Type of Film

[jody]

I've only been taking pictures seriously for a few years, since I fell in love with cameras. For financle reasons I've been using digital for the last two mostly and now I'm using more film. So my question to all is this. What film do you use and why? I mostly use fuji supera 400. I have tried some black and white and I like HP5 so far but I want to try others. It would be nice to know the characteristics of the film you use also. Thank you to all in advance.

[Nachkebia]

Ilford delta 100 - modern look, very clean, noise free, alot of mid tones!! very good high key, I would use it if I am shooting portraits, I have shot portraits on overcast light with fill flash and it turned out very very good, actualy I love this film after my trip to india, I would not mind using this film all the time

Ilford FP4 - traditional look, deeper shadows, full of mid tones also very clean, very good resolution, I would shoot evrything with this classy looking film, gives very deep tones, I would shoot street with this film if speed is not an issiu.

Ilford HP5 - traditional look, very very deep shadows, exellent night shooter! night shooter!!! I take this film if I am shooting low light! it has the deepest shadows ever! very very classy!

Ilford Delta 3200 - very grany film I have shot couple of times at night, did not like this film at all! tonality is not that fantastic, grain is huuge and not much of a detail, I just shot neopan 1600, will develope these days and will update my thoughts

Kodak tri-x - very traditional look, very textury thought alot of details, I love to underexpose this film, I am taking tri-x if I don`t know whats going to happen, if I don`t know light will be enough or not, not as clean as FP4 or Delta 100 but clean enough to have flexibily of speed, I would not mind shooting street again with this film.

kodak t-max 100 - modern look, alot of details, small amount of noise, slightly flat, well well, somehow it feels that this film lacks mid tones, I don`t know, I have 20 t-maxs is my frige I don`t know what to do with them, probably will shoot some close up portraits...

Kodak t-max 400 - modern look, slightly flat also, but very good at night, I will take this film when I don`t want to waste Ilford HP5

Fuji Neopan 100 - contrasty, clean, slightly flat shadows, well that what leads to contrasty look, I would use this film for potraits also for street, developed beautifly in Kodak D76.

Well these are the BW films I use mostly, shell we switch to color? yes indeed

Now for color it is bit harder, I love to shoot slide but as much as I love it, as hard it is to shoot with it, very good color very high contrast but very small laditute for light and exposition, slight miss in exposition and you have no shadows...

Fuji Provia 100F - I love this film, it has speed, it is contrasty it is color full but its not sureal! I mean it is still balanced so you can take portraits with it, for street color photography it is an exellent film, (fuji leads to have more blue with green so images tend to be colder than kodak slides)

Fuji Velvia 50 - very very saturated, very very contrasty, good for abstracts and details, it is good for portraits to but depends on skin color, slow but very noise free, scanes perfectly and has amazing resolution, this film also hates overexposure, (fuji leads to have more blue with green so images tend to be colder than kodak slides)

Kodak E100 VS - saturated, warm tones, very positive look, actualy has more corrected colors than any fuji slide, I would not mind using this film all the time, just sometimes I need the cold feeling of provia and velvia

As for color negative, I have tryed quet a bit of them but I did not liked any! but one! Kodak Portra! yeaah! this film is amazing, it is as saturated as slide (well not really ) and it has very clean look! I love it and I can not wait for new portras to hit stores!
If you have more questions, please ask

[Slipkid]

I'm using a lot of Ilford XP2 Super 400...a black and white film that uses the C41 process for developing...Means I can drop a roll or two at Tar-jay or WallyMart for one hour prints. An interesting characteristic of the flim is also a slight sepia tinge to many of the prints. Most of my B&W shooting is done using this film-- until I can find the time to develop and print my own (in Dad's darkroom, of course!)

I shot my last roll of XP2 Super with a Yellow 1 Leitz filter in front of a collapsible 50/2 Summicron and I'm reasonably sure that the contrast--the whole "look"- is much more similar to "real" B&W film (like Tri-X at 100). Picked up the prints today and-same lab, same paper-much less "sepia" tones...

Whichever film you wind up using, experiment with it --available light, flash, sunshine, overcast, etc.-- and have fun doing it!

Cheers,
AJ

[dmr]

I shoot almost entirely color, and mostly the various Fuji color negative films. Good color reproduction, fine grain, even in the higher speeds, and very forgiving of not so perfect light. I use their Superia 400-800-1600 for available light stuff.

I also like: Walgreens/Agfa 200 for daylight urban scenes and fall foliage, but that is being closed out now, Kodachrome 64, a classic, natural colors, not as vivid as the newer emulsions. Kodak Gold 200, second choice to Fuji 200. Sometimes I'll do Velvia 100 for no particular reason.

[Goodyear]

Black and white - maily the Fuji Neopan emulsions. 400 and 1600 are great in Xtol. I have 100' of SS that I haven't taken any off yet, must do that soon. I prefer the Fuji films to Ilford, althoguh Ilford are easier to get hold of here. Their XP2 Super is handy to have around when I can't be bothered developing (or at the moment when all my gear is still packed away from moving). To my shame I've never actually tried Tri-X. Really must.

Colour - chromes all the way. Especially fond of Fuji Astia, and Provia 400f is fun for low-light (recently playing with pushing it 2 or 3 stops). Kodachrome 64 is the biz, but a nuisance to get processed if you're not in the States. Which I'm not.

I'm not really a fan of colour neg, but I keep meaning to spend more time with it.

[kshapero]

Kodak UC 400 for color negs (seems like everyone has their "pet" film). Looking forward to trying thr new Portra.

[telenous]

I prefer ISO400 film for B&W, and within the existing range of films I prefer conventional emulsions (typically Ilford HP5 and Kodak TriX), for the better push properties, rather the newer crop of T-grain films (Delta and Tmax). When shooting ISO100 film (that's when I am not in the UK so I can actually shoot with some strong light) the situation reverses - I prefer something like the Delta 100 over, say, the FP4.

For colour, I prefer slide film, not just because it looks better but also because I find it easier to scan it in a way that preserves the original colours. I love Kodachrome 64 and Provia 100F and 400. I was astonished also by the natural colours of Agfa Precisa 100, a film that will soon go the way of the Dodo (if it hasn't already).