What Film?

[ducttape]

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I'm glad to be back shooting film. The problem is, having been out for a while (R-D1 then M8) my film memory is foggy, so to speak. I still have some rolls of Supra and C41 BW in the fridge but can't seem to find my old friends (especially Supra) in the auction marketplace.

 

Can some of you refresh my memory? Which stock will give me finest grain, for instance, at any given ASA, best skin color, best vivid for outdoors, etc etc? Appreciated

 

David

 

PS, I only shoot color or C41 Black and White

Edited February 16, 2010 by ducttape

[tgray]

I personally like Kodak films, but Fuji films are quite nice too. Kodak films to look out for are the Portra line (160NC, 160VC, 400NC, 400VC, and 800) and Ektar 100. Ektar 100 is very saturated and fine grain. The Portra NCs are lower saturation, the VCs are higher, but not as high as Ektar. They are all very nice in my mind - great skin colors. The NCs are probably a bit tame for landscape style photos. Try the VCs or Ektar then.

 

I'm pretty sure Fuji has a similar line up of 160, 400, and 800 speed film, with a saturated and a natural version.

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[underground]

Pan-F 50 for black and white

Ektar 100 for color

 

Both are the finest grain readily available as far as I

understand in California anyway.

[NB23]

I'm glad to be back shooting film. The problem is, having been out for a while (R-D1 then M8) my film memory is foggy, so to speak. I still have some rolls of Supra and C41 BW in the fridge but can't seem to find my old friends (especially Supra) in the auction marketplace.

 

Can some of you refresh my memory? Which stock will give me finest grain, for instance, at any given ASA, best skin color, best vivid for outdoors, etc etc? Appreciated

 

David

 

PS, I only shoot color or C41 Black and White

 

I'm sorry but you sound like you haven't shot film in at least 20 years, not 2 or 3 years.

 

Anyhow, the film scene hasn't changed much. There is the new Ektar. Outstanding film. Or the old unforgettable classics such as Portra...

[Brent1965]

Extar 100 for colour, and Kodak BW400CN for black & white.

Both brilliant films and user friendly.

[andybarton]

Ektar needs very careful handling and processing otherwise the colour and contrast are dreadful.

[tobey bilek]

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Portra 160 & 400 speed revised films from 2/3 years back and Fiji 160S. All are brilliant.

 

Delta 100 is beautiful 100 speed. So it Tmax 100 and the new T Max 400 is super nice.

 

I usually use D76 and sometimes rodinal on the 100 speed films. The Rodinal bottle is at least 12 years old and works perfectly.

 

Tri x at 200 and developed is D76 for 4.5 min stock is very forgiving and fine grained.

[NZDavid]

Fuji 400H has very fine grain for the speed and handles mixed light sources well. Definitely worth a try.

[andybarton]

 

Delta 100 is beautiful 100 speed. So it Tmax 100 and the new T Max 400 is super nice.

 

I usually use D76 and sometimes rodinal on the 100 speed films. The Rodinal bottle is at least 12 years old and works perfectly.

 

Tri x at 200 and developed is D76 for 4.5 min stock is very forgiving and fine grained.

 

None of these are C41 though.

[biglouis]

Fuji 400H has very fine grain for the speed and handles mixed light sources well. Definitely worth a try.

 

I second that and would add that it converts to black and white in CS3 very well indeed.

[christer]

 

Delta 100 is beautiful 100 speed. So it Tmax 100 and the new T Max 400 is super nice.

.

 

 

I would second that

[Frank Sprow]

Ektar 100 and TriX do the job for me.

[andybarton]

Can someone show some _good_ examples of work done with Ektar, please? I have three rolls in my freezer, but I have yet to be convinced by it.

[Frank Sprow]

I will post some when I get back from Afghanistan. Lots of fun here in Helmand Province!

[ola.fiske]

Andy,

Take a look at Flickr's kodak ektar 100 film grop pool.....

 

Flickr: Kodak Ektar 100

 

Ola

[Xmas]

PS, I only shoot color or C41 Black and White

XP2 for B&W, any of the Fuji 400s for colour.

 

Noel

Edited February 19, 2010 by Xmas

[ducttape]

It has only been a few years. I still have some Kodak 400CN B&W in the freezer but the color is all gone.

 

I recently picked up some Portra 160 in NC and VC and 400VC and Fuji 400H. I haven't seen the results yet but I am looking forward to shooting with them over the coming weeks. I want to thank everyone for the recommendations (not that I am ending this thread!) and hope some more will post images.

 

Some of the colors in the Ektar on Flickr are pretty vivid. I haven't really ventured to 100 speed before but I might try this too.

 

So now I guess the next thread is... where is all of this cheap?