If you could shoot only one Black & White film, what would it be?

[braxus]

Its a toss up between Panatomic X and Efke 25. I have both in my stash, but they both offer slightly different looks to each other.

 

[George Mann]

Pan X.

 

[GregY]

I hear of a lot of people shooting and developing XP2 as classical B&W film.

ILFORD XP2 Super in black and white chemistry

Chris Moss takes us along on his journey where he develops ILFORD XP2S shot at various speeds in black and white chemistry,

www.ilfordphoto.com

That is true Mark, but I can see why a somewhat unique film like XP2 wouldn't be at the top of people's list as a one & only. Efke 25 & Agfapan 25 have fine grain & tonality (+for smaller formats), Tri-X it's classic grittiness. TMX & TMY-2, smoothness and expansion/contraction abilities. FP4+ it beautiful tonality (in larger formats) & consistent versatility under a variety of conditions....

 

[Ben 4]

Current version of TMY—no question in my mind.

 

[Marcelo Paniagua]

Well currently Rollei RPX 400 is my favorite. My all time favorite is Delta 400 though.

 

[pentaxuser]

I assume a question as open as this with no qualifications about speed, price etc will cease i.e. die of natural causes when every b&w film has been mentioned

I am never sure what help such questions are to the person asking. All we are doing is listing films which is of course all we have been asked to do. So the OP ends up with a list of films

pentaxuser

 

[GregY]

I assume a question as open as this with no qualifications about speed, price etc will cease i.e. die of natural causes when every b&w film has been mentioned

I am never sure what help such questions are to the person asking. All we are doing is listing films which is of course all we have been asked to do. So the OP ends up with a list of films

pentaxuser

Yes, the 'why' of the choices could really be the interesting part.

 

[Duceman]

TMY-2

 

[madNbad]

Well currently Rollei RPX 400 is my favorite. My all time favorite is Delta 400 though.

Woohoo! A vote for Delta!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes, the 'why' of the choices could really be the interesting part.

There are not a lot of choices for each speed film, so it comes down to Kodak or Ilford and traditional or tabular grain for most cases. Discussing grain choices quickly becomes a religious discussion.

 

[StepheKoontz]

Interesting responses.

It looks like Ilford FP4+ (what an awkward name!) is the most common candidate. Perhaps Kodak was short sighted dropping Plus-X. Not perhaps, definitely. What a grand film it was.

Yeah, dropping plus-x was a mistake, but Kodak has made so many.

 

[Jay Schrotenboer]

Interesting responses.

It looks like Ilford FP4+ (what an awkward name!) is the most common candidate. Perhaps Kodak was short sighted dropping Plus-X. Not perhaps, definitely. What a grand film it was.

TMY-2 is frequently mentioned, but often with a cost caveat. Boy, I get that! Even bulk loading, best current price, call it $9/roll.

I'm surprised XP-2 didn't get more nods. Very fine grain, very versatile exposure indexes.

The discontinuation of plus-x is the reason I am using FP4+. I do wish it was still available, but I’m not sure I would switch back if Kodak reintroduced it.

 

[studiocarter]

16mm 7222

 

[Besk]

Favorite: TMY2 But I am hoarding my stash from 120 to 5x7 and shooting expired Try-x in 4x5 mostly.

 

[Dusty Negative]

The answer is clear: Fomapan 200.

 

[Jos Segers]

FP4+ because it is one of the few classic non-tabular films still available. The film allows for trouble-free exposure and delivers first-class negatives in most developers. It stains well in Pyrogallol.

 

[brian steinberger]

Ilford HP5

 

[Adrian Bacon]

For 35mm, Fomapan 200. I bulk roll it. A close second is HP5+, which I also bulk roll, but I default to Fomapan 200 because I most often shoot during the day and my cameras that I have available to me don't do so well with faster shutter speeds, and I prefer to shoot in the f5.6-f/8 range, and I like Foma 200 better than Foma 100 for general documentary type photography. Fomapan 200 has a very straight H+D curve and tops out at ~3.6 Log density, so handles being shot at 100 and even 50 without much issue minus the blooming of light sources that starts to creep in with hotter exposures. For some reason, I really like Foma films in small format, weird, I know. I'd shoot Foma 400 instead of HP5+ as a second choice if it were faster than it actually is, but HP5 has it beat by a solid stop+ in real usable speed and has finer grain to boot.

For 120, HP5+ all day every day, followed closely by Delta 3200 @ 1250. I only shoot 6x9 and sometimes 6x6 in 120.

For sheet, I'd be hard pressed to stick to just one. For my pinhole work, TMY2 because it just has superior reciprocity relative to other emulsions available in sheet, but if using a real lens, Fomapan 100 hands down, simply because most of my lensed sheet work is people and I absolutely love the way Fomapan 100 renders skin. It just has that classical old timey look and feel to it that I just haven't seen with other BW emulsions. A very close second is Fomapan 200 for general purpose sheet work. I guess I like Foma films in sheet too. There's nothing wrong with other films, but I just seem to like the very old school analog feel of Foma films.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Interesting responses.

It looks like Ilford FP4+ (what an awkward name!) is the most common candidate. Perhaps Kodak was short sighted dropping Plus-X. Not perhaps, definitely. What a grand film it was.

TMY-2 is frequently mentioned, but often with a cost caveat. Boy, I get that! Even bulk loading, best current price, call it $9/roll.

I'm surprised XP-2 didn't get more nods. Very fine grain, very versatile exposure indexes.

FP4+ is relatively popular among people here in this forum, however, I can tell you as an Amazon retailer who sells a large amount of film online, FP4+ is not a heavy mover, not even remotely close. HP5+ and 400TX are the prime movers.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

The answer is clear: Fomapan 200.

My Man.... Fomapan 200 generally isn't given much love, but in many respects it is an unsung hero.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

FP4+ is relatively popular among people here in this forum, however, I can tell you as an Amazon retailer who sells a large amount of film online, FP4+ is not a heavy mover, not even remotely close. HP5+ and 400TX are the prime movers.

Interesting! Where does XP2 Super stand?

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Interesting! Where does XP2 Super stand?

Even less.

 

[John Wiegerink]

My Man.... Fomapan 200 generally isn't given much love, but in many respects it is an unsung hero.

Foma 200???? The verdict is still out on Foma 200 for me. Actually, I just shot my first small roll (from bulk) in 35mm. I developed it in Adox FX39II and while I think my starting development times are a bit too long, the negatives look very good. I'm going to run another short roll today and cut my development times 20%. Also, looking at my shadow detail, I'd say I should rate it at around ISO125 and not ISO200. Just my metering, of course. I still stick by my TMY2 pick so far.

 

[JerseyDoug]

35mm Foma 400. Cost is an issue for me and Foma 400 and Rodinal seem to be made for each other. (I print relatively small - 8x12 max.)

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've been ignoring this thread for a while, but just today it occurred to me -- it'd have to be XP-2 Super. Extreme latitude: shoot from EI 50 to 800 with no change in development, can be pushed and pulled, can be bleach bypassed to gain density (roughly a stop equivalent, whether that's a stop of push or of real speed) -- and it can be developed in B&W chemistry (including the photo traveler's friend, Cinestill Df96 -- use double time as you would with T-Max or Delta films) with fairly similar results to C-41. Just about the only thing it won't do that you might do intentionally with traditional B&W films is produce big grain -- and I'm more likely to get that by shooting small film (35 mm or slit down to 16 mm) and enlarging a lot; given a grain structure similar to Delta 400, you can get grain this way, if you want it (though IMO it'll be ugly).

It's not my main go-to film at present because of costs -- I buy Foma or Kentmere (or rebrands of them), but if it were the ONLY B&W film I'll ever be able to buy forever...