If you need to KNOW what to expect, it is always best to use what you know.
It is impossible to know exactly what every film will give you. It is possible to have a rough idea of what they can do. But if you took every film on the market, and try to understand it fully, most people just wouldn't have the amount of time it takes to know everything about every film. It is, quite frankly speaking, stupid to even try. Why is it stupid? Because you will waste so much time trying to understand film, all while you could be out there making fantastic photographs with something you already know.
The whole question about what film is 'best' is completely unnecessary. Because all films are 'best' - depending on what you want. One single film can be treated in many many different ways, even with one single developer, to produce completely different results. If you know exactly where the limits are with one single film, how to make absolutely the most out of your chosen emulsion, you stand a much better chance at making something amazing with it than trying to pick a film that suits the situation. The best weapon in anything that has to do with film photography is KNOWLEDGE about our materials.
I have, for the last couple of years, used mainly TMax 400 and Fuji Acros for all of my shooting. There have been a couple of other films that were given to me that I have tried, but for anything important I have used those two. It has never in that time occurred to me that I need to try a different film to try to get a different result. All I have had to do, in all of that time, is to change how I expose and develop the same films, to get the results I want and NEED.
You are, of course, welcome to do what you want. Some people really think it's a lot of fun to try different films, and that's OK. But if your intent with photography is to produce not 'good' photographs, but 'amazing' prints, you are far far better off using the same materials over and over again.
The limitations of our results are NEVER because of our materials. That is just a bad excuse for not really learning. The limitations always lay with us, our KNOWLEDGE, and our SKILLS.
Now it's your choice to figure out what you wish to achieve. Fun with film? Or do you want to produce amazing portfolios of photographs?
If paying your home mortgage depends on the results you are able to produce, you will ALWAYS want to know exactly what to expect, every single time you click the shutter. It has to be bullet proof. There are so many other variables to deal with - lighting, composition, making a portrait sitter comfortable and performing their best, exposure, environment, etc. The least thing you want is to have one more variable. Imagine traveling to a particular destination that you may never visit again. You want to photograph it. Would you really want to test a new film while doing this? No, of course not. The more constants we have in this situation, the better it is. That way we are more free to create and produce amazing work to the clients.
I am not dependent on paying my mortgage with photography. But I am in the business of making the very best prints I can make. So my choice is to continue using TMax 400 and Acros until they are discontinued. This allows me to think about the PICTURES, and not about my MATERIALS, which would be severely limiting to me.
