What's the best film...?

Question

What's the best black and white for contrasty images and low noise?
And what's the best colour negative for low noise but great colours (not portraits)?
I don't want big long technical answers of how film works or to be told to enrole into photo school. I just want a plain simple answer.

Sorry - yes, 35mm film :-)

Answer 1

For black and white:
Try Efke 25. It's almost grain-free, with lots of contrast.

Kodak TMAX 100 would be a second choice, with slightly more grain(although not by much) and a little bit less contrast. TMAX 100 is quite a bit more available than the Efke, which most people have never heard of.

For color negative:
I'm a big fan of Kodak 400UC, which has great, saturated colors. It's not too grainy for a 400 speed film.

The new Kodak Portra 160VC has color which is nearly as good, but has significantly less grain. In fact, Kodak has discontinued the UC series films in medium format because the VC films are so close.

Avoid Kodak 100UC. It's not all that much less grainy than the 400 speed version, and the colors aren't nearly as good.

Answer 2

I am so out of touch with current color negative film that I can't even guess at an answer. I don't think I've bought film in the last 5 or 6 years since I "went digital."

Ditto for B&W, except "back in the day," I chose Plus-X as the best compromise between fineness of grain and suitable speed. You could alter the contrast by way of exposure and/or development times and (believe it or not) temperature. THEN, you could get more contrast by selection of a "hard" paper, like a No.4 contrast paper.

There are several variables to play with and many resources that are better than I for the details on this information.

If I was starting now, in the real world, I'd chooose a C-41 process product as mentioned by cabbinc, just because I would be able to let a machine do it somewhere rather than mess with the chemistry myself. If you are going to use any volume of film, as I suspect a pro might, you'd do well to think in that direction yourself.

Answer 3

You want high contrast, but you want low noise, or shall I say fine grain. The solution is really simple, use a relatively fine grain film like ilford panf50, and then place a red filter over your lens. A red filter is really nice if you are shooting on a foggy or overcast day as it will increase contrast, but shoot it on a sunny day and you will end up with a really contrasty, yet fine grain image. Another way to easily increase contrast is to increase the development of your film. This is called push pull development. If you take your film to a professional photo finishing shop then ask the technician about pushing the film to increase the contrast. Granted one of the problems is that you will slightly increase the contrast of your image.
As for film with the best colour negative film, with low noise, I prefer Kodak portra VC or NC.

Answer 4

I have used
Kodak's C-41 B+W
Ilfords C-41 B+W
and Ilfords HP5 PLUS
all 400 speed and of the three the C-41's didnt give me what I was looking for. The Ilford HP5 PLUS did pretty good. And it wasnt all that unforgiving.

None of the books that I've read even touch brand specifics like this. When they do touch on the subject they all say stuff like "it's a matter of personal taste" or "use some trial and error". Not much help.

Answer 5

Normal 35mm film? Kodak or Fujifilm. The rest depends on the camera and photographer and the development of the photo. Also the right ISO.

Answer 6

I like Ilford XP2 Super for B&W.

For color I like Fuji PRO400H, Kodak Portra 160VC & 400VC (Vivid Color).

My all-time favorite color film was Kodak Royal Supra 200 but its discontinued. I'm down to about 40 rolls of it :-( .

Answer 7

Try for yourself. This is soo subjective that there is no correct answer for everybody. Buy 10 different films, take your pictures, make notes and compare afterwards. This is what they teach you at phot school by the way.

Answer 8

Charley Chapley

Answer 9

110 film

Answer 10

You sound like you already no what your doing no need for photography school!!!! xxxxxx=]