Help me decide on which film for nite street shoot pls.

dwdmguy · Oct 26, 2009

Good evening.

I'll be shooting the Halloween parade in Greenwich village and was wondering if I'm better off with Ilford 3200 @EI 3200 or Tri-x 400 @ 1600 or 3200
Thank you much.
Tom

dwdmguy · Oct 26, 2009

P.S. I love Neopan 1600 also. Wonder if that would be enough for nite time shooting in the street.... worried about pushing it to 3200 tho'

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 26, 2009

Delta 3200 and Tmax 3200 are both great films for the purpose.

dwdmguy · Oct 26, 2009

I'm sorry, I should have metioned I'll be shooting at 120 format.... but I will try the TMax 3200 in my half frame.
Thank you tho'

Pinholemaster · Oct 26, 2009

I prefer Fuji Neopan 1600 in 135 format.

dwdmguy · Oct 26, 2009

Well, Pinhole, I really love the film. I've not shot street at night. Do you think 1600 will be enough for me. I really don't need big details in the shadows.
Also, do you find a difference in the neo 1600 135 and 120?
Thank you

Ronald Moravec · Oct 26, 2009

Tri X works best for me. Holds a nice range of tones. Better than Plus X or Deltas or T Max.

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 27, 2009

In that case, Delta 3200 or Tri-X/HP5 pushed to 1600.
Tri-X 400 at EI 1,200 in Diafine is pretty remarkable. It's a really nice alternative.
Neo 1600 and Tmax 3200 are not available in 120 format.

My favorite for low light shooting with 120 is most definitely Delta 3200. Gorgeous film! I would expose it at 1,600 and process in Ilfotec DD-X or Xtol according to Ilford's instructions for EI 3,200. That gives really nice contrast and negatives with lots of information. Prints beautifully!

dwdmguy said:
I'm sorry, I should have metioned I'll be shooting at 120 format.... but I will try the TMax 3200 in my half frame.
Thank you tho'

dwdmguy · Oct 27, 2009

Thomas, thank you much.
I have one more question if you don't mind please,
I have lot's of Tri-x and I have define. Can define be used in a rotary processor? I can set up for two dev chems.?

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 27, 2009

I have never tried rotary processing with Diafine. But I don't suspect it would matter much, since it's a two bath developer with 3min in Bath A and 3min in Bath B.
As far as I understand you want Bath A to soak into the emulsion, and Bath B contains your developing agent and it reacts with Bath A. When there is no more Bath A in the emulsion, Bath B should, theoretically, cease to have an effect on the film.
So whether you agitate using a rotary processor, or do it manually, shouldn't matter. As long as you agitate some to get the chemistry evenly absorbed into the emulsion.

- Thomas

Simplicius · Oct 27, 2009

I tried night shooting people recently and pushed Delta 3200 (120) to 12,800 and developed in microphen and was pleasantly surprised got goot range of greys and grain isn't overpowering (http://www.flickr.com/photos/13111789@N00/3964525040/in/set-72157622350655401/ ) - this is sufficent for the streets of Dublin only where you get extra assistance from streetlamps and shop windows. Areas without these features increasing the local lux level are hard to do hand held, but where there is extra light, this enables me to shoot at 1/100 and get a range of f/4 - f/5.6. my beloved old TLR only goes to f/3.5

I previously thought Dublin streets were dark, I am just back from a weekend in Amsterdam and found the general lux level there to be much lower and I was unable to get handheld shots at night. So that will also be a factor you would do well to pick a brightly lighted area and that will be part of the battle sorted.

mopar_guy · Oct 27, 2009

My nighttime outfit:

Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic with two Graflites attatched using GE #22 or Sylvania #2 Flashbulbs. T-Max 100 sheet film in double-sided film holders.
Exposure: 15 feet, 1/100 sec, ~f:22
20 feet, 1/100 sec, ~f:16

naugastyle · Oct 28, 2009

I don't think 1600 is enough. I don't know where you'll be standing but I don't find the streets to differently lit for the parade, they're just normal, which of course is still reasonably brightish in New York. Unless you have MUCH faster lenses than I do (certainly possible), you'll be stuck at a pretty slow shutter. This was shot @ f/2.8 1/30 using Delta 3200 shot at 1600:

Dead Link Removed

It's the LES, likely same amount of light you'll get near the parade in GV. So, sure, you could use 1600 but then be stuck shooting at 1/30 and probably getting motion blur, or you could bump up to 3200 and be able to shoot at 1/60. Or as Simplicius writes, you can push it even higher to give yourself more speed/DOF options.

Ektagraphic · Oct 28, 2009

Tri-X Pushed is very good...what about TMAX 3200? That can be pushed to 25,000

dwdmguy · Oct 28, 2009

nancy, i don't think it's enough as well. I think I'm going to stick with the Delta 3200 at 3200.
Thanks

Colin Corneau · Oct 28, 2009

Unless you're burdened with some truly slow lenses (which is not a great idea when you know you're shooting night scenes, anyway)...EI-1600 should be plenty.

So you may have to go down to 1/30th...that's entirely do-able.

2F/2F · Oct 28, 2009

Go for the fastest and most latitudinous film you can find, IMO. That would be Delta 3200, or possibly T-Max 3200, though I have not a ton of experience with the latter. Tri-X is great if you want more contrast than Delta 3200 at a given EI.

Darkroom317 · Oct 28, 2009

Simplicius said:
I tried night shooting people recently and pushed Delta 3200 (120) to 12,800

I'll second this. I tried this with my Rolleicord and the results were excellent. Only problem is that it can be be hard to judge exposure with a hand-held meter. My Sekonic constantly read 0. I have also shot Tmax 3200 at 12,800 in 35mm with a Canon A-1. This was a great combination because of the internal meter. Although the grain was enormous.

Simplicius · Oct 29, 2009

Darkroom317 said:
I'll second this. I tried this with my Rolleicord and the results were excellent. Only problem is that it can be be hard to judge exposure with a hand-held meter. My Sekonic constantly read 0. I have also shot Tmax 3200 at 12,800 in 35mm with a Canon A-1. This was a great combination because of the internal meter. Although the grain was enormous.

My handheld incidence meter, ( your standard sekonic flashmate) only goes up to 6,400 iso so i just set shutter speed on it to 1/50 if i want my reading for 1/100 or i set it at 1/30 to shoot at 1/60. not exactly perfect but the lattitude in film easily allows for any calculation errors by my disfunctional internal organic abacus.. aka brain.

michaelbsc · Oct 29, 2009

mopar_guy said:
My nighttime outfit:

Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic with two Graflites attatched using GE #22 or Sylvania #2 Flashbulbs. T-Max 100 sheet film in double-sided film holders.
Exposure: 15 feet, 1/100 sec, ~f:22
20 feet, 1/100 sec, ~f:16

OK, I'm with you on this, but *PLEASE* point to a source of flashbulbs.

dwdmguy · Oct 29, 2009

Darkroom317 said:
I'll second this. I tried this with my Rolleicord and the results were excellent. Only problem is that it can be be hard to judge exposure with a hand-held meter. My Sekonic constantly read 0. I have also shot Tmax 3200 at 12,800 in 35mm with a Canon A-1. This was a great combination because of the internal meter. Although the grain was enormous.

That is a massive push. I would think that 3200 would be more then enough. No?

JLP · Oct 29, 2009

As to the question about Dafine in rotary processing, yes it works well. I use it for HP5+ and Efke IR and have seen no problems.

Darkroom317 · Oct 29, 2009

dwdmguy said:
That is a massive push. I would think that 3200 would be more then enough. No?

Not when working with action at night.

The main place I've used it is at concerts.

naugastyle · Oct 30, 2009

You'll figure it out once you get there. Some of the groups in the parade are more active than others, and you may decide to push higher. You don't have to decide this minute.

Nicole · Oct 30, 2009

Neopan 1600 - it's a beautiful film and worth working it

Help me decide on which film for nite street shoot pls.

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