Which ISO400 B&W film has big grain?

[Juan Valdenebro]

Sometimes I like big grain on my prints... Not talking about cropping for aparent bigger grain, or growing grain with temperature, agitation and developing time... I find ISO400 films are very fine grained lately (and I use Rodinal!), and faster films are not available everyday you try to buy them... Last week I shot 3200 film at that speed under the sun, and I used 1/1000 f/8 and around with an ND8 filter...

I was wondering if there's any 400 film with big grain and that way I could avoid the filter or open the lens... Could be one of those cheap brands? I imagine someone producing them could be making a film that's a bit slower or a bit bigger grained than the rest... Thanks!

Cheers,


Juan

 

[Mackinaw]

I don't know if it's being made any more but Forte 400 has grain the size of small cars. I have several rolls in my freezer that I'm sitting on just for that reason, very big grain.

Jim B.

 

[charjohncarter]

If you are shooting 35mm, you could try SFX 200 and shoot without a filter. It is somewhat like TriX in tones and it has grain. You could even increase it with Rodinal and agitation.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Mackinaw, charjohncarter, thanks for the answers! I'll take a look at those...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[blue4130]

I wanted to shoot some big grain stuff and had good results using Lucky brand film and developing in D-72 (paper developer). I shot at 400 ASA, developed in 20'C D-72 full strength for 7 minutes. Might be too contrasty for some though...

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Do you have any image to share? If not, how would you compare it to, let's say, fuji's neopan P1600? Thanks!

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

I don't know if it's being made any more but Forte 400 has grain the size of small cars. I have several rolls in my freezer that I'm sitting on just for that reason, very big grain.

Jim B.

It seems it's not available anymore...

 

[blue4130]

That is in D-72. Lucky SHD100. Shot at 200ASA.

 

[Freakscene]

Fomapan 400 / Arista EDU Ultra 400 has the largest grain of any of the nominally 400 speed films that are currently available. If you develop in D72/Dektol the grain is comparable to TMZ in Rodinal, which means HUGE grain.

I'll see if i can dig up some examples later.

Marty

 

[filmfan]

You can make any 400 ISO BW film as grainy as you want by adjusting how you rate it. Also, you can choose to develop to achieve grain (and can just develop at a higher temperature and agitate a lot). The film type does not matter that much.