The OCAU "film is not dead" club

[Jack's Butt]

I am now awake and have had my triple espresso.

Who wants what I'll fight all you jerks.

[myoheddie]

been on christmas break and shooting a heap of film, mostly hp5+ which i'm really digging. Its pretty easy on the grain, and has a huge range when its stand dev'd in rodinal. I've also shot a few rolls of panf-50, but its coming out epically contrasty when stand dev'd like the hp5. SO, the million dollar question, whats hp4+ like? I'm hoping its just a finer slower hp5, with simmilar tones? anybody used both?

[Jack's Butt]

You mean FP4?

[Athiril]

1+100 is too concentrated for a Pan F+ stand I would think.


I found some of my stand dev negs are high contrast for printing.


Anyway, FP4+ isn't contrasty like Pan F+.


FP4+ has a shoulder on it though, while HP5+ is mostly straight line one off the toe. I haven't used it in a while, but I've always liked it. I've never used much HP5+ though to compare it.

[myoheddie]

Originally Posted by Athiril

1+100 is too concentrated for a Pan F+ stand I would think.


I found some of my stand dev negs are high contrast for printing.


Anyway, FP4+ isn't contrasty like Pan F+.


FP4+ has a shoulder on it though, while HP5+ is mostly straight line one off the toe. I haven't used it in a while, but I've always liked it. I've never used much HP5+ though to compare it.

Bugger... just threw the last roll of Pan F+ in with the rest of the hp5 (rodinal 1:100, 1hr) , which would explain why i managed to overcook it a bit. A better dev might bring me round to enjoying the last 27m of the stuff i've got anyway!

I'll have to buy a couple of rolls of fp4+ to get a feel for it, but your description sounds pretty good. PanF+ is just too slow for anything other than sunny days, so hopefully fp4 should fill the gap, and should hopefully enjoy rodinal too.

Cheers!

coincidentally, does anybody here use a contax g1/2? Been looking for some film options similar to the Hexar and would love to hear some experiences

[Trysaeder]

Is there a list of some good, newb friendly film somewhere? I've googled for guides but most of them just explain the differences between film speeds and types. I'm looking for 100-200 speed colour and 400 speed b&w.

[theSeekerr]

Originally Posted by Trysaeder

Is there a list of some good, newb friendly colour somewhere? I've googled for guides but most of them just explain the differences between film speeds and types.

All colour negative is pretty noob friendly from a shooting point of view - some films are known to be a pain to develop and scan, but that shouldn't matter if you're not doing it yourself.

I'd look at Fuji Reala 100 and Kodak Portra 160 and 400 as general purpose films, Kodak Ektar 100 if you've got the inclination to shoot landscapes but aren't confident enough to shoot slide film.

[Jack's Butt]

Originally Posted by Trysaeder

Is there a list of some good, newb friendly film somewhere? I've googled for guides but most of them just explain the differences between film speeds and types. I'm looking for 100-200 speed colour and 400 speed b&w.

You can jump on lofico and grab a couple of simple 100 speed colour films and then some 400 b&w. Little bit more expensive per roll than buying overseas but unless you're buying in bulk OS isn't worth it.

First film I shot was a brick of Lucky SHD 100 that I got from eBay which was total balls. Curly shit with ugly grain. I'd reccomend some agfa Vista 100 or any of the ones seeker said. They're all nice.

For black and white grab a bit of everything. Tri X, Delta, HP5+ and Rollei Retro all come in 400 speed and can be easily pushed/pulled. On top of that they're easy to develop and all have different grains so you can get a feel for them.

Just don't buy from a shop. EBay or elsewhere online.

[Athiril]

Ages ago when I first used Lucky
Fall off at the sides as I copied it in 4 photos (stitched) with my dSLR and had uneven coverage for the backlight.

Mine was never rough grain, though this was in Xtol.

[myoheddie]

i started shooting B&W on lucky 400, and looking back its a pretty horrid film - curlier than camel pubes, horrible to load into the reel and (from looking back at them) no anti halation layer.
Also was given an ancient meopta axomat Ia 35mm enlarger today for helping out on moving, so will try and set that up in the laundry for the worlds smallest darkroom competition!

[Trysaeder]

Thanks for all your help guys. I've picked out a couple of films to try out from the lowfi site. Pity they didn't have any Fuji reala/velvia.

Agfa Vista 100 x3
Kodak Ektar 100
Kodak Portra 160
Kodak Portra 400

Ilford HP5+ 400
Kodak Tri-X 400
Rollei Retro 100 x2

How's that look? I got a few extra rolls of the cheaper stuff. Once I get to know the stuff I'd probably be a bit more economical about it. I might scratch the 400 speed colour. Shooting with my p&s for so much, I've gotten used to the 200 limit, 400 emergency, so daylight film shouldn't be too big of a shock.

$63 for 10 rolls. It's turning out to be a little more expensive that I'd expected, but I think this 'testing' stage will last me a long, long time. Ebay's not that much cheaper anyway.

Still, p&s + film is looking to be much cheaper than going digital.

[Jack's Butt]

Shooting indoors in medium light. Trying to decide which film I'm going to use for my project.

Got some ektacolor to work with, but not sure if I should perhaps go for portray, reala, or Provia instead.

Thoughts?

[nathan96]

I have found portra to colour balance well under tungsten lighting without a filter

[Jack's Butt]

Should have mentioned I'll be using mostly natural lights.

But cheers for the tip. I want to do some work at the shop so that'll be great. Paranoid about getting caught though.

[Deftone2k]

Originally Posted by Jack's Butt

Should have mentioned I'll be using mostly natural lights.

But cheers for the tip. I want to do some work at the shop so that'll be great. Paranoid about getting caught though.

Id give Portra 400 a bash

Scanned up some Ektar 100 last night from my recent trip.. liking it.. although my scanner is getting dusty.. stoopid thing.