aldevo said:
I'm shooting mostly medium format these days. When I was younger, I wanted less and less and less grain. I went down the path of verichrome pan, plus x, fp4, ilford 50, playing with microdol-x, d75 1:1, all that stuff. When I enlarge 8x10 or 11x14, it is soooooo hard to tell the difference between any of the 100 speed film. So I just started getting which ever one was cheapest at the moment.
So with medium format, it finally dawned on me that it just wasn't worth the trouble getting slow speed film for 35mm. I just get 400 (tri-x or delta400) in 35mm.
If I was stuck in the 35mm format, and had a choice between fp4+ and apx100, and my criteria is finer grain, I would probably use fp4+ and develop in d76 1:1.
I just don't think it worth the effort (now that I've played with it) in getting the sharpest, finest grain with 35mm film. HOWEVER, you should check out www.unblinkingeye.com. There's an article with Minox film and fine grain in there somewhere.
That "rough" look you mentioned is what I love about 35mm. I've seen prints, large prints 16x20 and higher with 35mm film (using tri-x too!) and it's awesome. There is nothing like it.