Slow speed B&W films in 120 format - OR using ND's?

[r s]

Often I find that even 100 speed b&w film is too fast for certain

subjects. I'm a Tmax user in 100 (and Delta in 400).

 

Example: Brook/creek with still a lot of sun shining down and I want

to slow down the shutterspeed to 1/2 or a full second to blur the

watermovement.

 

Questions:

 

1) What is the best fine-grained, nice contrast (T-max looking) slow

b&w available in 120? Is there anything under 50 these days after

Agfa 25 went away?

 

2) What 100 speed b&w film is best suited to be pulled two stops?

 

3) Is the combincation 100 speed b&w and an ND a better combination

to loose a couple of stops rather than pulling the film?

And when I say 'better' I mean - retaining sharpness, low grain and

good contrast.

[syd]

I just whack on a 4x solid ND when I want another two stops. If you want to be extra sneaky whack on a Polariser and a 4x ND and that'll give you 4 stops extra. If you stop right down and add these you usually get to 1 sec pretty quick. This sytem works for me and my shots are always sharp and happening, yes I am talking waterfalls here.

[vatovec]

Technical Pan - it can`t get any finer than that - the tonality is strange (extended red sensitivity) but to me is wonderfull - for nature try also Ilford Pan F (50 ASA).

[bros]

Accorting to ILFORD Pan F Plus "FACT SHEET" it can be rated at ISO 25 with slight adjustment of development time. It can be even rated at ISO 12, but ILFORD writes that quality will be lower in this case.

 

Have no experience shooting Pan F @ ISO < 50, but I'd go this way.

[mclaine]

If you want to stick with 120 TMX, ND filters will sort you out. In <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1281492">this example</a>, the waves were substantial. The ND's flattened them, and the neg is sharp as a razor with a nice range of densities. HTH.

 

Cheers,

[greg_smith4]

Ilford Pan F is a very nice looking easy to use 50 speed black and white film. Most shoot Tmax (including me) at 80iso. So maybe shoot it at 80 with a ND filter?

[jim_rhoades]

Pan F at about 25-32. My T-Max is EI 50.Yes sure do miss that Agfa 25.

[gustav1]

Why not just put two polarizers together and you can control the amount of light reaching in??

[phil_royall1]

Just the one polariser will work just the same as a 2 stop ND. Well, mine does anyway when you minimise the polarisation.

[brian_c._miller]

Two polarizers cuts the light WAY down, and its difficult to meter for it if your camera has no built-in meter.

 

Techpan can go down to 12 with a reduction in development time. Its incredibly fine-grained. Pull-processing will take a little experimentation, but its something like -2min.

 

Ilford 50 has, of course, more grain than Techpan. I've shot some of it, and may shoot more. Techpan has a relatively thin base, and sometimes it is hard to load into the reels for processing. Also, Techpan is expensive, and requires special developers. Kodak sells Technidol, and the Photographer's Formulary sells a couple of Techpan developers. I have only used Techpan and Technidol, myself.

 

The only problem with pulling a film is when you get overexposure and your high lights bleed. I have one experiment where the clouds bled significantly on the edge of the frame. I pulled the film to bring up shadow detail in that instance.

[a m]

How about the traditional EFKE films, the old Dupont emulsions, which are still made in Croatia? Many photographers love the look of these high-silver films. This place sells them in the USA: http://www.jandcphotography.com/

[scott_walton2]

With bright sun in the shot, even ASA 50 will be 1/30 @ f16 so getting your

shutter down to 1/2 or 1 sec to give you the look of "cotton candy" water, your

going to need the ND. With the sun in the photo, expose for the shadows and

pull the film 20% so you have good highlight detail and proper shadows... ah

yes, I too miss APX 25!

You won't get any more grain,less sharpness or contrast loss using a good

ND... B+W's are very good for the price!

[b_d2]

I think the choices of commonly available films at this time pretty

much boil down to Ilford Pan F+ (50) and Kodak Technical Pan

(25), with the possibility of Efke by mali order:

 

1) Pan F+ is a wonderfully fine-grained, tonally rich, slow film

which stands up well to zone work, as well as Pyro development.

Though I continue to shoot it only occasionally in 120, 16X20

prints from 35mm can be stunning in that miniature format. Agfa

APX 25 (which I still shoot out of my last cache and you may still

be able to find at smaller, out of the way camera shops) beats it

only in terms of slower speed and (slightly) smaller grain.

 

2) Tech Pan, developed in Technidol (it does have a tendency to

slip out of the spring clip on the reel given the required vigorous

agitation - others claim success with other developers), while

expensive, may be worth it to you if you love grainless, tonally

rich, negatives. It is my staple in 120 and I rarely shoot faster

than 1/8 second with small apertures of 16 or 22, even in brightly

lit outdoor scenes - with dark yellow filter, since I am exposing for

the shadows anyway. Mostly, when the light is good (i.e., closer

to golden hour), times are normally in the 2 to 1/2 second range.

Overcast pre-twilight exposures (reciprocity failure) yield

exposures of over 2 minutes. That will really blur moving water!

[r s]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. It'll take some time to sort through. By the way John that's a gorgeous photo.

 

Thanks again,

Richard