[nirVaan]

hi

im getting started in to film photography. can you recommend me the best kodak and fujifilm film rolls for various situations such as street photography portrait indoor and night time etc...

thankz

[aurele]

Film is a lot about personnal taste, however here is general guideline about what i use:

Color film :

Kodak portra 160 / 400 / 800 : perfect skin tone reproduction, quite saturated. Good film overal. Don't push it more than 2 stops.

Fuji Superia : usually cheap film. Not as saturated as the Kodak, but sometime it's better. did i say it was cheap ?

Kodak Gold : the Superia like film from Kodak.

B&W film :

Kodak Tri-X and ilford HP5+ 400 : good film, cheap. a bit grainy, but for everyday use it's nice.

Kodak T-Max and Ilford delta 400 / 3200 : good film, fine grain, support well to be pushed. the Delta is maybe a bit less contrasty ?

Fuji Neopan : like Tmax and Delta : good film.

Overall, grab a 1600 / 3200 iso film to be comfortable in indoor situation, with a F1,4 / F2 lens. but it depend on the things you like to shoot. Grab 400 iso film for daylight if cloudy. With big bright sun a 100 iso can be good.

The smaller the iso, the finer the grain, usually.

it exist a lot of different film like the Rollei, T-bird / Red-bird, ferrania, etc ... i suggest you to give a try with a many different film. Some will fit your taste , some will less fit. but you should try them to have an idea about what's is possible to do with film.

[blackcloudbrew]

These days I shoot only B&W and have settled on Ilfford products mostly. I do like Fuji Across 100 though. It's a really nice film.

[stevebrot]

What they said...

For beginner B&W:

• Fuji Acros (for fine grain and great tone)
• Kodak Tri-X (for low light)

For beginner color:

• Kodak Gold 200
• Fuji Superia (the Kodak Gold is better)

These are the high value options. There are cheaper color films...many with "interesting" characteristics, but save those for when you are confident of your technique and ready to accept "interesting" results.


Steve

(...is a big fan of Ferrania...too bad it is no longer available Very "interesting" results.)

[nirVaan]

Film is a lot about personnal taste, however here is general guideline about what i use:
Color film :

Kodak portra 160 / 400 / 800 : perfect skin tone reproduction, quite saturated. Good film overal. Don't push it more than 2 stops.
.

hi what do you mean by pushing more than 2 stops ?
and where does Kodak ektar fit in to this what kind of situation will it be best for

thankz

[aurele]

hi what do you mean by pushing more than 2 stops ?

i mean, if you push more than 2 stops a magenta cast appear on the frame, specially in the dark area.

So, if you take the 400 don't go beyond 1600.

For the 800 i don't know if it's the same film as 400 that you push already to make it 800, or if it's a different emulion (i didn't take the time to look).

and where does Kodak ektar fit in to this what kind of situation will it be best for

I honestly don't know, i've never used it it suppose to be super fine grain, and vivid color, and without much color cast on the scanner. it's the top of the line in neg for color according Kodak.

Give a shoot i will next month

[stevebrot]

...where does Kodak ektar fit in to this what kind of situation will it be best for...

Ektar 100 is a great film. I have used it for landscapes and flowers with good success and even won a prize from Kodak for one of my shots. It has very fine grain and great colors and scans well. My only caution is that it is not as forgiving of poor exposure (weird colors and contrast) as a consumer color negative film such as Gold 200.


Steve

[LesDMess]

I like the results from over 35minute exposure from Kodak Ektar 100 of the Hoover Dam at night using my Pentax LX aperture priority autoexposure.



Kodak Ektar 100 automatically stitches very well such as in this four frame shot . . .



Larger version -> http://www.fototime.com/AF9F7B335AA39A5/orig.jpg