TMax3200 at EI 3200, Calbe A49 1+1, 20 to 22 min. (20°C); it is grainy, sure, but I like the look.
I have seen nice results from Delta 3200 from other people, but it never worked for me - I always got mushy pics without good sharpness.

Roman

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think I have a different idea of what "indoors" may mean. Indoors during daytime, when daylight may come in, ISO 400 works reasonably well.

For daytime indoors, BW: Ilford XP2; Color: Fuji 400 or Press 800.
For nightime indoors, BW: Tri-X @ 1600 for Diafine dev; Color: Fuji Press 800 (I can hand-hold reasonably well at 1/4 sec. if I'm not too strained)

I never push; never ever (Diafine is effective push, but not in a conventional sense -- it's a compensating developer). Pull, maybe, sometimes.

 

[Huck Finn]

Yes, Gabrielma, I was talking typically about indoors at night - or indoors when no daylight is available.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'll be busy!

Huck