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

[mdarnton]

1/Tri-x
2/ . . .
3/ . . .

Mostly I'm shooting a lot of x-ray film these days. Does that count?

 

[Sirius Glass]

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

 

[alanrockwood]

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

Go ahead. Three is kind of an arbitrary number, somewhere between "not enough" and "more than enough."

 

[Louis Nargi]

Tri-x and Verichrome pan 120

 

[Nige]

Too cool to be true! You must have access to a time machine...

I almost threw a roll of HIE in there too!

 

[mooseontheloose]

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.

 

[aleckurgan]

HIE
Delta 3200
Fomapan 100

 

[JWMster]

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]

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

 

[P.johnson14]

1) FP4+
2) HP5+
3) Tri-x

 

[mpirie]

1) Tech Pan
2) HIE
3) FP4+

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Nice to see some of you want HIE!

 

[mooseontheloose]

Nice to see some of you want HIE!

I would love HIE too, but I don't have it on my list because it's not currently available.

 

[naaldvoerder]

FP4
HP5
HIE

 

[Down Under]

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.

 

[eunified61]

Pan F+...
Acros100...
Tri x 400

 

[Huub]

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

 

[Laurent]

1) HP5+
2) HP5+
3) HP5+

 

[stormpetrel]

Neopan Acros 100
TriX / Bergger pancro 400
TMY

 

[kossi008]

1. FP4+
2. HP5+
3. Pan F+
(in decreasing priority)

 

[kossi008]

With time machine:
1. APX 100
2. HP5+
3. APX 25

 

[mrosenlof]

hp5+
tmx
delta 3200

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

 

[Sirius Glass]

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

 

[Lachlan Young]

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?

 

[alanrockwood]

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?

I could live with that.