Recomedations for film, 120 bw for long exposures

[luis ducoing]

Hello, I live in mexico and here film is 40% more expensive, I will be pacing an order for in BH or Freestyle to stook up, I will be using it for landscape long exposures on a tripod. what should I ordrer? a little of everything or a lot of one kind to have consistency, I have used only kodak tri-x 400 and 125PX wich I develop in HC-110 dil H, also,should I get some developer that is not avalible here like rodinal? Tank you very much.

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Kodak T-Max 400 is very good for long exposures and I use that, some people like Fuji Acros 100 because it doesn't suffer from reciprocity failure the way other films do. The two films will give quite different looks.

I use TMY2 for night shots where exposures run into tens of minutes and process in either DD23 or Pyrocat-HD. I don't personally like T-Max 400 for daytime shots, even long exposures.

Are your exposures at night and what do you mean by long? What are your subjects and do you expect huge subject brightness ranges? Knowing this will help people give better advice.

 

[SamWeiss]

Fujifilm's Neopan 100 ("Acros") has remarkable ability for long exposures, not really suffering reciprocity failure until well past most other films. Fujifilm doesn't even recommend increasing exposure until 120 seconds (2 minutes) is reached! I've regularly made 6 to 12 sec exposures with Acros without worrying at all about reciprocity failure.

And even more good news... Acros is one of the least expensive b&w films in 120 size!

However, note that while nominally and ISO 100 film, I use it now with an E.I. of around 50. Acros does not like to be underexposed.

 

[sanking]

Another vote for Acros. It has remarkably low reciprocity failure and in low lighting conditions actual exposure times are less than with much faster films.

Sandy King

Fujifilm's Neopan 100 ("Acros") has remarkable ability for long exposures, not really suffering reciprocity failure until well past most other films. Fujifilm doesn't even recommend increasing exposure until 120 seconds (2 minutes) is reached! I've regularly made 6 to 12 sec exposures with Acros without worrying at all about reciprocity failure.

And even more good news... Acros is one of the least expensive b&w films in 120 size!

However, note that while nominally and ISO 100 film, I use it now with an E.I. of around 50. Acros does not like to be underexposed.

 

[luis ducoing]

Mattew, Sam, Saking Thank you!
I will be using it for long exposures at night under city lights wich go between 30sec to 2min.
But also want to shoot beach landscapes at dawn-dusk for the blured moving water effect, which are like 2 to 5 minutes and there is a large diference between land and water brightness.
Also very long 30min-1hour moon light landscapes.
Mattew why do you preffer tmax 400 over 100, I was under the impression (little knowledge) that a slower film using a tripod was better just give it as long time as necesary, also what would be a good developer conbination for neopan acros 100, for this type of exposure (I am curious to try pyrocat for the stained look) I am scaning now(epson V750) but I realy want to print in an enlarger and will be buying one soon, Tank you again!

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Hi Luis,
the reason I like T-Max 400 over Acros 100 isn't due to film speed. It's soley due to the fact that I feel night time exposures with Acros don't have the look I like. Others like it so it's definitely one you should try. One advantage of not experiencing such drastic reciprocity failure is that Acros will help you control contrast in night scenes more easily than other films.

In fact, because of Acros' unique ability regarding the reciprocity law, Acros actually becomes faster than TMax 400 at exposures of around 2 minutes and longer.

All this talking's got me thinking, I've had a very difficult time with a particular subject on Tmax, I'm going to try it on Acros to see if it helps. Luis, why not buy 5 rolls of each and see what you think, you won't know which is for you until you try it yourself.

I don't know about developers for Acros but if you do a search here you'll find a lot of info.

 

[luis ducoing]

Thank you Matthew I will follow your advise!

 

[joko]

How fast is that water moving? You may not need many minutes worth of exposure for that. Oftentimes, I find anything over half a second will be more than enough. Might even be too much.

My recommendation would have been Pan F+. It's worked well for me in the past.

If you really have a very long time requirement, I would recommend in 35mm EDUPE; it's a color slide film, unfortunately not available in 120mm. It is built for duplicating, is extremely slow, ISO 12-ish, and has a pretty good tolerance for the longer exposures. Kodak says it's good for quite awhile; I'd have to check the tech specs, but off the top of my head, I think I remember it being about 10X longer than what I would have expected; it will accept a much longer exposure before a reciprocity factor kicks in.

I know it's outside of what you were asking for; wrong size and process; but, it has such a great tolerance for long exposures, that your desire to keep the shutter open for so long reminded me of it. J.

 

[Jon Shiu]

My favorite is Ilford HP5+. I mostly take long exposures at the shore at twilight, so the reciprocity failure and increased contrast come in handy for me. Some examples are on my website: www.jonshiu.com

Jon

 

[luis ducoing]

Jon your work is amasing congratulations and thank you for sharing. That kind of art is what I aspire to in my personal project. You just joined my list along Michael Kena
for inspiration! I know its not the camera..or the film..or the developer but if HP5+ is what you use that is what Im buying haha by the way what developer do you use? Thanks you again (taking my hat off one knee in the floor)http://www.flickr.com/photos/10514303@N05/ (very humble BW portfolio)

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Hey, Luis. Your work is quite good. That self portrait has wonderful tonality and texture. The general school of thought for long exposures is that the lower ISO films tend to have less obvious grain than the higher ones. I would tend to try films like Pan F 50 or FP4 Plus rather than 400 speed films, but try a few and see what you like, for that is the only thing which really matters.

 

[luis ducoing]

Thank you very much for sharing Kevin!

 

[Larry.Manuel]

I've had great luck with Acros at night. It does well at box speed in Rodinal, and I've found it still great at Exposure Index 200 in DD-X. This is 120 size.

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Beautiful shots in there Luis. Your night and dusk shots are very beautiful. As you start moving towards printing in the darkroom you might want to read up here on compensating developers, stand development, and divided development. It does seem from your scans that you're getting good results out of Tri-X already, you will find the ability to tweak development might make your negatives easier to print.

Do try Pan-F, exceptionally beautiful film.

 

[luis ducoing]

Thank you for your kind imput Mattew I look forward to this learning process in this great comunity, I am a student and you are all my mentors!

 

[mike c]

A very impressive portfolio Luis,what ever film you take I'm sure you will make good photographs.

 

[luis ducoing]

Thank you for your comment Mike! It is hard for a beginer like me not chase the magic bullet of equipment, film and developers I promess I will do it as little as posible!

 

[mike c]

Its only natural to lust for more film and equipment, what you need is the 12 step program to fight G.A.S.