Best film for alt cameras?

Hallo.

 

I suddenly have both a Holga and a Lubitel to play with. I feel like a dog with two tails...

 

Ok. I like the Holga look and the vivid, smeared colours you often get. Any suggestions on

films which are especially good for this?

 

Also: I've categorised this as a Holga question, which doesn't seem entirely

appropriate. Maybe there should be a category for "non-hardware" questions, covering

film, scanning, etc? Just a thought.

 

Thanks.

Most of my old Holga work was shot with the most expensive and intolerant lfilms, i.e., professional color slide film such as Provia and E100. For black and white, I used Tri-X and even Scala 200, which is more expensive than the camera.

 

After I bought the scanner, for the scanning reason, I started to use professional C41 film. NPS, NPH, Portra, and XP2.

 

To mean, the camera is the cheapest part in the link. Cheap camera doesn't mean cheap work.

BTW, the most expensive film you can play with Holga is Polaroid 85 Positive/Negative film (with Polaroid back). Again, for the scanning reason, not price reason, I gave it up.

I agree - good film makes a difference and I'd especially avoid the colour negative sold in supermarkets. Start with the film you know best, and work upwards.

Thanks for all the opinions. That makes sense to me. I usually use Fuji Superia (100, 200

and 400) as well as Ilford's XP2. I need to think about using my scanner better but it

doesn't do 120 film (I didn't use 120 when I bought it).

I tend to use Portra 800 in my Holgas. This gives me a little more low light capbility and the print films tolerate overexposure much better than underexposure. I find it does fine in broad daylight on the f/11 setting.

Kodak Porta NC and VC 400 are all I use.

Although I have used some slide film with it too, old outdated stuff.

It was Ektachrome 400 ASA.

What little black and white I have used TMAX 400.

400 ASA is the only speed to use in my opinion..

Brian

Tri-X! I also like the Efke films (R100). They can be found at www.jandcphotography.com.

In my opinion the best film to use with a HOLGA is the cheapest 400 ASA B&W film sold by freestyle dot com in L.A. under the name of ARISTA.EDU. This film has a 20 and more discount, so one can really play "machine gun" with the HOLGA.

 

This ARISTA film has adequate grain for most applications and one can use any developer with it, results are very consitent. Note: This film has somewhat less contrast than Ilford, but if the negative is scanned, it can be corrected with the curves tool.

 

I use this with all my cheap folders and it works great. Please reserve the TMAX for something else. TMAX is an excellent film and does not need to be used in this application.

 

I found that this is the most economical and readily available general purpose B&W film available.

 

Good luck.

I've only used Fuji's NPH400 and Kodak's Tri-X. Both films are very forgiving as far as bad exposures are concerned (and you'll have plenty of those), and they've never disappointed me. Fuji's film adds the extra colour punch that you won't get from American films.

For me 400VC works best in the Holga.

For HOLGA color: Kodak Porta 400UC

For HOLGA b&w: Fuji Neopan 400

For HOLGAROID: Polaroid type 89

I buy the cheapest film i can find. I look on amazon and find cheap film and buy 5 rolls at a

time. I usally use B&W film. Also I use 35mm film... heres the link for the mod:

 

http://shop.lomography.com/holga-backup/35.html

 

Have fun shooting!