Get a tutorial on basic Sensitometry. Different kinds of films are engineered for potentially different ideal applications. Besides format sizes, exposure speed, granularity, spectral sensitivity, etc, each has what's called a "characteristic curve" which determines how any particular film distributes the light it receives in terms of negative density from low low to high. That's why such curves are routinely published in the tech sheets. These curves can be altered somewhat by the specific type and degree of development; but curves which are widely different in general will produce quite different results trying to handle the same scene contrast. For example, a few times I've carried 120 Pan F into the mountains. The results were lovely and silvery across the board from low contrast scenes in rain, mist, and falling snow. But in open sun high contrast situations the results were very disappointing, because the shadows were all empty and blaah, and the highlights were blown out. The characteristic S-shaped curve of this film just can't handle high contrast. By comparison, a film like FP4 or Acros would do far better, and a film with a very long straight line and short toe like TMax, better still, but in return demands more careful shadow metering. Here on the coast, Pan F can give lovely results during our "natural softbox" conditions when the fog is in, but be quite disappointing when the fog lifts if there is a substantial amount of shadow content in the scene. Our deep redwood forests, for example, can impose an extreme 12 stop range of contrast in open sun conditions, which few films handle well. But Pan F has a wonderful signature of "wire sharpness" that attracts some people to it. Since it's not made in large format sheets, I don't use this film very often, but it's a great option for certain things, and I do shoot it in 120 from time to time.