Which of these b/w films have the greatest latitude?

[E__WOK]

I don't develop my film if that will be a factor.

My inventory consists of four types of b&w and would like to narrow it down to two, 100 or 125 and a 400 speed. The price for the 400 are pretty similar. The 125 and 100 is slightly more.

Kodak T-Max 400
Fujifilm Neopan 400
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400
Ilford FP4 Plus 125
Ilford Delta Pro 100

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

All black and white films have about the same latitude, except specialized films like infrared.

Basically, don't underexpose them at all. They'll take a couple stops of overexposure.

 

[f6andBthere]

HP5+ seems very tolerant of over exposure ... a little more than the other 400 films you've listed in my experience. Not quite sure why this would be though?

 

[Joosep]

Of those you posted...
Fp4 has +6..-4 and needless to say thats huge.
I wouldput Hp5 at second place.
The rest are pretty neck to neck.

All is very dependat on your development too....

 

[kxl]

All black and white films have about the same latitude, except specialized films like infrared.

Nope, unless you consider T-grain films "specialized."

 

[mfogiel]

The "practical" latitude, is for developing at a reasonable contrast level.
In theory, I've read somewhere, that Tmax100 can have 16 stops of latitude, but you would have to develop it to negligible contrast levels. Therefore, it brings us to reality, where Tri X trumps them all, and the second one according to my experience, is HP5+ with Neopan 400 trailing. The slower speed films will in practice get contrasty much faster, unless you underdevelop heavily.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Nope, unless you consider T-grain films "specialized."

I've used Tmax 100 as my main film for my medium format work for 20 years. It tolerates as much overexposure as any other film I have used, and has the same lack of tolerance for underexposure in my experience.

I've shot scenes with an amazingly high brightness range with both Tmax 100 and 400 and they both keep detail in the neg at very high exposure levels. Getting it out in the print takes skill few people have, but it does not mean the film didn't retain the detail or tonal separation. Most other films actually have less ability to retain tonal separation and detail in very highly exposed areas.

 

[Roger Hicks]

HP5

Monosize crystal films (T-Grain, Delta) are vastly better than when they were introduced but are much more sensitive to over- and under-exposure AND over- and under-development than traditional cubic-grain. Of course you can 'tame' them with sufficiently skilled development but I always liked the description of HP5 that I heard from a former Royal Marine armourer who, when I met him, worked in a high-end camera store: "It's the AK47 of films, almost impossible to screw up." His party-piece with an AK47 was to throw it into a barrel of motor oil before lunch, then pull it out, wipe it off, shake it dry, and fire off a magazine through it.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

HP5

Monosize crystal films (T-Grain, Delta) are vastly better than when they were introduced but are much more sensitive to over- and under-exposure AND over- and under-development than traditional cubic-grain. Of course you can 'tame' them with sufficiently skilled development but I always liked the description of HP5 that I heard from a former Royal Marine armourer who, when I met him, worked in a high-end camera store: "It's the AK47 of films, almost impossible to screw up." His party-piece with an AK47 was to throw it into a barrel of motor oil before lunch, then pull it out, wipe it off, shake it dry, and fire off a magazine through it.

Cheers,

R.

The Kalashnikov rifle is nearly indestructible. I've actually got some books on the history of it, and there have been instances of AKs that have been buried for years, all rusted, and when dug up they still worked. That's why they're so popular with terrorists and insurgent groups. The Lebanese terrorist group/political party Hezbollah actually has an AK-47 on its logo and flag! Which strikes me as ironic, given that Hezbollah (Party of God) is a religious group, and the Kalashnikov was invented by an atheist Russian Communist.

 

[Photo_Smith]

HP5

Monosize crystal films (T-Grain, Delta) are vastly better than when they were introduced but are much more sensitive to over- and under-exposure AND over- and under-development than traditional cubic-grain.
Cheers,

R.

It may be of interest for some that Kodak TMax 400 isn't strictly a tabular grain film. The upper layers consist of two monidisperse layers of tabular grain, under which is a '3D' grain layer (Kodak nomenclature for cubic crystal shapes).
So Tmax 400 is in fact a hybrid type film like Fomapan 200.

Not all B&W emulsions have the same under/over exposure tolerance. Monodisperse emulsions (same grain size) have less latitude than those emulsions that mix grain sizes (polydisperse).
Thin coated emulsions like the old EFKE ones had very little over exposure latitude when compared with say HP5 let alone an emulsion like Verichrome Pan. Document type films using Lippmann style emulsions (monodisperse single layer) also have little under/over tolerance.

Rules of thumb more layers of differing grain size = better over and under margin for error.

 

[kxl]

A corollary to that is what I heard from someone at a photo lab: "If you screw up HP5+ you need a different hobby."

HP5

"It's the AK47 of films, almost impossible to screw up." His party-piece with an AK47 was to throw it into a barrel of motor oil before lunch, then pull it out, wipe it off, shake it dry, and fire off a magazine through it.

Cheers,

R.