One Film Many ISOs, or a few films for different ISOs?

DNG

DNG

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Which is better.....??

Have one film and shoot at at ISO 100-800 or
A few films to shoot at ISO 50-250, and ISO 400-800

I am of the belief that say a 100 ISO film can be shoot at ISO 64-160 for best results that have a good tonal range, and will scan/print better.

I think I am a 2 film guy....
ISO 100/125, and ISO 400 for ISO from 64-800 between the two, and yes I have 2 film cameras with similar primes... SLR with a 28 and 40, and a RF with 28 and 50.

What are your thoughts, and recipes for "1" Film Shooting?
And for "2" film shooting and recipes?
 
I'm a 3 film guy for B&W, 2 for color

FP4 64-200
Tri-400 or XP2 200-1000
Delta 3200 1600-3200

Color

Porta

160 and 400
 
My current favorites:

TMax 100 at iso 50
Plus-X at iso 100 or 320
Tri-X at iso 250 or 400
Neopan 1600 at iso 800 and up.

While it may possible to shoot one film, like Tri-X, at speeds from 100 to 1600 (see mfogiel's results w/ Diafine), I prefer the tonality I get from the films above, each shot w/in a narrower iso range. I mostly develop in Rodinal, although I like the results I'm getting w/ Plus-X at 320 in Diafine.
 
Three films for B&W

Eastman 5231, EI 80-125
Eastman 5222, EI 250-400
Neopan 1600, EI 1600

When the Eastman 5231 is gone (in a couple off years) I’ll probably switch to FP4
 
I've pretty much settled on Tri-X, shooting between 250 and 1600. Mostly in Rodinal.

I prefer to not use too many different films. Seems easier when packing your bag and less thinking to do when reloading.
 
One thing I like about XP-2 is you can get by with shooting the same roll at different speeds with normal processing times. I have had good results with 200 to 800 but have seen others who shot it at 1600 & normal dev. times & was acceptable. Cool film. I don't think Kodak's BW400CN is as forgiving as XP-2.
 
I am leaning towards just having HP5+ in my bag after finishing my Deltas...... again, I could change my mind.
 
DNG said:
<snip> What are your thoughts, and recipes for "1" Film Shooting? <snip>
Click to expand...

I shoot Neopan 400 exclusively as I never know if the next frame is going to be in the direct sun or inside someone's house.

My recipe is a shutter speed between 1/15th and 1/2000th with an aperture of f2 to f8.
 
The slowest film I use is Portra 160NC/VC. It can get quite frustrating at times when I get caught shooting indoors or in low light situations, which is why 90% of the time I use 400/800/1600 films.
 
I shoot mostly Tri-X at 400-800 and Delta 3200 at 1600 these days. I'm mostly an indoor, night, available light guy, so I stick with fast film generally, but I carry an ND .9 with me at all times -- between those three stops (of the ND) and 1/2000 shutter speeds, I can shoot outdoors no problem most of the time.
 
I'm a two-film guy also...it gives the best compromise of flexibility, economy, and simplicity for me. Acros @ 100 and Neopan 400 @ 400, and when my Legacy Pro 400 runs out, TMY2 @ 400-800.

In Xtol 1:1 all three films are about 9 min at 21 deg C, so I can soup them in the same tank. Keeps it simple.
 
Plus-X at 125
Tri-X at 400 (HC-110) or 1200 (Diafine)
Eastman 5222 at 250 (Rodinal 1+50) or 600 (Diafine)

If I did not like Plus-X so much, I could easily get by with 5222.
 
I understand where some photographers style / choice of subject matter may permit a multiple film choices or developing one film to different exposure indexes.

My style dictates one film and one e.i. Below is an example of two photos almost consecutive on the roll and shot within minutes of each other.

f8 at 1/1000th

man-farm-shack-doorway-w-ma.jpg


immediately followed by f2.8 (wide open) at 1/15th

man-woman-farm-shack.jpg
 
The film is my first choice to plan for the type of lighting I expect to be in. Sunny day, cloudy day, night time. The second line of choice is the type of developer to develop the film with. If I was wrong about the lighting condition my subsequent EI and choice of developer can compensate for my ideal results.

Say I load Tri-X on a cloudy day expecting the lighting to stay that way, I planned to expose at 400 and develop it with Xtol. All of a sudden the clouds go away and I have bright sky, I cut back my EI to 200 and develop with Rodinal. The same formula applies to different speed films I think would match different lighting situations.
 
I just realized another reason that I shoot one film, one e.i., one developer is that I do not shoot for individual photos but for a series. My Cuba work over the last year is 100% 35mm Neopan 400 in HC-110. I shot almost nothing but 120 Neopan 400 in Rodinal for 3+ years working on my South Apopka series. My six months on the Daytona Beach Boardwalk was entirely 120 Fujichrome Astia. I want the photos to have some similarity in their look when hung together.
 
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