Reccomenations for a really slow film please

[Tim Gray]

If tonality, fine grain, and sharpness are what you are after, I stand by my original recommendations. T-Max 100, Delta 100, or Acros. Maybe PanF+. There are finer grained films out there, but a lot slower and sometimes contrastier. They are certainly worth using, but I'd try the films above first and if they aren't going to cut it, look into some of the more specialty films and/or 4x5.

 

[ntenny]

Tonality first but the fine grain as well. Maily tonality.

The speed per se doesn't have much to do with the tonality, though. There's some relationship between grain and perceived tonality---if the grain is fine relative to the size of the image, your eye will see smoother gradations and probably perceive the tonal palette as "richer", but you can achieve that by shooting a larger format as well as by using a finer-grained film, and anyway it's not a true difference in the spectral response.

I mean, don't let me stop you from shooting whatever you feel the desire to, but it seems to me like given your expressed interests, you should be starting from a particular film that has the tonality you like, in a relatively large format to keep the grain from being an issue, rather than starting from "slow is good". Does that make sense? (I've only had one cup of coffee, so the answer could well be "no".)

-NT

 

[salan]

Yes what you say makes good sense. I need to start actually using some film and take it from there
Some pan f+ arrived today with some perceptol so I will start with that.
I can see me starting off in one direction and finding so many distractions en route that I end up down a totally different path years from now lol.
But hey that's some of the fun on a voyage of discovery.

 

[alan doyle]

fine grain film...

salan ping me an email..
i am based in london...
i can let you have a roll of 35mm military aerographic panatomic x...for testing.
it will blow all the other stuff mentioned out of the water
apart from technical pan.and the other difficult high con copy type films.
also have some 8-12 asa aero-con pan film which is cool.

 

[John Shriver]

You can always load the film backwards and expose through the base. Makes it a lot slower.

 

[semeuse]

I use the ADOX CMS 20. I rate it at 6 and develop in Formulary TD-3. I also use Adox CHS50 rated at 25 and stand developed in a very dilute glycin developer.

 

[Boggy1]

I've found it! A film under 1 asa. :wizard:

Unfortunately, its in colour, so its probably not what you were looking for at all

http://www.microcolour.com/ilfochrome.htm

From reading it, it pretty much sounds just like ilfochrome (cibachrome) coated onto a film base. I'm not sure what kind of effect it would give you, but its damn tempting to go find out! I'm not sure that my other half would approve of me starting yet another project

 

[2F/2F]

My suggestion is overexposed and pulled Rollei Pan 25. It is a punchy film as it is, so pulling actually makes it look a bit more "standard" anyhow.

 

[Graham06]

I'm still in the beginner category, though I've been playing for years now. Kodak TMax 100, Ilford Delta 100 and Fuji Acros 100, are all good, and you can't go wrong with them. TMax has the finest grain, but I had bad experiences with under exposing it and losing all shadow detail, so I settled on Delta 100 developed in HC110 B, and the lifelike look I get in 120 format frequently makes me happy.

You should try a roll of 120 Efke 25 too while you are exploring

 

[EdSawyer]

Look around for expired Tech Pan - it's a great film, keeps well, and there is still some out there. It's not hard to find in 35mm , harder to find in 120 and 4x5 or larger.

-Ed

 

[mabman]

Just a note about PanF+ - from personal experience (and there have been threads about this before) it should be developed promptly after exposing. By mistake I left a couple of rolls exposed for over a year, and after developing there was absolutely nothing on the negatives - not even the edge markings. I developed using my standard semi-stand routine, which develops to completion, so if there was something, it would have showed up.

By contrast films like Tech Pan, Tri-X or HP5+ can be left for several years between exposing and developing, and you'll get good images (less base fog, depending on film age and storage).

 

[salan]

Thank you thats well worth knowing. Though in my case I would be too eager to wait lol
Alan

 

[Martin Aislabie]

If you are after fine grain - avoid Rodinal - it has many wonderful chararcteristics but fine grain isn't one of them.

Ilford Perceptol is a fine grained developer which costs 1 stop of film speed (Pan F = 25ASA in Perceptol)

I'm not sure exactly how big you intent to print but with a 6x6 Neg and Ilford Delta you will be grain free all the way up to 20x24

Martin

 

[georg16nik]

No grain with Rodinal and slow film
Attached are a few shots developed in Rodinal.
film is Adox CMS 20

 

[ntenny]

To my taste, one of the reasons to use a fine-grained film is to be able to use an acutance developer without worrying about it causing monster grain. Caffenol, which has no solvent whatsoever and can create pretty whopping grain, goes *very* nicely with Efke 25 in this respect.

-NT