Film Comparison

Hi I'm a new photographer, taking a class in college. With the

packet of supplies that we bought at the beginning of the semester,

we got something like 12 rolls of Tri-X 400. I have one roll left,

and I've been looking into buying more film. Sure I can buy that

stuff anywhere. But I was looking online to see if I could get it

discounted and started wondering what was compatible to it in Agfa,

Fugi, etc? Because some of them are cheaper when buying in bulk.

And being a starving college student, I pinch pennies. I wanted to

know if any of those could be developed just the same way as the Tri-

X.

 

I was also thinking about working with something other than ISO 400,

something slower. I hear you can get some great shots with 50-65.

Where can I get that stuff? or should I just wait because it's

going to cost a good chunk of money?

The cheapest film comes in 100 ft bulk rolls, but you need a bulk film loader and reloadable cassettes. Check on-line at B&H Photo for good prices on film, especially gray market Kodak film.

 

Ilford FP4+ is an excellent medium speed film (ISO 125). I also like Ilford Pan F+ which is an ISO 50 speed film.

Check into B&H for the same Tri-X but 100 ASA in impoted or gray market, it is film made here for non-national market. You save quite a bit in any of those.

Good luck,

Robert

Tri-X @ B&H is cheap, they have 3 flavors. 1. Made in USA for USA, 2. made in USA for outside the USA, 3. made somewhere else. You want 2. as it's much cheaper than 1. at the same quality but only slightly more expensive than 3. which is of unknown or variable quality.

Go to a photo lab and see if they'll give you some of their cassettes that have already been through the machine. There will be about 1/4 of an inch sticking out. When bulk loading butt the two ends together (not overlapping) and then use a piece of scotch tape to wrap them together. Tape on the top and wrap each side under. Then load away. You can then bulk load an entire 100' at a time if you have enough cassettes. I use them once and then pitch them. Nothing I found beats this for bulk loading.

Check into Ilford HP5+, also- great film.

 

On the slower stuff- depends what you do with it. I tried one roll of Ilford's Pan F. With the enlargements I'm doing (5x7's, some 8x10's), I didn't gain anything from the finer grain/ higher resolution, just got an inconveniently slow film speed, with similar overall appearance.

Arista 125 is re-packaged Ilford FP4+ and can be obtained at a fraction of the cost of tri-x, or FP4 through freestyle sales

I just checked Freestyle and a 36 exp roll of Arista 125 is $2.99 ($2.89 if you buy 20+ rolls). At B&H Photo a 36 exp roll of Ilford FP4+ is $2.69.

Bulk loads can be a lot cheaper, but only if you plan to do a lot of shooting. Otherwise it's not really worth it when you can get grey market Tri-X for $2.19/roll mail order from B&H or Adorama. A 100 ft. roll of grey market Tri-X is about $23 from the same places and will net you maybe 16 - 18 36 exposure rolls. Add in the cost of a bulk loader and some RELOADABLE cassettes (forget using cast offs, you'll make yourself crazy trying to load them. We won't even metion the amout of film you'll waste when it doesn't work right) and the costs start to add up. But if you insist, good deals can be had for bulk loaders on e-bay.

 

Both B&H and Adorama and more than a few other places sell lots of different kinds of film. Yes, they all process pretty much the same too. The only real differences you'll find are in the development times. Just about any B&W film you can buy today will do just fine in good old D-76. Films in the ISO 100-125 range generally show much finer grain and more sharpness than films in the ISO 400 range. I suggest that you forget about the really slow stuff unless: a.) you have a good tripod, b.) you are willing to carry it around, and c.) you are willing to use it for every shot. If you can't or won't comply with these conditions then you will surely lose any sharpness avantage to motion blur. You might see a small grain advantage in 8x10 prints when comparing an ISO 50 film against an ISO 125 film, but the differences are negligible. Only when you go larger than that will you start to see any appreciable differences. You think you're gonna shoot at 1/125 sec. with an ISO 50 film unless you are in bright sunlight? Guess again! Shooting at a slower shutter speed than that is already pushing your luck a bit with even a fast 50mm prime lens on your camera. That goes doubly true if you have one of those crappy little slow zoom lens. Slow film is not meant for casual shooting.

 

Do yourself a favor and keep it simple. Try a few rolls of Tri-X, Plus-X, HP5+, and FP4+. They are all good films. Fuji Neopan 400 and Agfa APX films are also quite good. See which ones you like best, stick with them and learn to work them as well as possible - and that means learning how to print them well too. You'll make quicker progress up the learning curve if you keep your controllable variables down to a minimum.

Frank's response is right on target. I would also add that most of the "expense" is in everything else you do after you buy the film (especially printing, if you buy name-brand paper!). Extra work and minimal savings aside, it's also not worth feeling like you've locked yourself in to a film... I had a bulk loader in my distant youth and I still have a decades-old bulk roll of Plus-X still unopened.

 

Also, you can also try photo fairs for film, I used to frequent one here in NYC which ran every 5-6 weeks -- slightly out of date film, still perfectly good, can be had for very cheap.