Reg :- What film do you prefer ?

[abhishek@1985]

Hi,

I am interested to know what film do you guys use for pinhole? I am a fairly new pinhole photographer and have been using Fuji Acros 100 with my Zero Image 6x6.
While Fuji Acros is exceptional in reciprocity , the sharpness and contrast of the negative is less.
Just want to know what films do you use and prefer for pinhole photography? I plan to print the same in 12" x 12" in teh future and hence would like to know the choices I have to use a film that is sharp enough and not much contrasty to work with.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Hello,

Nice to see another person from the Twin Cities here.

I use Fomapan 100 for pinhole. It has terrible reciprocity, which is great for pinhole photography (in my opinion).

Sharpness and contrast is something that is greatly determined by the quality and the roundness of the pinhole in your camera, and the Zero is really good. By using Acros you have one of the sharpest films available to you, and almost any other film will be less sharp, Fomapan 100 included. Another good film is Ilford Pan-F+, which is a little grainier than Acros, but also easily develops very high contrast.

Enlargements at 12x12" from 6x6 pinhole is never going to be sharp.

Nice to see another Minneapolis person here.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Hi,

I am interested to know what film do you guys use for pinhole? I am a fairly new pinhole photographer and have been using Fuji Acros 100 with my Zero Image 6x6.
While Fuji Acros is exceptional in reciprocity , the sharpness and contrast of the negative is less.
Just want to know what films do you use and prefer for pinhole photography? I plan to print the same in 12" x 12" in teh future and hence would like to know the choices I have to use a film that is sharp enough and not much contrasty to work with.

Regards,
Abhishek

ACROS 100 is an excellent choice. I shoot this in the 6x6 format (ZeroImage multiformat pinhole), or Provia 100F when colour is called for (rarely). All images are multi-spot metered. I do not use these films for sharpness, but for convenience. They both do the job excellently.

I'm not too fussed about getting a perfect image at any size from a pinhole camera; you are essentially experimenting with the earliest form of photography and shouldn't be expecting super-duper razor sharp, detail-rich exposures. If that's what you want, a Hasselblad is calling.

 

[abhishek@1985]

Thanks a lot guys..
Well may be I blame that to my hasselblad looking for sharp images
However, wanna know what other pinhole photographers prefer for films in a 120 format as I am very much new to the pinhole world.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Anything works fine with pinhole. I've used it all from Acros, Shanghai GP3, HP5+, Tri-X, Tmax 100/400, Efke 25, Fortepan 400, etc. in my Zero Image.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Consider also that you don't have to use conventional 120 film!
A sheet of X-ray film; paper negative, (true) IR film... any of these can be used (IR film requires the red windows on the rear of the camera to be sealed with tin foil).

 

[Romary]

I use Across 100 for the 120 format and FP4+ for 135.
But as it has been said, all film work.

 

[gone]

I'm back to shooting Tri-X only. It works. Had some trouble w/ the Arista Premium version recently, so it's back to the Yellow Box.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

unexposed

 

[removed account4]

hi Abhishek

great to see you here again

im sort of an outcast
and love using paper instead of film

bottle of liquid emulsion ( or hand mixed )
coating a strip of paper you can roll onto 120 spools
there is a guy in france selling thin precoated mulberry paper ( washi paper ) which looks perfect ..
but i am sure if there is an art supply store and lots of low fiber, thinnish papers will work ...

regular old rc paper taped end to end an spooled on 120 film spools works too ( low tech )
i have a graflex 3a that i do this with all the time
rate your paper ( and bottled emulsion ) anywhere between iso 1 and 24
it really depends on the amount of blue light so it varies ..

good luck !
john

 

[pdeeh]

But who is Reg ?

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Xray film.

 

[abhishek@1985]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions.
So, I am particularly intrigued with Ilford SFX film in 120 . Wanna know how do you shoot it in pinhole . Do you rate it at say 6 ASA with the use of a red filter?

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I have never used a filter in a pinhole camera, but don't let that stop you! Try it!

 

[ScarletBrown]

I always used Fortepan 400 during pinhole photography.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Keep in mind that you have virtually infinite depth of field with a pinhole, so any dust speck on the filter is likely to show up somehow.
You might try putting a gel filter inside the camera.
Though, with effective ISO of 6, and reciprocity failure, you might be in for some very long exposures, even at mid day. I would bracket exposures, for sure.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

never had that kind of DOFand my dust is always in the sky for reasons of gravity. no bracketing;just f/256 andbox speed and normal reciprocity compensation but often to make paper negativesinstead of film