Your favorite (available) film, and why...

MattKing said:

T-Max 400 (TMY-2) is a wonderful film - best I have ever encountered -.

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I'd heard recently that it is both flat and digital, Matt These inherent and immutable qualities in any film can be a bit worrying but provide me with a lot of remote social contact now that I need to remain in the house for hours at a time and insist on keeping to the govt's rule of staying 2 metres away from the wife. She refuses to conform to that rule, insisting that as we are husband and wife and have been for many years, 4 metres is the minimum she will countenance

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

... These inherent and immutable qualities in any film can be a bit worrying but provide me with a lot of remote social contact now that I need to remain in the house for hours at a time and insist on keeping to the govt's rule of staying 2 metres away from the wife. She refuses to conform to that rule, insisting that as we are husband and wife and have been for many years, 4 metres is the minimum she will countenance

pentaxuser

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A distance of two meters is definitely too close for married people ...

macfred said:

A distance of two meters is definitely too close for married people ...

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lol, I prefer 0 meters. My lady is my best friend. She doesn’t have any presence here on Photrio, but she’s always close by in real life.

There are several films (conventional and non conventional) that I use and appreciate. My most favourite would be HP5. Excellent shadow separation.

HP 5 - since the 70ies...
everything I need!

Finny said:

HP 5 - since the 70ies...
everything I need!

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Since 1982 for me!

macfred said:

A distance of two meters is definitely too close for married people ...

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With that kind of sense of humour, macfred, you have got to be British, surely

pentaxuser

If Acros II is anything like Acros I, that will jump high on my list when it is officially available in the west. Aside from that, Foma 100 always works well for me, as does TriX 400, FP4+, and Delta 3200.

Horatio said:

I’m getting back into film photography after 20-something years. None of the B&W films I once liked are available, and it seems a lot are dying off (Fuji, Agfa). At the moment I’m playing around with Ultrafine Xtreme, and it seems promising, at least for 120 format. So, what’s your favorite?

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Hey Horatio !

My favorite film is anything I can get my hands on, fresh, stale: it don't matter I'm only able to make self portraits in my 15x15foot cell. moral of the story, don't worry be happy
J

pentaxuser said:

I'd heard recently that it is both flat and digital, Matt These inherent and immutable qualities in any film can be a bit worrying but provide me with a lot of remote social contact now that I need to remain in the house for hours at a time and insist on keeping to the govt's rule of staying 2 metres away from the wife. She refuses to conform to that rule, insisting that as we are husband and wife and have been for many years, 4 metres is the minimum she will countenance

pentaxuser

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HP5+ for practically everything. If I neeeeeed finer grain, I shoot bigger film.

For me it's TMX / T-MAX 100 (35mm and 120 / ISO 100) and TX (120 / ISO 400) from Kodak and Ilford's HP5+ (120 / ISO 400).
I also have a sweet spot for chromogenic b/w film (Ilford XP2 - ISO 400 / 35mm and 120). At the moment I use my frozen stock of chromogenic FUJI Neopan 400CN which is Ilford's XP2.

mrosenlof said:

HP5+ for practically everything. If I neeeeeed finer grain, I shoot bigger film.

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Yes, I love it in LF, especially for portraits.

My all-time favorite in this life? Kodak Panatomic-X, 35mm and 120.

Yes, yes, yes I know - it's out of production, hasn't been manufactured since 1987 or 1988 but, but, BUT... over the Easter weekend I firmed up a deal with someone who had a huge stash of it, kept frozen, and landed no less than 80 rolls of 120 and four 100-foot bulk rolls of 35mm of the last Kodak production run.With careful (= miserly) use, this nice little lot will see me out in my Rollei TLRs and my Voigtlander Perkeo I folder for this life. No, none of it is for sale, sorry sorry.

For my film needs I favor two films still available. The first is Kodak T-Max 100, a film I consider as good as the old Panatomic in tonal rendition and sharpness, but oddly somewhat of a sleeper in Australia. Most MF shooters here prefer T-Max 400 and often as not the slower film languishes in shop fridges. My second choice is Ilford XP2 processed in B&W chemistry. A post by a Canadian shooter who did this, put me on to non-color processing this useful and surprisingly versatile C41 film. I'm astounded at the good results I get, especially with outdoor architectural subjects on overcast days.

When all's said and done, I'm with what someone else has posted in this thread - whatever film I happen to be using now is the best film...

(Added as a late thought) If the world went into even deeper crisis and our film supplies dried up, I could make do with only two sper fine Ilford emulsions, FP4 and HP5. Needs must.)

Yes, TMAX100 is quite phenomenal, and then tmax400 is phenomenal for a iso 400 film...

I’m glad I discovered the tmx100 + ilfosol-3 combination. Just enough contrast and sharpness boost. My 16x20 prints don’t lie.

ozmoose said:

My all-time favorite in this life? Kodak Panatomic-X, 35mm and 120.

No, none of it is for sale, sorry sorry.
..

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Oh Moose, now I'm jealous. I am down to 10 or 12 rolls of 120 Panatomic X, and then it's gone.

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2017/05/panatomic-x-best-black-and-white-film.html

I got into photography in middle school, shooting FED and Zenit cameras loaded with Soviet-block films available to me at the time. When I got back to shooting film this year, I was starting from scratch, because I had never used any of Kodak/Ilford/Fuji emulsions before.

So I decided to try everything I could get my hands on, then pick a favorite, buy a bulk loader and bulk-load that emulsion. The plan seemed solid and bulletproof. And then it fell apart as I am discovering that... I love them all, but for different reasons. I can probably live without T-Max films, but Tri-X and everything from Ilford and Foma has something special to offer, something I'd instantly miss if it disappears. Even Kentmere, coming from Ilford, is different enough to generate unique cravings...

So while my bulk-loader is reserved for Delta-400, I will always have some FP4+, HP5+, Kentmere and Foma in the fridge...

Kodachromeguy said:

Oh Moose, now I'm jealous. I am down to 10 or 12 rolls of 120 Panatomic X, and then it's gone.

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2017/05/panatomic-x-best-black-and-white-film.html

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Yes, I know. I think it's because I've bought up the last supply...

It was a fluke find/make offer/buy - a deceased estate sale (I tend to haunt those like an undertaker touting for business, ha!) with an executor keen to clean out a big house and garage as quickly as something like twenty tons of goods of every description and condition could be sold. I bought several items, mostly Art Deco and 1950s lamps and small furnishings, which must have sweetened the film price. Nothing else photographic was on offer. Apparently the late owner had Canons and I'm a Nikon man, but he disposed of those before leaving this avatar. I won't tell you what I paid - it wasn't cheap (let's just say "on the high side of reasonable") and I've yet to confess the actual sale price to my partner, who will surely boil my guts in a soup pot if the truth ever emerges.

Sadly, I know I will never again find such a treasure-trove of film in this lifetime - thanks be to the gods for this lot.

In this day and age it's good to pick up whatever expired film one can find - the stuff is no longer being manufactured in pre 2020 lots and sadly, some of the best emulsions I used before 2000 are now no longer with us - think Adox, Dupont, Perutz, Efke (their R100 film was one of the best, fiddly to expose and sometimes a bummer to process but gosh, those mid tones), even Ansco/GAF with its once fine Versapan 120 film, I used a few tons of this emulsion in the 1960s and still have some of the finest negatives I've ever made, rivaling even the now iconic Kodak Panatomic. For color, I'm old enough to remember Kodak Ektacolor from the 1950s which to me has yet to be surpassed by any color negative film today.

On a more cheerful note, we still have the Kodak T-Max duo and the equally superb Ilford B&W emulsions, so all's fine in our world for now.

Oh dear I appear to have ordered another brick of Fomapan 100 in 120....

For colour 35mm I prefer Color Plus and use Ultramax 400 or Lomography 800 if more speed is needed. but Color Plus is my favourite, it generally renders conditions as they actually were rather than making dull days look bright. I also have a soft spot for Ektar *in the right conditions*.

Some love for the ultra high speed films like Delta 3200 as I do like the challenge of photography in dim jazz clubs and the like.

But all time favourite....HP5 (latterly HP5+)

ozmoose said:

My all-time favorite in this life? Kodak Panatomic-X, 35mm and 120.

Yes, yes, yes I know - it's out of production, hasn't been manufactured since 1987 or 1988 but, but, BUT... over the Easter weekend I firmed up a deal with someone who had a huge stash of it, kept frozen, and landed no less than 80 rolls of 120 and four 100-foot bulk rolls of 35mm of the last Kodak production run.With careful (= miserly) use, this nice little lot will see me out in my Rollei TLRs and my Voigtlander Perkeo I folder for this life. No, none of it is for sale, sorry sorry.

For my film needs I favor two films still available. The first is Kodak T-Max 100, a film I consider as good as the old Panatomic in tonal rendition and sharpness, but oddly somewhat of a sleeper in Australia. Most MF shooters here prefer T-Max 400 and often as not the slower film languishes in shop fridges. My second choice is Ilford XP2 processed in B&W chemistry. A post by a Canadian shooter who did this, put me on to non-color processing this useful and surprisingly versatile C41 film. I'm astounded at the good results I get, especially with outdoor architectural subjects on overcast days.

When all's said and done, I'm with what someone else has posted in this thread - whatever film I happen to be using now is the best film...

(Added as a late thought) If the world went into even deeper crisis and our film supplies dried up, I could make do with only two sper fine Ilford emulsions, FP4 and HP5. Needs must.)

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Another XP2 film-it's a favourite of mine in MF. Anybody remember Verichrome Pan? It was still around until the early noughties and I'm so chuffed I managed to get my hands on some when Silverprint were importing it into the UK.

Efke 25 has to remain my favorite film of all time. I know it is out of production but I was fortunate enough to be able to lay in a large stockpile when it was discontinued. I have yet to find a replacement so I continue to use it sparingly. I will be very sad when it runs out.

My search for a replacement to Efke 25 did introduce me to Adox and their wonderful films, and especially CMS 20, now CMS 20 II. It is not a replacement for Efke but this is an absolutely amazing film in its own right; a real gem. If you need detail, or if you really want to see what your lenses are capable of doing, or if you just want to get as close to large format detail as you can with 35mm, this is the right film for you. I absolutely love working with it. Unfortunately it is expensive so I can only use it occasionally but if I were a rich man...(I think I have heard that somewhere before)... I would use it every time I headed out to do landscape photography. It does curl quite a bit once developed which can make it a challenge to keep under control if you are scanning or printing in the darkroom. Great stuff and everyone should have some of this in their cupboard. It is available in 35mm, 120 roll film, and in 4x5 sheet film so just about everyone should be able to put it to use somewhere. Did I say it was amazing?? I do have to give a shout out to Adox as this little company is doing some pretty amazing things with film and with paper. Silvermax, CHS 50 and 100 (though I guess the 50 may be out of production now), Scala 160 (makes awesome black and white slides), and the aforementioned CMS 20 II.

Now, back to my own reality. I use more Kodak TMAX than any other film by about 3 to 1. This includes all flavors from 100 thru 3200 depending on my needs at the time. I am very glad that Kodak revived the 3200 flavor though Delta 3200 was a reasonable substitute and I still do use a bit of that. Kodak's TMAX films have great tonality and are capable of capturing amazing detail. This film, next to Efke, is probably my favorite film to print in the darkroom. So far I am able to continue finding it at prices I can live with if I pay attention to sales. However, as the price continues to increase I have been forced to consider more economical alternatives. I would hope that Kodak will keep the lid on prices with this film because the loss of these films would be a great loss to the film community, but they may not be able to.

Arista EDU Ultra is another favorite of mine. I tend to use the 400 flavor more frequently than the others but I do like and use the ISO100 flavor as well. When exposed and developed carefully it provides excellent tones and decent detail. Another real benefit in my mind is that it dries very flat with minimum curl in the long axis and no curl across the film. This allows for easy scanning with pretty decent results. This has been a pretty economical alternative and though there was a period of time where QC seemed to fall off, my recent stocks have been very nice to work with.

I have recently started working with Ultrafine Extreme which is another discount film in the same vein as Arista EDU. My use so far has been mostly exploratory as I haven't really sorted out the best combination of exposure and development for my likes and needs. The other problem I have is the lack of large format sheet film since I continue to shoot quite a bit of sheet film in various formats. I suspect I will eventually discontinue my use of this film for this reason. Having said that though I find that I still go back and buy a bit every time I run out so who knows.

I did have a love affair with JCH Streetpan 400 for awhile, and I still really love this film. When it is developed right I get some negatives that are absurdly easy to enlarge and print. Unfortunately it does not seem to be quite as flexible as some of my other 400 films so I only use it occasionally at this point. Like Ultrafine Extreme though, I end up buying a bit more every time I run out. If you like to print in the darkroom, and you don't need to push or pull your film, this is a wonderful film that will produce some pretty terrific prints. It may take a bit of experimenting to get your developing techniques down. If you don't mind mixing up your own developer I have had great success with Beutler 1+1+8 for 11 minutes with minimal agitation of 30 seconds at the start and one inversion every 30 seconds after.

On some other day I will try to sort out which color films I like and why, but this has gone on quite long enough already. I will say that I have become quite fond of Portra 800 because of its color palette and its flexibility, though most of the Portra films are pretty flexible. The new Kodak Ektachrome film is another recent favorite as well. But it is probably pretty obvious that I don't use near as much color as I use black and white. Actually I recently thought that my use of color would taper off to nothing at all because of the expense of chemicals and especially shipping. Fortunately several good people here helped me get a new supply of developing chemicals at reasonable prices so I will still be able to use color film for quite awhile yet.

Dan, I totally agree with you about EFKE and Adox. I've mentioned Fomapan before and have been getting some nice pictures from the 400 in ID-11 1+1 (shooting with an Olympus Trip or XA2).

I've been using the Delta 100/400 for years but am going back to T-Max 100/400. Which I used years ago.
I'm not liking the midtowns... but maybe it's the orange filter that's creating the problem.

Black Dog said:

Anybody remember Verichrome Pan? It was still around until the early noughties and I'm so chuffed I managed to get my hands on some when Silverprint were importing it into the UK.

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Given this you will probably be interested in Bob Shanebrook's (laser) Verichrome Pan related posts in the thread about New 55: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/develop-the-negative-of-type-55.174246/
In particular post #s 16, 19 and 23

Black Dog said:

Anybody remember Verichrome Pan? It was still around until the early noughties and I'm so chuffed I managed to get my hands on some when Silverprint were importing it into the UK.

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Verichrome Pan was the first film I ever used, in my mother's Duaflex II. In about 1967-1968.

I've shot a few rolls over time. And I miss it.