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Neopan 400 alternative

advinhifi

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I am looking for a Neopan 400 120 film seeing as it's now being discontinued.
I am working on a series where I shoot in low light...or just lights from car park lights/normal bulbs...I've attached a sample or two...any recommendations?
I'm confused as to which way to turn.
Delta 400? or Tri-X? or The new Kodak Tmax or maybe even another llford or??



or

 

BetterSense

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TMY is the next thing I know of. For some reason, Neopan 400 had a unique look. I have no idea why or how to replicate it.
 

mrred

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Its pretty amazing stuff. I'm not sure TMY can do what I do with it. I have 2 rolls left for that special situation.

Here is something shot at ei3200 (xtol). Beautiful tones...

 

Curt

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Can anyone tell me how the 400 compares with Acros 100? I feel for your situation; its annoying when a film is found and the testing is done only to have it discontinued. It's makes me think that Ilford is the most solid film company now. I'm not a huge fan of HP5; mostly because I haven't used it much instead I use Tri-X. I'm a 120 user too so I hope more people will add to this thread.

I switched to FP4 in sheet and it's excellent, I know that it's not a higher speed film but it's one well worth looking at.

Curt
 

michael9793

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great I just get comfortable with neopan and now they are going to discontinue it. tri-x is great but in sheet film Kodak makes it only possible for the rich to own it. and pack it in that stupid 10 sheet box. This is probably there way of making it so hard to own that they can show the stock holder how still making film isn't profitable and we need to just make poorly made digital cameras. Still tri-x does give you great tones. I just shot 120 sheets in Yellowstone and developed it in pyrocat- HD with i have posted a few of them recently. I guess that will have to be the direction i'll have to go.
mike
 

tjaded

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Brandon D.

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I haven't seen anything that looks like Neopan 400. Looks like you'll have no choice but to do your own comparison test with films that are available (e.g., HP5+, Delta 400, T-Max 400, and etc.)
 

jp498

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I have not used neopan 400, but tmax400 will be a top choice for high quality low light. I have used the acros100 and either didn't mess with it enough or didn't care for it. I couldn't get the shadows the way I wanted. I haven't used the HP5+ or delta for a long time, so I can't comment on that.

Tmax400 is very push-able, versatile, fine grain t-grain film. For full film speed develop it in xtol 1+1, d76, or tmax developer.

If you don't mind a half stop slower, PMK will produce slightly nicer midtones and highlights in the high-contrast lighting such as might be used in your theater stage photo.

Either way you develop it, you can control the highlight detail (which seems to be very important in your two sample images) very easily when printing. The detail is there, it's just what choices of contrast and exposure you utilize to get different results when printing.

Tri-x is nice too for tones, but I am spoiled by the fine grain I get with tmax400. It's kinda the difference between kosher salt and road salt, the grain size thing.
 

Colin Corneau

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Another vote for TMY-II, but also want to give some love for Ilford's Delta 400. I think this is a bit of an unsung hero -- I've used it mostly pushed to EI-800 but have been really pleased with the sharpness and tone of it.

I've used HP5+ too but not as much -- it seems a very good all-around film and especially so for pushing, but not sure the look or grain is as close as the previous 2 films I've mentioned.
 

Tom Stanworth

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Nothing replaces it really. TriX has beautiful tonality IMHO but more grain and much lower resolution. D400 has a more modern look and a touch more resolution that Neo 400. HP5+ is nothing like it. TMY2 I dont know about, but likely finer grained and also more modern looking like D400, so..... you are in the same boat as the rest of us.

I am about to head out on a trip and need about 40 rolls of 120 and I still cant make up my mind what to take in place of the Neopan 400. Prob Tri X
 

brian steinberger

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Join the club. I was a huge follower of Neopan 400. I, like others have been struggling for quite some time to find and replacement. My conclusions are the same as Tom's. Right now I'm using alot of Tri-x as a replacement. It's ok, but not Neopan. I've been developing Tri-x in ID-11 1:1, but am going to give either TMAX developer or Xtol a try to see if I can get more speed out of it. HP5 is good too, but I find as mentioned above it has to be pushed one stop and overdeveloped, still nice negatives though, but no where near Neopan. Delta 400 I didn't get along with. TMY-II is a great film on the stats sheet, but I find the tonality not so great, though pushed it is better. For what you wanna do I would recommend TMY-II simply for long exposure work.

The one film I've found that is wonderful and I use as much as I can is FP4, absolutely wonderful, but I still need a 400 speed film for some of my work. I pray that Fuji surprises us and brings Neopan back, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
OP
OP

advinhifi

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Has anyone spoken to Fuji or got a contact there where we can find more information about whether they will bring a replacement 120 400 speed film out?
I can't imagine they'd leave that gap in the market?

I'm going to attempt using TMY-II but everywhere I go I am getting different responses. Some say Tri-x is the way, others TMY-II. I guess as long as I can get good negatives then most of my work I can change the tones/shading in the darkroom at the print stage...
 

hpulley

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When they recently discontinued Neopan 1600 in 35mm we asked them about that and it sounds like they're really having trouble making small batches of film AT ALL. You shouldn't hold your breath waiting for any new B&W film from them... it's more a question of what will they discontinue next? Start finding your replacements now.

Ilford Delta and Kodak T-Max are Tabular grain films like Fuji Neopan so my suggestion is to try them rather than Tri-X or HP5+ which are old style grain films. I'm using Delta in place of Neopan with Ilfotec DD-X and HC-110 developers for good results.
 

hpulley

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advinhifi said:
Have they discontinued Neopan 1600?!
That's my staple film for 35mm photography? I haven't heard of them discontinuing that. It'd be a disaster if they did !
Click to expand...

It's a disaster then, sorry... I hope you have a freezer full. Otherwise start trying Delta 3200 and TMZ as well I guess, I've been using Delta 3200 and quite liking it.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
 

IloveTLRs

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Perhaps Japan Exposures ships overseas?
They stock Super Presto 1600 (it's not discontinued in Japan.) Maybe what one poster on APUG said was right: Fuji and Kodak seem to be retreating to their home markets ...
 
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