Which 35mm B&W Film Has Good Contrast & Tight Grain?

[Steve M.]

This question has been asked in various ways, but I'd like to get some specific input if I may.

Normally I shoot 120 Tri-X and Delta Pro 100. I bought a Leica CL because lugging the TLR around everywhere is a bit of a pain, and I love shooting the little camera. However, my workflow is going towards all enlarger printing, and 35mm gets grainier than 120 pretty quickly. The films I normally shoot in 120 are not going to work well in the smaller format, so I was wondering which B&W films would allow reasonable 35mm enlargements, have good contrast (nice dark blacks), and grain that isn't going to take over the image. In the past I shot FP4, but I think I like the Delta Pro better, at least in 120. For what it's worth I don't like T Max (unless it's for a portrait possibly).

 

[gilpen123]

As you may know good contrast is also a function of lens and developing time. I have good results with 135 mm Neopan 400 and surprisingly the Chinese Lucky Pro 100 is also good but the negative is quite thin and prone to too much bending making it difficult to scan and spool when developing.

 

[mathomas]

You might want to try Efke 50 or 25. From what I've seen the Efke films are capable of really beautiful tones, and I believe the slower speeds have very fine grain. On the other hand, I've shot several rolls of 100, but am having some development troubles, which has caused my negs to be a bit disappointing (a lot of spotting, and a bit more grain than I expect). I'm not sure if it's my chemicals or the batch of film. I won't really know until I develop the Plus-X that's currently in my M2.

You might want to do a flickr search to see other photographs done with Efke.

Here are a couple of mine, anyway, spotting and all:

 

[charjohncarter]

I like my Konica C35 auto for travel. It is all auto, but very protable so I don't have that TLR pain you and I both feel. My favorite with this camera is Tmax 100 which I shoot at 50:

and Tmax 400 (2) which I shoot at 250 or 200:

 

[Roger Hicks]

Delta 100 for sharpness or Pan F for finer grain but less sharpness. Whichever middle of the road dev gives you grain you like. Fine-grain devs give less sharpness and speed; speed increasing devs give bigger grain. Rodinal gves big grain and mediocre speed.

DON'T overexpose, which increases grain.

Cheers,

R.

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

I am using Efke 25 developed in Rodinal 1:25 at the moment. Very, very fine grain with good contrast.

 

[mfogiel]

A good compromise between speed, grain and tonality are films like Plus X, FP4+, Fomapan 200 and APX 100 (Rollei Retro 100). Delta 100 is sharper than all these, but tonally it is quite different, with a much shorter midrange scale. A good developer to get nice sharpness and tones with fine grain would be FX-39. It excels with Fomapan 200 shot around EI 125:

Another intresting combination, is APX 100 shot atound EI 64 in Rodinal 1+50 or 1+100, great tonality and good sharpness:

 

[Ronald_H]

Not that experienced here, but I think for high contrast and fine grain Delta 100 is very hard to fault, also in 35mm. My personal favourite is FP4+ though, more grain, but nicer tonality and more forgiving of mistakes. Fomapan 100 is also nice. Fine grain and good tonality, but I feel it works best at ISO80 or so.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

not sure if this helps. I am been messing with Acros 100 and Plus X and even expired 2005 Tmax 100 with Microdol-x. Very fine grain but also lacking of shadow details.

 

[Pirate]

Rollei Pan 25, made in 135 and 120 formats:

 

[wgerrard]

Is FX-39 Available in U.S., Elsewhere?

Is FX-39 Available in U.S., Elsewhere?

A good developer to get nice sharpness and tones with fine grain would be FX-39.

Not to divert the thread, but we often hear this recommendation for FX-39. Is it available in the U.S., or, for that matter, outside Europe?

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Efke25 can give you some surprise frames with uneven emulsion (a small pinhole on it every few rolls)... Looks like what you need is Ilford's PanF50+, wonderful in Rodinal 1+50.

Other films I use are Agfa APX100, Kodak Plus-X125, and for moder films Kodak Tmax100 and Fuji Acros100,

I use Rodinal for all of them, for crisp grain, clean, contrasty tone and high sharpness... By the way I don't find Rodinal's grain big at all when used at 1+50 16ºC-18ºC.

If you can get some APX, it's an incredible film.

Cheers,

Juan

 

[david.elliott]

Delta 100 for sharpness or Pan F for finer grain but less sharpness. Whichever middle of the road dev gives you grain you like. Fine-grain devs give less sharpness and speed; speed increasing devs give bigger grain. Rodinal gves big grain and mediocre speed.

DON'T overexpose, which increases grain.

Cheers,

R.

Echoing this.

 

[35mmdelux]

Ilford PanF50

 

[Steve M.]

I might try the Ilford PanF50. I've had pretty good luck w/ Ilford films. That Efke 50 looks darn interesting too. The interior shot of the espresso machine has some great blacks in it. Other people have been having trouble w/ the 100, so maybe they had a bad batch or something. Thanks for all the great suggestions guys! Strangely, on my monitor, I like the T Max shots a lot, and that is far from my favorite film from past experiences.

I'll third Roger's advice not to overexpose. Underexposure does really bad things w/ grain too.