Whats your favorite film?

MP Guy

MP Guy

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What do you get th ebest reults with for your type of photography?
 
My current favorites for 35mm and 120 are Kodak Portra 160NC for color prints, especially portraits/people; Fuji Velvia 50 for scenics, and Ilford Delta 100 for B&W. I am about to experiment with Fuji Acros B&W on a recommendation I got online.
 
I tried the velvia the other day for the first time and over exposed by accident by 1/2 stop. The colors are so rich its like beingthere. Now, if I could find somewhere to print them.
 
Someone mentioned online that Velvia is not a 'true' 50 ISO, they suggested shooting at 40 ISO, developing at 50 ISO. I set my Yashica Electro 35 GSN at 40, loaded up the Velvia, and got some great slides back. I'm very pleased!
 
i like to keep things simple and mostly shoot with ilford's delta 3200, usually at 1600.

for bright daylight shooting i use delta 100 or 400.

joe
 
Here are some photos that I took a week ago in Kenosha, Wisconsin - camera used is Yashica Electro 35 GSN, film was Velvia 50 rated at 40 and processed at 50 ISO.

Most of the shots are made using Velvia, some were made with Kodak Portra 400UC. The ones of the streetcar trolley and Lake Michigan were all Velvia.

http://www.growlery.com/kenosha
 
what do you think of the fuji pallette?
too intense for you?

i thought kodachrome was all but gone except for a few users who refuse to give up on it.

shoot any b&w?

joe
 
I'm a Fuji user, but I'm leaning more to Sensia. Velvia is, I won't deny, beautifully saturated, but Kodachrome has a particular warmth I like a lot. It's still available, but you have to look for it.

BTW, for black and white, I enjoy Scala, the Agfa b&w transparency film.
 
ah, scala.
i have a friend who shoots that on occasion and i love the look.
i wish i could afford a medium format slide projector, or find a good used cheap one. i would be more inclined to go thru the pains of shipping my film for processing then.
what do you do with your scala slides? leave them as slides, print them, project them?

joe
 
I usually shoot the 35mm kind. The framing is a bit iffy, in cardboard, so I rarely project my slides. Mostly, I scan them, see to print the images and that really makes my heart leap. It's a dream of a film... I just packed two rolls of it in my bag (I'm leaving for Colombia in a matter of hours), and this morning I mailed the 120 roll I shot yesterday in Chicago.

Now, since I metered the shots with my Sekonic 208, I won't vouch for their accuracy, but I've used Scala with a Canonet and a Contax G1 and on both ocassions I was floored. Great stuff!!
 
sounds pretty good to me.
i will have to try it myself and hope i don't get too hooked.
so, off to colombia, business or pleasure?
no matter what, i hope you have a good trip and hope to see some shots when you return.

joe
 
I'm a Fuji user for colour slides - and a Kodak user (mostly) for B&W.

Colour: Love Provia 100F. Love it. Just got a pro-pack of 400F that I'll try this weekend
(For examples of Provia see: www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg

Also picked up some Velvia 100 that will be interesting to see how they come out.

B&W: In 100 I love Tmax. Tmax-400 unfortunately sucks though. Dreadful. Delta 400 is good but have lately been experimenting with Tr-X 320. We'll see..the jury is still out on the winner in the B&W category...

Did I mention I love Provia 100F? ;-)
 
For 35 mm B&W Delta 100, sure. I like Scala a lot, though.

For negative film, and speaking about 120 format, I've found nothing that beats Portra 160 VC. I don't know what this film does, but in MF its colors and sharpness are outstanding.

For the other formats, simply I haven't tried that much in order to choose a favorite... yet :p
 
For 135 as well as 120 I use Kodak Tri-X exposed as 320 and developed as a 400 film, in HC-110 1:47. With Tri-X the exposure as well as the developer play a big difference...

Every now and the I do some fine-art scenes or portrait with my Bronica RF645, exposing the Tri-X as 200 and developing in Rodinal 1:100 for 20 minutes. Grainless, smooth tonal range and incredible shadow-details.
 
My objective these days is digital B&W prints, my scanner is a Nikon LS4000 and my primary camera is a Leica M6 so these three issues tend to push me ito a particular choice of film - Fuji NPC 160!

* The M6's top shutter speed of 1/1000 forces me to shut down more than I want in daylight with faster films.

* I cannot achieve - with any consistency - good scans of B&W emulsions with the Nikon LS4000

* With a digital darkroom, its much easier to use the colours to move tones rather than make a decision about which filter when you are taking the shot.

* Although not a much exposure lattitude as B&W emulsions, a colour print film is certainly a compromise but much better than slide.

Now, I do shoot slide film from time to time and I have learnt to hate Velvia, only slightly less than Kodak's 100VS. One or two are Ok but I've shot so much of it in the past that I hate looking at image that have a colour palette direct from Fischer-Price Toys! :)

I love Fuji's Provia 100F; tried the 400F and its just too graining when skin is involved but I have liked using this film pushed 3 stops to 3200 and shoot people at night with just street lighting. Nobody thinks youve taken a photo because no flash and 1/125 and 1/250 are not uncommon speeds. Results are often a bit greenish / high contrast / and very grainy but provide an interesting base for a B&W conversion.

regards
 
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Fave

Fave

My all time favoirte was Agfapan 25 but is no longer manufactured. I used to shoot this in 35mm and 120 format for the longest time. Developed in Rodinal (an Agfa liquid concentrate developer, still available thank god) it yielded super sharp and extremely tight grained prints.

Kodachrome 64 Professional emulsion for 35mm chrome films, I enjoy this film allot also.

Tri-X Pan, the stalwart and always in at least two of my rangefinders.

Also been shooting allot of Ilford XP-2 film. It's a C41 processed emulsion (standard color print processing available at any minilab) that yields some half decent black and white prints. This is a monochromatic film that's just processed in traditional color film chemistry.

This is what Hurricane Isabel looked like from a tanker ship on the Atlantic, thought I'd share the seaside view of a hurricane
 
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