Which is your favourite 35mm B&W film?

I realy want to say what ever 400plus I can get for as little or no money as possible 🙄 , but I like the option to shoot lots of film. I guess my fav over all has been HP5 in id11/d76, I know very boring🙂
 
Favorite films at various speeds

Favorite films at various speeds

Slow speed when I don't mind a tripod (shot @ 25): EFKE 25 in Rodinal

Medium speed (shot @ 64): AGFA APX 100 in Rondial

Faster speed (shot @ 250): Tri-X 400 in HC110

Fastest speed (Shot @ 1250): Tmax 3200 in Rodinal for pronounced sharp grain
 
Tri-X @ 400 - If I had to choose one film for the rest of my life, this would be it. I know of no better.

Delta3200 @1600 - I prefer it over Neopan 1600. I get better shadow detail and somehow the grain cuts very well against shots done on Tri-X. It can get nice and 'creamy' looking at lower speeds, which is really beautiful. It's one of the most expensive b/w films out there, but well worth it.

I soup both in Ilford DD-X. Great combination IMO. In this developer Tri-X takes on a very 'pearly' look, with full speed and plenty of shadow/highlight detail. I prefer it over the look I got in XTOL.

Now that APX100 is no more I need to find a nice 100 speed film.
It will probably be Plux-X or HP4...


Oh, and I agree with Tom A about Kodak 5222 Super XX movie stock. Very interesting film that can deliver beautiful results.
 
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This one is for Magus:

A friend of mine once told me that a fine Bordeaux is like a tall Scandanavian blonde reading you a love poem, while a great Burgundy is like a sultry brunette husking wetly in your ear.

(Note to PC folks - the above statement is gender neutral.)

Delta 100 is my blonde, Neopan 1600 is my brunette.

Outside this metaphor, Neopan 3200 is my bette noir, but I'm really starting to dig the Fomapan and Fortepan 200's.

Cheers! - John
 
Magus: I guess I need to shoot some FP4+! Believe it or not I never have. I've only recently come to slow B/W films.

For me Delta 100 is like a Bordeaux because it is predictable. Neopan 1600 is - like a Burgundy - less predictable, tougher to master and on occasion more rewarding. Just my humble opinion 🙂.

Cheers! - John
 
John, you don't know slow if you're thinking FP4 is slow. I'm the opposite- just now coming to the fast films- Three Neopan 1600 rolls are out from the freezer yesterday to play with here in the next few days.

FP4 is a really wonderful film, worth the time it might take to 'master', though I've found it is very easy to figure out. If slow is your new game don't forget to try PanF or the efke 25.
 
I've got to say I've used a lot of developers on FP4 over the years and I'll be blowed if I've found one that actually makes it look bad. Rodinal was my least favourite but the results were still more than acceptable.
 
Ilford Delta 400. Right speed for general use, while much sharper than Tri-X, especially in solvent developers like D-76. Also more fine-grained, pretty much regardless of developer. Its sensitometric "curve" is very straight, again almost regardless of developer, which yields clean-looking natural images (but I can understand those who like the more interpretive and dramatic look of Tri-X and in particular XP2, which both have S-shaped curves). It's pretty much my only film for both 35mm and 120, though I sometimes use Delta 3200 for speed.

I develop it in a homebrew metol-ascorbic acid developer (derived from the formulas of Patrick Gainer) which yields fantastically fine-grained and sharp images, at the price of some speed loss.
 
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