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If there could only be three black and white films...

Sirius Glass

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Why can't we have four black & white films?
 

mooseontheloose

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For me, with current films it would be:
1. Acros 100
2. Tri-X or HP5+
3. Rollei 80s or 400s - good black and white and can also do infrared, no need to change rolls.
4. If I could add a fourth it would be Delta 400, a film I only started to shoot since last year and that I like more and more.
 

JWMster

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My two:

1) FP4+
2) TMAX 400 (Would use HP5+ if Kodak rebites the dust)

If you have to have three, the 3rd is a wildcard. "Just for fun". Acros only if you have to (stuff has to much curl).
 

Vw1302

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My choice:
1) Fomapan 100 Pro (120)
2) FP4 (120,135)
3) HP5 (120,135)
 

mooseontheloose

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Down Under

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For several decades I bought and tested every film, new or old, I found on the market. So I now have a freezer at home exclusively dedicated to things photographic and filled with odd lots of just about every film produced since the 1980s - Kodak Panatomic-X and Plus-X, even Verichrome Pan, Fuji B&W, Agfa and a big lot of Efke 120, probably 100+ rolls, as I liked this film a lot and bought up big but then they discontinued it and, oh well, you know.

So what do I use these days? For 35mm, Rollei 100 and 400 (in 30 cm/100 ft bulk rolls), which suits me just about every which way for the small lots of 35mm photography I do. In 120, four films only. The two Tmaxes, Ilford HP5+ and FP4+.

If I had to cut down to only one, I would go with one of the 400s. Whichever, it doesn't matter. Just now the Ilfords edge out the Kodaks by a very small margin. Both are essentially the same in terms of the end results I shoot for and expect.

Such are the joys of shooting 120 in Rolleiflex TLRs. Astounding sharpness, ease of handling, fast processing.

We live in a wonderful world, photographically speaking.
 

Huub

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I think i can do with just two B&W films: Tri-X and P55. I really miss that last one.
 

Laurent

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1) HP5+
2) HP5+
3) HP5+
 

mrosenlof

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hp5+
tmx
delta 3200

I shoot all at half box speed, rodinal for tmx, hc-110 for the others
 

Sirius Glass

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Well if we list HIE, why not Panatomic-X, Royal-X Pan, Plus-X ...
 

Lachlan Young

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It's also easy to forget that not so long ago, in the pre-ultra-high-speed (TMZ & D3200) era, most manufacturers had a core range of 2-3 B&W films & that of those, the slow films (Pan-F, FX, etc) were really marketed towards the 'Advanced Amateur' who either didn't have/ didn't want/ couldn't afford to move up a format size to get finer grain. How many of you could live with only FP4/ HP5 or PX/ TX etc (or their successors) today?
 
OP
OP

alanrockwood

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I could live with that.
 
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