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Coming back to film - help needed


Philip Freedman

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I have just bought a nice M3 and it feels great in the hand, a real traditional precision job compared with my M8 and my 5D. Before going digital, I used to take Provia 100 slides on my old M6 for travel and landscape shots and the occasional candid street shot, and used Reala 100 or Superia 400 for parties and family events. When I wanted B&W, I scanned the slides or negs on my 5400 with VueScan, used Convert to B&W Pro, and printed on my 2100.

Having concentrated on digital for a couple of years (and enjoyed the ability to switch ISO and colour/B&W), I have lost touch with film and see that several have been discontinued. It crossed my mind to put a scan friendly B&W 400 neg film in the M3 and to carry a little C-Lux 2 in my pocket to satisfy family who want color snaps, but every now and again I see something (usually abstract) that works better in colour than B&W and deserves more than a pocket digital, but I really dont want to carry two M size cameras. Any ideas would be welcome. Please don't tell me to go back to my M8 !

Thanks Philip

 

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hi philip........

 

press on the link "diginity of photo" in my signature and go to b/w film selection.......

 

ya........ tri-x / hp5 are simply great as fast films........

fp4 / plus-x are great as moderate normal speeds..... rodinal and/or id11/d76 and thats it :) genuine b/w fotography especially if u also print it in wet........ :)

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Well I love Agfapan 100 in Rodinal 1:50 for 13 mins can't be beat tonally. Tri-x as mentioned is nice as is FP4 some of the Foma films are good the 200 is quite like FP4 but half the price.

I also test films and give opinions and examples:

Photo Utopia

 

Real B&W photography is addictive beware :D

79990068.jpg

Fomapan 200 in Rodinal M4-P Canon 35mm F1,8

 

Regards

Mark

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I wouldn't give away my M3 too :) The only thing I exchanged is a more recent CdS cell based Leicameter for the old Selenium one.

 

I'm not sure about your workflow, if you are still scanning your negatives there is still the option to use colour negatives and convert them to b/w as you did before. Fuji claims to have their latest films optimized for scanning - personally I like this one:

FUJIFILM Global | Products | Professional Films | Product Line-up | FUJICOLOR PRO160S

 

I also use XP2 frequently, since I have my films scanned in the minilab. As Steve mentioned the XP2 is not neutral, hence I convert the scans to B/W on my computer - they couldn't be more neutral then.

 

OT - Since I just moved to a new city, I had to find a minilab again, where the people are willing to make a high resolution scan (it always requires a discussion, since the large scans are taking valuable machine time. 'Yes, my typical prints are much larger than 9cmx13cm. No, I don't mind paying 20 Euros for film development and scan'). After I finally sorted out the aftermaths of moving and changing job, I'll probably buy a film scanner, also to get rid of the sharpening. Pity, it looks like a clean solution for me to have everything done in one machine. If I like an espresso, I will have one in the 'bar' round the corner, which has a professional bar machine which wouldn't be sensible in a private home operated by someone who knows how to run it. I would love to transfer this principle to my film handling process.

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