I’ve played with pretty much any film I come across, and in terms of cost-benefit I’ve settled on Fomapan films. I like the grain structure, they are some of the cheapest BW film available and have great latitude if you like to mess with stand development. I shot this photo on a Pentax ME camera using Fomapan 100. Developed at home with Ilfotec DDX and scanned with a Canon 5D Mk3 + Canon 100mm f2.8.
I’ve also settled on Fomapan. I mostly tend to use 200 or 400, but I’ve also found that pushing the 400 to 1600 to do some night time city shooting is a really fun time.
Yes, I’ve been messing with shooting different ISOs on the same roll after seeing this video with good results!
I’ve been using a bunch of Kodak 5222 (“Double-X”). I got a bulk roll of it a few years ago, like 130ft for $20. Slightly expired but still pushes great to 400 or shot normally around 200.
Higher sensitivity and I’ll go for HP5, but that is getting less common for me nowadays.
HP5+ Is definitely my go-to. I usually push it 1-2 stops as well.
I’ve also been trying Kentmere 400, but I’ve been having trouble developing it at home. Idk if the massive dev chart is just wrong, but the times I’ve used from there have cooked my rolls a little too much.
Interesting, I’ve used the dev chart to develop K400 and I thought they were fine, what developer are you using? Although, maybe they are getting overdeveloped and I just don’t see it.
Definitely depends on my mood, but my go-to’s are HP5 and Fomapan 100 because I stocked up on bulk rolls and I’m still working through it. I’ve also got a little stash of Agfa Cinerex IC1N that I like to shoot with, it’s a little slower, but it tends to be quite contrasty without the need for orange/red filters or pusing. This is an older shot from when I was messing around with it, I think from my very first roll.
Ilford FP4, mostly. I shoot virtually exclusively large format, occasionally medium format, but pretty much always from a tripod, and like longer exposures and / or wide open apertures, so have no need for a faster film.
I quite like Fomapan 100, but it fails because of extreme reciprocity on long exposures.
I would love to shoot Fuji Acros again, that was the perfect film for me. But Fuji.
The prices for Kodak in 4x5 are absurd, bad enough I have to put up with those for color.
FP4 is beautiful, I shoot Fomapan for price, but FPR is amazing. I don’t shoot a lot of very long exposures so didn’t know about those issues with Fomapan, a shame. So what you’re saying is, it is not consistent with long exposures? Like, several long exposures that are exactly the same result in different film reactions?
HP5 has been my go-to for a while. I have a friend who recently shot a roll of Dracula 64, an infrared sensitive film, and I’m excited to see how that turns out.
I’ve seen IR film for sale a few times but always worried to try it as it’s not cheap and I figure I’m just going to waste it. Ask your friend to post some of those here, would be really interesting to see.
I’ve tried quite a few (tend to dev mostly with Pyrocat HD), and still keep coming back to TMY-2 @250. Part of this is b/c its available on 35mm/120/4x5
@RodPhoto Tri-x has always turned out for me. I don’t hoot a lot of frames so the cost doesn’t get prohibitive
HP5 and Delta 100 for most things, and Lucky 200 since it’s the only 220 B&W left that I know of.
Never heard of Lucky 200, will search for it. Got any photos you shot on it to share?
