Whats your favorite film?

[MP Guy]

What do you get th ebest reults with for your type of photography?

[bmattock]

My current favorites for 35mm and 120 are Kodak Portra 160NC for color prints, especially portraits/people; Fuji Velvia 50 for scenics, and Ilford Delta 100 for B&W. I am about to experiment with Fuji Acros B&W on a recommendation I got online.

[MP Guy]

I tried the velvia the other day for the first time and over exposed by accident by 1/2 stop. The colors are so rich its like beingthere. Now, if I could find somewhere to print them.

[bmattock]

Someone mentioned online that Velvia is not a 'true' 50 ISO, they suggested shooting at 40 ISO, developing at 50 ISO. I set my Yashica Electro 35 GSN at 40, loaded up the Velvia, and got some great slides back. I'm very pleased!

[MP Guy]

Didny yu find them a little dark shooting them at 35?

[back alley]

i like to keep things simple and mostly shoot with ilford's delta 3200, usually at 1600.

for bright daylight shooting i use delta 100 or 400.

joe

[bmattock]

Here are some photos that I took a week ago in Kenosha, Wisconsin - camera used is Yashica Electro 35 GSN, film was Velvia 50 rated at 40 and processed at 50 ISO.

Most of the shots are made using Velvia, some were made with Kodak Portra 400UC. The ones of the streetcar trolley and Lake Michigan were all Velvia.

http://www.growlery.com/kenosha

[MP Guy]

Those shots on Velvia really bring out the colors.

[SolaresLarrave]

Nothing beats Kodachrome 64. Not too saturated, beautiful colors and it has some durability too!

[back alley]

what do you think of the fuji pallette?
too intense for you?

i thought kodachrome was all but gone except for a few users who refuse to give up on it.

shoot any b&w?

joe

[SolaresLarrave]

I'm a Fuji user, but I'm leaning more to Sensia. Velvia is, I won't deny, beautifully saturated, but Kodachrome has a particular warmth I like a lot. It's still available, but you have to look for it.

BTW, for black and white, I enjoy Scala, the Agfa b&w transparency film.

[back alley]

ah, scala.
i have a friend who shoots that on occasion and i love the look.
i wish i could afford a medium format slide projector, or find a good used cheap one. i would be more inclined to go thru the pains of shipping my film for processing then.
what do you do with your scala slides? leave them as slides, print them, project them?

joe

[SolaresLarrave]

I usually shoot the 35mm kind. The framing is a bit iffy, in cardboard, so I rarely project my slides. Mostly, I scan them, see to print the images and that really makes my heart leap. It's a dream of a film... I just packed two rolls of it in my bag (I'm leaving for Colombia in a matter of hours), and this morning I mailed the 120 roll I shot yesterday in Chicago.

Now, since I metered the shots with my Sekonic 208, I won't vouch for their accuracy, but I've used Scala with a Canonet and a Contax G1 and on both ocassions I was floored. Great stuff!!

[back alley]

sounds pretty good to me.
i will have to try it myself and hope i don't get too hooked.
so, off to colombia, business or pleasure?
no matter what, i hope you have a good trip and hope to see some shots when you return.

joe

[Rich Silfver]

I'm a Fuji user for colour slides - and a Kodak user (mostly) for B&W.

Colour: Love Provia 100F. Love it. Just got a pro-pack of 400F that I'll try this weekend
(For examples of Provia see: www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg

Also picked up some Velvia 100 that will be interesting to see how they come out.

B&W: In 100 I love Tmax. Tmax-400 unfortunately sucks though. Dreadful. Delta 400 is good but have lately been experimenting with Tr-X 320. We'll see..the jury is still out on the winner in the B&W category...

Did I mention I love Provia 100F? ;-)

[taffer]

For 35 mm B&W Delta 100, sure. I like Scala a lot, though.

For negative film, and speaking about 120 format, I've found nothing that beats Portra 160 VC. I don't know what this film does, but in MF its colors and sharpness are outstanding.

For the other formats, simply I haven't tried that much in order to choose a favorite... yet :p

[jansenh]

For 135 as well as 120 I use Kodak Tri-X exposed as 320 and developed as a 400 film, in HC-110 1:47. With Tri-X the exposure as well as the developer play a big difference...

Every now and the I do some fine-art scenes or portrait with my Bronica RF645, exposing the Tri-X as 200 and developing in Rodinal 1:100 for 20 minutes. Grainless, smooth tonal range and incredible shadow-details.

[craygc]

My objective these days is digital B&W prints, my scanner is a Nikon LS4000 and my primary camera is a Leica M6 so these three issues tend to push me ito a particular choice of film - Fuji NPC 160!

* The M6's top shutter speed of 1/1000 forces me to shut down more than I want in daylight with faster films.

* I cannot achieve - with any consistency - good scans of B&W emulsions with the Nikon LS4000

* With a digital darkroom, its much easier to use the colours to move tones rather than make a decision about which filter when you are taking the shot.

* Although not a much exposure lattitude as B&W emulsions, a colour print film is certainly a compromise but much better than slide.

Now, I do shoot slide film from time to time and I have learnt to hate Velvia, only slightly less than Kodak's 100VS. One or two are Ok but I've shot so much of it in the past that I hate looking at image that have a colour palette direct from Fischer-Price Toys! :)

I love Fuji's Provia 100F; tried the 400F and its just too graining when skin is involved but I have liked using this film pushed 3 stops to 3200 and shoot people at night with just street lighting. Nobody thinks youve taken a photo because no flash and 1/125 and 1/250 are not uncommon speeds. Results are often a bit greenish / high contrast / and very grainy but provide an interesting base for a B&W conversion.

regards

[Summitar]

My all time favoirte was Agfapan 25 but is no longer manufactured. I used to shoot this in 35mm and 120 format for the longest time. Developed in Rodinal (an Agfa liquid concentrate developer, still available thank god) it yielded super sharp and extremely tight grained prints.

Kodachrome 64 Professional emulsion for 35mm chrome films, I enjoy this film allot also.

Tri-X Pan, the stalwart and always in at least two of my rangefinders.

Also been shooting allot of Ilford XP-2 film. It's a C41 processed emulsion (standard color print processing available at any minilab) that yields some half decent black and white prints. This is a monochromatic film that's just processed in traditional color film chemistry.

This is what Hurricane Isabel looked like from a tanker ship on the Atlantic, thought I'd share the seaside view of a hurricane

[Rich Silfver]

Summitar, that's an amazing image.

[Rich Silfver]

Ok, going back to my post from 8/5/2003 where I stated that my favorite b&w film in 120 format was T-Max 100 and that I was experimenting with Tri-X.

I did.

Damn it...that Tri-X is a wonderful film....
I really like the additional speed I'm getting (320) and the tones are very nice indeed.

The only negative thing I could find was that sometimes in tougher lighting situations it has a tendency to be really contrasty and blow out the highlights. But..I'm working on it.

Great film, just bought another pro-pack.

Example photo:

http://www.pbase.com/image/21573578.jpg

[pshinkaw]

A professional meteorologist gave me some more information on that terrific Hurricane Isabel photo.

"http://www.snopes.com/photos/isabel.asp"

http://www.snopes.com/photos/isabel.asp

-Paul

[Mike Richards]

For B&W, Ilford Delta 100. I like the definition, grain, tonality. I like to develop myself, and it's readily available most everywhere here in Europe. For color, I like the new Ektachrome 100GX. I like the slightly warm tones, but that's a personal preference. If I have to buy color from small local shops, it's usually Fuji Sensia or Velvia. I tried Agfa RSX, and it's ok, but a bit too yellow for my taste. On the other hand, it does do fall foilage nicely.
Mike

[SolaresLarrave]

Summitar, that's an impressive shot. It's beautiful and scary at the same time...

Tri-X... Time to get some and try it (bad pun... sorry :( )

Last time I used it, the photos came out terribly grainy. But that was in my pre-rangefinder days. I'll see what happens now...

[Peter]

Ilford XP2 Super for overall ease of usage and development.

[WKMPellucid]

For years I have shoot Kodak Tri-X or Illford HP-(3,4,5) at ISO 200
For color Kodak Kodachrome 64
Recently a lot of Fuji color negative film
NPS/NPH

[wierdcollector]

Fuji and Agfa for 35mm colour negative film. Fomapan 100 for B&W 120 lately.

[jdos2]

Amateur Format:
Fuji Acros for when I want to develop things myself.
Fuji Cheapie 100 speed color when I'm going to scan or print.
Kodachrome 25 or 64 I prefer the 25, but will do the 64 if I can't find (and it's getting rarer) the former.

For Medium Format:
Fuji Acros, it's just wonderful.
Fuji 400 speed 120/220 for consistency. The grain is not noticable at high speeds. If I REALLY want the slowest speed I can get, I'll use the Fuji 160 which I'll have pulled down to 120 speed. I've used Fuji chromes to good effect.

For large format, It's Kodak B&W pro film all the way for black and white work. Ektachrome 100 for color.

[Andrew Touchon]

For B&W: Tmax 100, 400 and 3200. Easy to develop and get good results when using Tmax developer, as long as you just follow the directions. For color prints: Kodak High Definition 200 and 400. Very fine grain fast films with good color balance. For color slides: Kodak 100G. The only slide film that I have found that I like better than the old Kodachrome.

[jdos2]

669. Followed by 667 and then 665.

[HelenB]

The film I use the most is Ektachrome 320T (EPJ) pushed between 1 and 3 stops depending on how much is needed to reach 1/15 at f/1.2 or thereabouts. Lovely and sharp - like most Kodak films. At three stops push the colours and DMax are still good and the grain pattern gives an appearance of sharpness beyond that which you could expect at slow speeds and wide apertures. For medium format I use 160T (EPT), pushed two or three stops.

Second comes APX400 in DiXactol - I used to use Rodinal. I also like APX100 but use less of it.

Kodachrome 64 was my favourite for years and years, now I'm moving over to Ektachrome 100G when I want a slow-ish daylight film. For faster daylight film I go for E200, which pushes very well.

Other favourites, used less often:
T-Max 3200 (TMZ) in D76 1+1
Scala
Portra colour neg.

On the whole I like the sharpness of Kodak films in comparison to (to me, at least) the mushier grain of Fuji films. If only one company survives as a major film manufacturer, I hope that it is Kodak.

Best,
Helen

[lars]

I bought 15 rolls of Reala 100 for my trip to Hawaii a few weeks ago. Wow, this film is great. Colours are not heavily saturated like Velvia but they printed very true-to-life. Seemed to have a good tonal range, too. The film did a great job of accurately recording the greens of Hawaii's foliage.

The group of colour photos at the end of my 2003 PAW are all shot on Reala:

http://bb.bc4x4.com/lars/paw/album.php




...lars

[GeneW]

Hi All,

I'm new here and this is my first post. My first RF was a Minolta HiMatic 7 (1965 I believe). My current RF's are an Olympus XA and a Leica CL.

I use, almost exclusively, Ilford HP5+ rated at 400 and developed in HC-110 1:63. I've retired my wet darkroom. These days I scan on a Minolta Scan Elite II and use Photoshop 7.

I shoot digital as well, but I always have a rangefinder loaded with B&W in my kit bag.

Gene

[back alley]

welcome gene!
glad to see another canuck on the board.

joe

[fcg]

the film depends on whats loaded- up ;and in the fridg.
in 35mm& 6x7 i like trix 320/400; and hp5; which seem to give me
good results..hp5 has become my favorite lately;and over the winterbreak i tried to get it all processed....so i have about 30 feet to look over.
this is my first post.fcg

[back alley]

fcg, welcome to the forum!!

joe

[lars]

Can anyone post some samples of Tri-X developed in Diafine with non-contrasty images? I'm interested in seeing just how flat the images appear.

...lars