Which film for pinhole photography?

[cmo]

The global pinhole day: April 27, 2008

http://www.pinholeday.org/

A question for the experienced pinhole photographers:

Which film is good for this type of photography?

I expect that a very good latitude is essential, and that films that do not need high factors for long exposures are good.

What do you recommend?

 

[walter23]

I've just been using good old FP4+. No problems; I give it a couple stops for reciprocity failure (pretty much always); I don't mind slightly dense negatives.

Something 400 speed might be good if you want faster exposures and don't mind the grain.

Some of my stuff with it is in here:
Dead Link Removed

(It's not all pinhole, but in most cases it should be obvious).

 

[rwyoung]

Any film will work but you do need to be aware of reciprocity failures. Some poop out sooner than others. I've been playing around with a modified Pacemaker Graphic and RH10 back using Foma 100 and also HP5+ & Tmax400 (that about covers the spectrum, doesn't it). All have worked just fine for me.

Then again, B&W photo paper and APHS litho film work fine.

So there you go, no answer to your question!

 

[AgX]

A film without pinholes...

 

[Pinholemaster]

I like Fuji Provia 100F in 8x10 sheets for my pinhole cameras.

 

[keithwms]

Don't need a sharp film. For b&w, just about any rc paper will do. I also like Ilford ortho +. For optimum sharpness you want a narrow range of sensitivity anyway, so these blue-sensitive materials work nicely for b&w in many cases. For a speed boost, you can preflash the paper or film.

I've also done some pinhole with the 4x5" Fuji 3000b instant film and it is pretty neat to get a print on the spot.

I think the fanciest processing I've used for pinhole was 5x7 Ilford hp5+ pushed two stops. But I like the ortho stuff and paper because it's so nice to be able to develop by inspection. Reciprocity schmeciprocity! Ortho has an additional advantage that it is quite contrasty and this can give the impression of better edge definition / sharpness.

 

[eddie gunks]

for "fast" films the best two are acros and tmax100. the rest are soooooo slow when you take reciprocity into account.

i use and love foma100 in hc110 dil G (119:1) for 18 min at 20C agitation every 3rd min. great stuff just super slow!

eddie

 

[mjflory]

FP-100C for pinhole use

If you've got the setup for Polaroid-type pack film pinhole photography, Fuji's reasonably priced FP-100C (3-1/4 x 4-1/4, 10 exposures to the pack) is worth a try. I've found the colors to be very nice, with no reciprocity problems in daylight shooting. (Haven't tried it indoors.)

 

[DWThomas]

I used Delta 100 last year (120 roll film) but will probably use Acros for its lower reciprocity failure next time. I might actually go crazy and use Provia or the like. As an experiment last year I took one shot on Fuji T64 with an 85B filter taped over the pinhole and it worked pretty well.

In 2005 I started with 4x5 HP5+, but I found it dropped my exposures to times that were too short to time accurately, so I snagged some Delta 100 to get times in the 8 to 25 second or so range.

Latitude may not be that important. With some reciprocity thrown in, 60 seconds may be only one stop over 25 seconds! Psychologically, it feels like "Yo Dude, you're frying this film" but it's only a stop.

(Pinhole stuff)

DaveT

 

[rwyoung]

Followup :

For the Foma 100 (rated at 50, in Pyrocat-HD 1:1:100, time escapes me as my notes are elsewhere right now), I've been using the following formula for the reciprocity and it has been pretty good...

Time_new = (Time_old+1)^1.25 - 1 where "^" means "raise to the power of", probably the y_superscript_x key on most calculators.

This is Mr. Schwartzchild's formula with p=0.8

Perhaps too much information for most pinholer's but then I just tend to get a little silly with this stuff.

 

[DWThomas]

Followup :

I've been using the following formula for the reciprocity and it has been pretty good...

Time_new = (Time_old+1)^1.25 - 1 where "^" means "raise to the power of", probably the y_superscript_x key on most calculators.

This is Mr. Schwartzchild's formula with p=0.8

Cool! I exported a chart from Pinhole Designer and used that, but I got the impression it was over-compensating the Delta 100. Of course it was the sort of day that varied from cloudy sprinkles to sunshine and back again in five minutes, so long exposures were subject to pretty high error rates. (But they worked in spite of it all.)

DaveT

 

[isaacc7]

I'm using portra 400vc and am getting good results. Kodak claims that there isn't any reciprocity problems until you hit the 10 second mark, and I think that seems about right. I've shot some, and if I can ever get my internet connection to work, I'll put some up at my website...