what film

[stupidbloke]

hey guys,

ive started shooting film lately. i just wanted to get the opinions of the more experienced ones with respect to type of film you guys use. im using an m4 and after about 2 to 3 rolls ive managed to sort get used to guessing exposure without a light meter. ive been using cheap colour film either the kodak gold or fuji superia 400. managed to find a place selling 2 rolls for 5.50 cause they were going to expire soon. (too bad someone swiped them all away before i could get more)

i know about slide film and black and white film (triX). ive also seen black and white c41 film. has anyone tried that before?

any suggestions for like relatively affordable negative films besides the common ones? What kinds of film you guys generally shoot with.

 

[baboonish]

The Ilford XP2 and Kodak BWCN can be processed by C41. This meant that the service charges are relatively lesser than pure black and white processing (Since you said relatively affordable) I used the XP2 when I began shooting black and white. It's really good.. but to cut cost and time to the lab... I did my own processing.. More enjoyable, imho.

The pure black and white films like ilford delta, tri-x, tmax requires pure black-and-white processing which takes a longer ratio time for a lesser amount of rolls developed. Therefore, shops will charge more.

You can learn to process the pictures yourself.. There are some darkroom courses.. Or you can google for some self-developing instructions online. It could be confusing at start but during your second or third try, it would be very familiar..

There are a million ways of self-developing your images for different tones/contrast/grains.

 

[Imaji]

Anyone could share what shop carry the most variety of film? Its pretty hard to get anything beyond ISO 400.

 

[night86mare]

hi, no expert here, i just play with film once in a blue moon.

i have tried neopan 400cn before, results are pretty ok. it is really cheaper to process c41 bnw films than usual bnw, because you get charged at c41 process rates.

for affordable color negatives, can't really think of anything other than fuji superia or kodak gold. oh yes, you can try lucky. it is not fantastic, but it is really cheap.

the bnw ones come in iso100 as far as i know, you can get these from chiif:

http://www.chiifcameras.com/site2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=43

for color one, which is iso200, if i do not recall wrong, i've seen it at triple d @ burlington square before.

 

[night86mare]

Anyone could share what shop carry the most variety of film? Its pretty hard to get anything beyond ISO 400.

ruby photo at peninsula plaza has quite a lot.

same for triple d @ burlington square. as for whether they have stuff beyond iso400, sorry, i didn't check. i only know iso1600 film is pretty damn hard to get in singapore.

if you're looking for iso800, i thought most of the usual cheap fuji film (superia) places will have iso800.

 

[RenesisN]

usually get my delta / tmax (neg b&w) and fujifilm velvia (pov color) from ruby photo.
b&w diy, color send back to ruby

 

[baboonish]

Anyone could share what shop carry the most variety of film? Its pretty hard to get anything beyond ISO 400.

You can push it a 400 film to 800/1600.. Just tell the shop that it is shot by 800/1600.. You can write 800/1600 on the film canister as a reminder.

 

[Royale With Cheese]

If you self process your B&W, the cost is almost close to nothing really.

I'm not a big fan of C41 B&W, I used to use them but after going for pure B&W, there is no turning back. My cost of shooting film is minimal really. I buy B&W films in bulk rolls, roll them into canisters at home, process the roll at home as well & of course a scanner at home to finish the process.

Usually for high iso films I go for superia 800 & 1600. You can head to this shop at Bras Basah, just round about the elavator. Superia 1600 goes for $7.50 there. For B&W, you can try pushing Delta 400 or Tri X 400 to 1600.

Chiif lately brought in some AGFA Vista in asa 100, 200, 400, buy in 10 packs from him & its rather affordable I would say, check his webpage for pricing

 

[phisto]

This is a very informative thread. I didn't even know there are such films! I always thought BW developed in C41 will be sepia toned.

 

[phisto]

Hi are there any diff between the C41 processing and BW processing in terms of quality etc?

 

[kaixiang]

Provia 400X pushed really well to 800 and 1600. Kind of expensive though.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/filmdatabase/ -> good place to find out about the different make of films available and get an idea of how they look.

 

[night86mare]

Hi are there any diff between the C41 processing and BW processing in terms of quality etc?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/57796404@N00/discuss/149193/

http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/005aGJ

http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00FeZ1

The prevailing myth is that the B&W chromogenic films are some magical version of conventional B&W films, but can be processed in C-41. That's utterly false. The B&W C-41 films are identical in every respect to color neg films, except they just have a single monochrome dye layer.

from my experience, c-41 bnw film like neopan 400 have very, very low contrast.

 

[BigBird]

This is a very informative thread. I didn't even know there are such films! I always thought BW developed in C41 will be sepia toned.

"Sepia tone" relates to printing, not the processing. C41 chromogenic B&W yields a brownish-looking neg after process, much like a colour neg. but it should not show when you print it on B&W paper. in fact, you can print colour negs on B&W paper too. But you need to increase its contrast.

I'm not a big fan of C41 B&W, I used to use them but after going for pure B&W, there is no turning back.

I agree true B&W file gives a much nicer, richer tone. :thumbsup:

But I was surprised that Kodak's C41 B&W chromogenic film is actually quite good. Danish photographer Claus Bjørn Larsen (winner of 1999 World Press Photo, and a hardcore Leica man) mentioned in this interview that his favourite B&W film then, was Kodak's T400CN.

Read about it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/essays/090800.htm

from my experience, c-41 bnw film like neopan 400 have very, very low contrast.

hmmm.. Fuji Neopan 400 is a true B&W film. It's a very nice film with good tones and tight grain. Used it several times already. I thought it is almost like a cross between Tmax and Tri-X..

 

[night86mare]

hmmm.. Fuji Neopan 400 is a true B&W film. It's a very nice film with good tones and tight grain. Used it several times already. I thought it is almost like a cross between Tmax and Tri-X..

sorry, i was talking about neopan 400cn

http://fujifilm.co.uk/professional/films/blackwhite_neopan400cn.html

 

[eamesboy]

hey guys,

ive started shooting film lately. i just wanted to get the opinions of the more experienced ones with respect to type of film you guys use. im using an m4 and after about 2 to 3 rolls ive managed to sort get used to guessing exposure without a light meter. ive been using cheap colour film either the kodak gold or fuji superia 400. managed to find a place selling 2 rolls for 5.50 cause they were going to expire soon. (too bad someone swiped them all away before i could get more)

i know about slide film and black and white film (triX). ive also seen black and white c41 film. has anyone tried that before?

any suggestions for like relatively affordable negative films besides the common ones? What kinds of film you guys generally shoot with.

If u do not shoot a lot. Just buy any B&W film to try and stick with your favourite.
Lucky b&w is not a bad film. If you do your own process as home like some of the member here.
Lucky b&w work really good with some developer.
C-41 B&w will do the job too. Like I say, if u do not shoot a lot.
C-41 b&w is really good. Some member here has kids and
cant do they're developing at home or too lazy C-41 B&w is really fast compare to pure B&w.
Pure B&w you need to wait few days to collect from the lab.
You really need to find out which work best for you.



,,,

 

[Royale With Cheese]

Some samples of C41 B&W, KodakBW400CN

My conclusion on this film would be its very sharp, very fine grain. Works very well with flash.

Low on contrast when compared to pure B&W films

 

[night86mare]

Some samples of C41 B&W, KodakBW400CN

My conclusion on this film would be its very sharp, very fine grain. Works very well with flash.

Low on contrast when compared to pure B&W films

you did editing?

these look way more contrasty than whatever i got out of scan with neopan 400cn.

 

[eamesboy]

you did editing?

these look way more contrasty than whatever i got out of scan with neopan 400cn.

Edit or adjust or not or even more contrasty dosen't matter..
RWC is nice enough to show some of his pictures here.

Do you have any photo sample show? I am not siding anyone here.
I feel that you like to play with words in CS..


,,,

 

[night86mare]

Edit or adjust or not or even more contrasty dosen't matter..
RWC is nice enough to show some of his pictures here.

Do you have any photo sample show? I am not siding anyone here.
I feel that you like to play with words in CS..


,,,

bro,

i am just asking, because he said that they were low contrast, yet whatever he posted is high contrast. if you haven't noticed.

i myself have a few neopan 400cn film shots, mainly of cats.

these have been manipulated with levels somewhat in photoshop, if you have seen the output from the scans i got, you will understand what i mean...

i'm merely interested as to whether these were edited for personal interest, is that anything wrong??? :dunno:

i think this was not edited, just desaturated, because whatever scans i got back had a bluish/cyan cast to it:

hope you get what i mean.

 

[night86mare]

anyways, since i went to look for these samples for earnesboy,

this is lucky 100 bnw.

can't remember if edit, paiseh..... but if need be, i can go and look for the original scans....... i think. they're all in one drawer