What's your most recent sheet film?

[Donald Qualls]

Not as many choices as there used to be; even since I started LF in 2003, we've seen Forte and Svema exit the market, Kodak and Fuji reduce the breadth of their offerings, Agfa as we knew them close up shop, pre-loads vanish, peel-apart Polaroid discontinued (except for New55 which, going by price, might incorporate gold leaf in the receptor sheets) -- it's a tough world out there.

BUT you can still buy some of the old standards -- Tri-X, T-max 100 and 400, FP4+ and HP5+ (and the Deltas), and there's still a full suite of Fomapan, plus Adox.

I just loaded up a pair of new-to-me 4x5 Grafmatics (septums tuned up, function checked) with .EDU Ultra 400 (generally believed to be Fomapan 400), mounted my shutterless 13.5cm f/4.5 Tessar on my Annie Speed (Kalart rangefinder is calibrated for this lens), and after I finish my lunch I'll give the focal plane shutter a final check before heading out to Winston-Salem to see what I can see.

Tonight or tomorrow, I'll process the exposed film in replenished Xtol in my Yankee Agitank.

What sheet film have you just loaded or exposed, and if B&W, how do you plan to process it?

 

[Pieter12]

"Mank"

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I still have heaps of 4x5 film, and a few boxes of 8x10. Once the 8x10 is used up, that'll be it. I'll continue shooting 4x5, though. Over the past few years, I've been stocking up on 120. Just picked up a brick of HP5. Got lots of Acros-1, Pan-F, and Rollie IR. I'll be using Xtol-R, D-23, and Pyrocat-HD. I will forever miss HIE!

 

[neilt3]

Main film used for 5x4 is Fomapan 200 , second most used is Rollei Infrared . Both developed in RO9 .

Now I'm up and running with a 7x5 camera I've got three boxes of Fomapan 400 and a Foma Retropan 320 .
All three were bought as a job lot for less than the usual cost of a single box .
Slightly outdated , but that won't matter .
The lockdown ends on Monday , so be getting out soon !

I've almost finished putting together a Frankenstein 10x8 monorail camera that I will also use with Fomapan 200 .

I've used Ilford FP4 and HP5 in 5x4 but quite like the Foma film .
I've also used Kodak Portra , but it's rare that I use colour film , especially at £10 a sheet .
It also has to be said I was fairly unimpressed by it .

 

[Donald Qualls]

Well, £10 a sheet isn't as bad if you don't then have to pay as much or more to have it processed. Since I do my own C-41 and replenish the color developer, it'll cost me less than a dollar to get to a negative. Actually, four sheets 4x5 for less than a dollar. I very much like Portra in 120, so I presume I'll like it in 4x5 as well. Tax refund coming up, might grab a box or two of Portra when it comes in.

 

[awty]

Let us know how the Foma 400 goes. Ive only used it in roll film, not a great film to use, but may be ok for LF. EDU 100 was ok except it usually required an hour long exposure in good light when using my 8x10 pinhole camera.
I have plenty of 24x30cm and 14x17 xray film left. Hp5, delta 100 and Rollie 100 in 8x10, hp5 and fp4 in 4x5 and ilford ortho in 90 x120mm. Enough to keep me going for another year or two. Think I will just be using Foma in the future, as its a bit more affordable than Ilford and does the job.
My most resent is an un opened box of hp5 8x10 expired in 2019, so should be good. Ive been lucky at buying enough pre owned film that is still good to keep me in supply.

 

[Pioneer]

Enjoy the Grafmatic. Good hunting on your photo trip. I'm sure you will have fun.

Since the first of the year I have been experimenting with my 11x14 field camera and I have a couple of boxes of HP5+ to use up before I consider shopping for more. At one or two sheets a week it will probably take me the better part of a year to get through what I have. I suspect my price to replace will probably make me choke.

I have been using D-23 at a 1+3 dilution almost exclusively this past few months, mostly because it is always freshly mixed and consistent.

What I haven't done yet is do any printing from my 11x14 negatives. I finally located my old contact printer in the rafters and got in a package of AEU RC VC paper that is large enough to print on. I'll try that first. If the negatives seem to print well and I like what I am getting I may try to find some 11x14 or larger Lodima paper for future printing tasks.

 

[neilt3]

Well, £10 a sheet isn't as bad if you don't then have to pay as much or more to have it processed. Since I do my own C-41 and replenish the color developer, it'll cost me less than a dollar to get to a negative. Actually, four sheets 4x5 for less than a dollar. I very much like Portra in 120, so I presume I'll like it in 4x5 as well. Tax refund coming up, might grab a box or two of Portra when it comes in.

I've used Portra in 120 myself and liked the results .
So why this was so disappointing , I don't know .
The ones I'd shot I had a someone else develop , and I do wonder if the chemicals needed changing ?
The rest I will be developing myself , so I'll find out sooner or later .

Let us know how the Foma 400 goes. Ive only used it in roll film, not a great film to use, but may be ok for LF. EDU 100 was ok except it usually required an hour long exposure in good light when using my 8x10 pinhole camera.
.

When I read up on it , it wouldn't have been my first choice ( and it wasn't , I've not used it before ) .
But as I was going to get some Foma Retropan 320 in 7x5 anyway , to try with some of my old brass barrel lenses and Petzvals , the three boxes of it were effectively free .
If I don't like it I can always sell it on and get some Fomapan 200 .
When I've tried it out to check my cameras and how best to expose and develop it it , I'll report back .
If it's anything like the 200 I'll be exposing the ISO 400 at around ISO 200 and developing for the time as if it was exposed as ISO 400 .

 

[Tel]

A couple of weeks ago I did some closeup work indoors with my 4x5 Korona, loaded with Portra 160. That stuff is mind-bogglingly good in LF IMHO. That prompted me to do an inventory of my sheet film in the fridge and/or freezer. I have a sizable stash of FP4, Efke 100 and Arista/Foma as well as some Ektar and whole lot more Portra than I thought I had. Most of my Efke stock is 8x10, so I guess I've been rationing it. Now that spring is here, though, I've got to get out there and shoot. Spring and the vaccine....

 

[Donald Qualls]

Clearly I should have included "sheet film" in the thread title, not just in the final question of the starter post. Silly me, for thinking posting this in the Large Format sub-forum would be a hint...

I didn't get to Winston-Salem with the Speed yesterday; we had a rip-snorter of a thunderstorm in early afternoon, about the time I'd have headed out there. I did manage to get out and expose those twelve sheets of .EDU Ultra 400 around the home place, though; the Grafmatics are sitting on the darkroom counter waiting to be unloaded so I can process the film. I know I forgot to cycle the Grafmatic after one exposure before rewinding the focal plane shutter (which winds the open slit back across the film gate -- behind a lens which has no shutter leaves), but I should have eleven negatives with press-style images (hand held, RF focused). Not to mention I've got half a dozen rolls of this and that stacked up. Darkroom day today!

 

[ic-racer]

Donald, I don't know if you have tried the Shanghai. I got a bunch of it for 8x10. It does not have the long tonal range of HP5 or T-max, but for many situations it works very well, for example overcast light. I have my 8x10 film holders loaded with it now.

This 11x14 print is from a shanghai negative.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Plenty of reviews claiming Shanghai GP3 is the worst film available, as well as the cheapest (this may apply in only certain locations; here, either .EDU Ultra or Ultrafine Extreme usually get the "cheapest" honor). That print suggests that, as with other "worst film I ever used" statements, it's usually a matter of expecting the wrong thing.

 

[nosmok]

I just got a good recipe for some SuperXX whole-plate format (6.5 x 8.5) that expired in 1957/1958. I have 6 25-sheet boxes of the stuff, so it'll be fun. Took me 6 sheets shot, 4 developed to get it dialed in at 3 ASA for exposure, 1 hour semi-stand develop in Caffenol CL chilled to 60F or so.

 

[awty]

Donald, I don't know if you have tried the Shanghai. I got a bunch of it for 8x10. It does not have the long tonal range of HP5 or T-max, but for many situations it works very well, for example overcast light. I have my 8x10 film holders loaded with it now.

This 11x14 print is from a shanghai negative.

View attachment 270872

Thats a great picture.

 

[film_man]

I started shooting 4x5 for the first time ever last August and still trying to find what film I like. I get everything done in a lab, no time nor space to do my own. So far I have shot 10x Portra 160, 10x Ektachrome, 10x Ilford Ortho 80.

My stash of film currently still has a box of Bergger Pancro 400, a Portra 160, a box of Ektar and still 12 sheets in the Ortho box. The holders are loaded with 10x sheets of Portra 400 and 2x Ortho. Needless to say I have vastly over estimated how much film I'll be shooting as at my current rate these remaining 60+ sheets will last me a couple of years at least.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Needless to say I have vastly over estimated how much film I'll be shooting

Large format tends to be more contemplative, rather than "shoot a whole roll and hope for two or three keepers." On the other hand, if you really want to spend more money on film and processing, you could look into getting a couple Grafmatics. You can make six exposures in about half again the space of one double dark slide, and (if you want) go through all six in a minute. They were great for press photographers, back when a Speed Graphic, fedora, and cigar were the uniform. Not a major step up for landscapes and architecture, I'd say, but they do make it easier to carry more film. Two Grafmatics is a good day of shooting with a view camera...

 

[film_man]

Large format tends to be more contemplative, rather than "shoot a whole roll and hope for two or three keepers." On the other hand, if you really want to spend more money on film and processing, you could look into getting a couple Grafmatics. You can make six exposures in about half again the space of one double dark slide, and (if you want) go through all six in a minute. They were great for press photographers, back when a Speed Graphic, fedora, and cigar were the uniform. Not a major step up for landscapes and architecture, I'd say, but they do make it easier to carry more film. Two Grafmatics is a good day of shooting with a view camera...

Ha I really do not need to be shooting sheet film faster. I shot a whole box the first weekend I got the camera, then got the lab bill and decided I should probably pace myself a bit or I'd have to sell one of the kids to pay for it all..

 

[cjbecker]

Hp5 for me. Went threw about 150 sheets last year, mostly handheld with the speed graphic. A normal day when I take it out is 4 sheets handheld. The cost is about the same if i use 4 sheets of hp5 or take out the medium format and use a whole roll.

 

[Donald Qualls]

then got the lab bill and decided I should probably pace myself a bit or I'd have to sell one of the kids to pay for it all..

Unless your kids are better than most, you're better off with the film and processing...

Hp5 for me. Went threw about 150 sheets last year, mostly handheld with the speed graphic. A normal day when I take it out is 4 sheets handheld. The cost is about the same if i use 4 sheets of hp5 or take out the medium format and use a whole roll.

Yep, since I shoot mostly .EDU Ultra, I have about the same ratio -- 4-5 sheets same cost as a roll of 120. I look at it as a full Grafmatic with the rebranded Fomapan costing less than a 120 roll of Ilford or Kodak the same speed.

 

[Don_ih]

The most recently used sheet film for me is some Plus-x that was 4x5 that got wet (I got it second-hand) and half stuck together. I cut some down to 2x3 and shot it in a Speed Graphic. The most recent not-ruined film I used was 2x3 fp4+ - in the same Speed Graphic. The most recent sheet film I bought: a 50 box of Arista 400 in 4x5. The most recent sheet film I developed, though: 10 sheets from a Tri-X film pack someone shot in 1957. Got some nice-looking sit-down portraits of a man, a woman, and their son, as well as some xmas photos.
The film pack came with a purchase of old Velox and Azo contact paper - I thought it was unexposed until I pulled it out of the box.

Ah - the weirdest sheet film I tried to use was some Dupont film that had degraded to the point where the emulsion was lifting off. Whatever they used for the base shriveled up over the past 70 years. Almost all the sheets were stuck together. The one I did get to expose developed to an image but 75% of the emulsion fell off, leaving only a spot in the middle.

 

[Donald Qualls]

The one I did get to expose developed to an image but 75% of the emulsion fell off, leaving only a spot in the middle.

I hate when that happens...

 

[Don_ih]

I hate when that happens...

I had high hopes for the film, since it was unopened and the box looked pristine...

 

[focus_on_infinity]

I'm finishing up my first box of Foma 100 now. I'm kind of done goofing with that ancient box of Royal Pan. I shot some FP4+ recently, some HP5, and some old Tri-X. I've shot a bunch of Ektachrome 100 that's awaiting a new batch of developer. But I guess the most recent is the Tri-X.

I'm learning how to calibrate the rangefinder on my Crown Graphic. I need to settle on a lens and a matching cam so I can shoot it hand held more. I'll be able to blast off a lot more film once I start using the Grafmatic backs.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've got an unopened box of Tri-X Ortho (don't recall the expiration, but it's a while ago) to try out soon. Nice to be able to load under red safelight, but where to find developing times...

 

[Tel]

Donald, I don't know if you have tried the Shanghai. I got a bunch of it for 8x10. It does not have the long tonal range of HP5 or T-max, but for many situations it works very well, for example overcast light. I have my 8x10 film holders loaded with it now.

This 11x14 print is from a shanghai negative.

View attachment 270872

Plenty of reviews claiming Shanghai GP3 is the worst film available, as well as the cheapest (this may apply in only certain locations; here, either .EDU Ultra or Ultrafine Extreme usually get the "cheapest" honor). That print suggests that, as with other "worst film I ever used" statements, it's usually a matter of expecting the wrong thing.