Your prefered film speed

Your prefered film speed

  • 25 ASA (or slower)

    Votes: 2 0.7%

  • 50

    Votes: 13 4.3%

  • 100/125

    Votes: 84 27.7%

  • 200

    Votes: 22 7.3%

  • 400

    Votes: 152 50.2%

  • 800 (or faster)

    Votes: 30 9.9%
  • Total voters
    303
  • Poll closed .
I am trying to simplify things as of late and sticks to what works, so it is one film and developer for me. I like Tri-X at box speed, sometimes pushed to 800 and develop D76 1+1
 
100 ISO 21 DIN. Since the classical M doesn't have fast shutter speeds I have to use 100 ISO film in order to shoot wide open. Another reason is the fine grain...
 
Leica M was originally designed with slow films and large apertures in mind. Most classic Leitz lenses perform their best around f/4. Besides, why buy an expensive lens and shoot it at f/8-11 where even a humble $50 Jupiter-8 looks equally sharp?
 
That's actually an interesting point, most older fast lenses are sharper in middle apertures than stopped down.

I myself use 100 except in instances where I know I'll be shooting indoors or in low light. More flexibility in most outside situations with 100 + finer grain.
 
Everything used to be shot at 200ASA - Kodachrome KL 200ASA and Ilford XP2 rated at 200ASA - this made it very easy on the brain when switching between films.

Now that Kodachrome's gone I'm split between 100ASA and 400 ASA - Kodak Ektachrome E100G and XP2.
 
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Voted 400 because I have a bunch of it & usually that's what's in the camera. I like the versatility of 400 asa film being push/pull friendly. Actually I prefer the smoothness of a low asa film like Pan F. I have some loaded in a camera now. Soon 200 asa color film will be the mainstay for a while because I just bought a bunch of close out Solaris.
 
tunalegs said:
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I myself use 100 except in instances where I know I'll be shooting indoors or in low light. More flexibility in most outside situations with 100 + finer grain.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat, going mostly for 100,160,200 color. For my RF I have no flash: Then I use 1600 color.

I don't shoot much B&W but if I do, it is from 800 upwards.
 
Kodachrome 25, awesome film and mine look as new. Got some Ektachrome from same era that looks like it is 200 years old. After K25, went to Ektachrome 100 natural. I could pull it to 50 and print on Cibachrome pretty well. Perfect if you used an uncoated lens. Tranny looks dull and flat, but you should see the Ciba prints.

Nikon Digital is the the color now. No hassles no stores selling short dated, no out of stock, no discontinued tungsten emulsions, no fancy mired filters, just raw pics. Shoot away and have fun. Internet the photoshop files to my fav pro lab, drive over and pick up in 3 day when they call. Prints are always perfect.

Started with Plus x. Then Delta 100, a little D400. Current fav are T Max 100 and T Max 400. Scratch mix D76 developes the film.
 
Well, I voted for 25 even though I've mainly been shooting Neopan 1600 in the past (and then using Neopan 400 at 400 or pushing to 1600) but now with the demise of that as well, I'm going to start using Efke 25 again for wide-open daytime shooting with my 45mm f/2 and 50mm f/1.2, and Tri-X for the rest.
 
100 in summertime, 400 in wintertime. Not much light here in Sweden for a lot of the time, the sun doesn't rise high during the day this time of year. I do like the look of TMax 400. If I had a faster max shutter speed than 1/1000 on my Leica I might use it all year round...

On medium format I have 1/500 on my Zeiss Ikon folder, but that's really not to be trusted so I try to stick to 1/250 at most which calls for slow film speed. On the other hand, it should be stopped down to at least f=5.6 for best results which calls for faster emulsions as it gets dark. I use Efke R25, Ilford FP4+, HP5+ and Delta Pro 3200 with this camera.
 
Shot APX 100 @ 64 and Tri-X at 250 for many years.
Now it's Acros 100 at 80 and big apertures (2.8-4) in 35mm or, in MF, smaller (8-11) on a tripod.

For hand held, low light, high ISO, I turn to the Nikon D700. Vastly superior to any 35mm fast film from days of yore---IMO. For a small camera in same circumstances it's the GF1 which is half vast. ;-)
 
I have a bunch of 400 colour film I got cheap but I rarely use it...
I scored a cheap 100' roll of Delta 400 too so I will be shooting a bit of that for a while but generally I dont shoot fast stuff often.
In colour neg I usually shoot Ektar 100 and until now ive been shooting Plus-X but I've run out now.
My usual mono if I'm not burning bulk stuff is Neopan Acros 100.
My usual slide is Sensia 100 if I haven't got any Velvia 50 around.
Most of my cameras have a top speed of 1/500 so I generally keep the fast stuff for low light or my EOS Canons...
 
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