• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

High contrast / low ISO film stock

Joseph Bell

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
Messages
275
Location
Toronto
Format
35mm
Hello fine people! I am looking for a naturally contrasty black-and-white film with as low an ISO as possible. I am interested in 35mm as well as 120. If you have any recommendations, I'd be most grateful. For the moment I'll be sending the films to the lab and I'm not sure which developer they'll use, but certainly I'll have no say in the matter!
Sincere thanks for your help.
 
Eastman 2237 can be shot at EI 6 and is quite contrasty in normal developers. 2238 is similar. Microfilms like Fuji Super HR, Agfa Copex Rapid, and Adox CMS 20 II are also extremely contrasty and low speed.
 
Last edited:
In my experience Rollei Retro 80s checks both boxes there. I've shot several rolls recently, several on a bright sunny day's and another when it was overcast. Even on the overcast day the shots were quite contrasty, even more so on the sunny days. It also has very fine grain as well, at least in my experience developed in Pyrocat HD.
Here are several scans from the latest roll (35mm), I had to tame the exposure a little when scanned: The last two were in fading light, so I bracketed +1 stop from EI40
 
Lower ISO = greater contrast. Any low ISO film will be very contrasty. So look for ISO 25 films.
 
Contrast can be controlled by altering development times.
 
How about Ilford Ortho plus? Not a slow film, but it is capable of achieving some tasty contrast. depending on the colors of what you are photographing, its color sensitivity might help.

Otherwise -- something along the lines of litho film would be an extreme. Don't know if it is available as a roll film.
 
Adox CMS 20 II with their developer
 
Vaughn said:
litho film would be an extreme. Don't know if it is available as a roll film.
Click to expand...

It's not, really. Adox CMS 20 is probably the closest.

I have a bulk roll of the slowest, highest contrast pan film ever made: Kodak High Contrast Panchromatic Copy Film. It's .... borderline useless.

A few years ago, you could buy Bluefire Police film, which was a "fast" duplicating film (or maybe even a film for oscilloscopes - although it's panchromatic ... maybe?). They claimed it was iso80 - it's probably closer to iso20. It curls up like Shirley Temple's hair. It's pretty terrible, really - but it is high contrast. I have some of that, too, lurking around....
 
beemermark said:
Lower ISO = greater contrast. Any low ISO film will be very contrasty. So look for ISO 25 films.
Click to expand...

That is not strictly true. Plenty of examples of low contrast, slow films abound although many are obsolete: Panatomic X, Verichrome Pan, etc.. On the not-obsolete side, Rollei RPX is an example. Even my ASA 2 dry plates have a contrast near normal film. Current trends means many of the slower films have higher contrast, but that wasn’t the case in the past.
Contrast is a function of the emulsion formulation. Speed is a related but separate lever.
 
Last edited:

Foma 100 at 50.
Shot with a Olympus Infinity Stylus. The stylus sets any non DX coded to 50 by default.

I believe the Lomo film you mentioned is 35mm only.



 
Last edited:
This will sound strange and is based solely on what I have seen as examples of frames of this film. NBStrange in the sense of why include it in this thread when it is not low ISO. The box says 400 but that may be up for debate

The film is called JCH Streetpan. JCH stands for Japanese Film Hunter and the film exists with its name thanks to someone called Bellamy Hunt I saw an example of it shot by a person called Jess Hobbs when she did a 3 way comparison with this, Tri-X and HP5+. The film did appear to be considerably contrastier in all of her shots compared with the other two films with a lot less shadow detail so this certainly seems to qualify it as moody and film noirish to some reviewers. She(Jess Hobbs) shot identical scenes one after the other with 3 identical cameras, namely Pentax K1000.

Apparently the film is discontinued Agfa surveillance film. I was a bit puzzled in the review by this quote: "Let the record show – this film is a discontinued 35mm black-and-white surveillance film (originally manufactured by AGFA) that has been brought back from the grave. JCH Street Pan is not, as some have claimed, leftover film stock pulled out of deep freeze or something naughty like that. It’s freshly made and ready for shooting. We clear? Lovely."

Puzzled in the sense of how it can be both discontinued and freshly made at the same time but no matter. Anyway that is irrelevant to the outcome of the exposures.

I attach the review which includes quite a few examples.Here's the link. https://casualphotophile.com/2017/01/28/japan-camera-hunter-street-pan-400-six-months-in. The contrast in these examples looks as high as I imagine anyone is likely to want to go.

It may or may not be of any value to you

pentaxuser
 
Thank

thank you kindly! For 35mm, Fantome Kino sounds perfect!
 
Sincere thanks to everyone for your great responses, I certainly appreciate it. For 35mm, I will try the Lomography iso 8 film. I just need to find something for 120. I have tried the Ilford Pan F 50 but I didn't love the look of it. Perhaps I am a moron and a philistine!
 

thank you very much. I've heard of this film and would like to try it. For this particular project, iso400 is much too high, but I'll certainly try the JCH in the future.
 

You need to run the pan f through D23 1+3. Absolutely gorgeous. EI25.
 
Andrew O'Neill said:
You need to run the pan f through D23 1+3. Absolutely gorgeous. EI25.
Click to expand...

i believe you! Unfortunately, for the moment I am at the mercy of my lab's choice of developers, and who knows what they used for the Pan F. It looked nice enough, but nothing special. I'll look forward to getting back to home developing in the future and I'll be sure to give your recipe a try. Thank you!
 
ilford ortho - iso 25
Dev . kalogen 1:100 13 min @ 20C
 

Attachments

  • 229636722_4317944951601980_5577832430649763749_n.jpg
    383.3 KB · Views: 124
  • 228798372_4317945101601965_7550262386722227224_n.jpg
    375.9 KB · Views: 104
  • 229625957_4317944354935373_859086853202710082_n.jpg
    394.7 KB · Views: 112
If the speed on the box is not taken into account but the "real" speed for the purposes of exposure with high contrast, black shadows and bright highlights then P30 may fit the bill. It would look as if this film may not even be 40. Have a look at Adrian Bacon's finding on P30 and Xtol
Film Ferrania P30 H+D Curve with Replenished XTOL for 11:15 at 24C and 1 inversion every 2 minutes
A development time resource for replenished XTOL and Film Ferrania P30

pentaxuser
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register