35mm film suggestions please - B&W and colour

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DGN1984

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Hi all

Can anyone suggest some good 35mm black and white film for street photography and portraits? i will be in Asia in a few weeks where it will likely be sunny.

Also suggestions for a good 35mm film to use for the same purposes but in lower light, indoors, evening, night.

Lastly agood 35mm colour film to use during the day.

I'd ideally like something with a lot of contrast and quite like a bit of grain. If anyone has suggestions of a black and white film that would be suitable to use both during the day and in lower light conditions I'd be interested to hear.

would really appreciate some suggestions on this

Thanks guys

Dan
 
Where are you? I'm guessing UK by coloUr rather than color but where exactly? I only ask because I'm giving some film away and would rather it was collected than posted (I'm tight, and if I'm giving the stuff away, I'd rather not get stuck with postage!). If you're within collecting distance of Exeter, you're welcome to it - as I remember, it's a selection of Fuji slide film and Ilford near UV (for which you'll need a filter but I don't mind keeping the Ilford since I have the required filter and play with it on a DSLR.) If not, I'll offer it to anyone who wants to collect it.

Ilford's HP5 is the traditional film I would suggest - 400ISO but can be pushed or Kodak's equivalent, Tri-X (if it still exists!) However , you may prefer to use one that can be developed by any minilab using the C41 process, I'm sure someone on this board can advise.
 
For B&W I would personally go for Kodak Tri-X 400 or TMAX 400, both are very good 400 speed films but the Tri-X has the advantage of more exposure latitude compared with TMAX and a and has some nice traditional film grain.
TMAX 400 however is a bit less grainy but can also be exposed at 800 without any change in dev time (i.e you can just underexpose a stop if needed) if used with a speed enhancing developer such as XTOL (which most film labs use nowadays). 400 might be a bit fast for extreme sun but adding a yellow, yellow-green or yellow-orange filter will both increase the contrast slightly and cut out a stop or so of light.

For colour during the day I would go with negative film for ease of use and use either Kodak Ektar 100 as its vivid saturation usually goes well with sun in my experience, or Kodak Portra 160 which has the advantage of being able to be exposed at 400 (underexposed a stop or so) if some more speed is needed for a particular shot with just a small increase in grain/contrast.

Whats that Ilford near UV stuff Nod? Never heard of that unless you mean their SFX 200 near IR film?
 
I've been using tri-x and HP5 recently. Not too much difference in my humble opinion. I like it, in bright day light I can't get wider than F4.0 with my max shutter speed of 4000, so if you want to get great bokeh, a slower speed film would be best.

I've got a few rolls of Neopan to try, it seems a little less grainy from others shots. Neopan also comes in 100asa (called acros) so good for day time.

For colour, I've been using Superia 400, but for day time, I'd suggest Ektar as it's 100 would suit day light conditions if you plan on opening the aperture up. both are reasonably priced
 
DGN1984 said:
Hi all

Can anyone suggest some good 35mm black and white film for street photography and portraits? i will be in Asia in a few weeks where it will likely be sunny.
Click to expand...

For strong light you'd presumably be looking for slower film; I liked both Kodak Tmax 100 and Fuji Acros 100, but I've only used one roll of each. (You didn't say what the camera is... I guess if you can shoot under 1/1000 then ISO 400 is fine!)

Also suggestions for a good 35mm film to use for the same purposes but in lower light, indoors, evening, night.
Click to expand...

As someone said, HP5 especially if you like a bit of grain. And if you prefer a C41 film I've liked XP2. Still planning to try out the Kodak and Fuji equivalents...

Lastly a good 35mm colour film to use during the day.

I'd ideally like something with a lot of contrast and quite like a bit of grain. If anyone has suggestions of a black and white film that would be suitable to use both during the day and in lower light conditions I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

I've had no trouble with Superia 200 or 400; steer clear of C200 IMHO. You could also try Portra 160; I preferred it to Ektar, which seemed a bit brittle.

And you just HAVE to chuck in a few rolls of Provia or Velvia...(y)

Of course, I have almost NO experience to back this up, so it should all really be IMVVHO!
 
Fuji Superia 200 is a reliable general purpose colour neg film.
 
+1 for the tri-x 400
I love it! I got nice results from fomapan 400 recently with an orange filter, most conditions. Don't forget that the chosen development stage will make a big difference to your final image.
I like id-11 with tri-x
And ro9 with fomapan
 
Thanks for all the replies guys,

I am pretty tempted to take quite a few rolls of kodak TRI X 400. Sorry to keep asking questions but do you think this film will be suitable for use during the day or will I almost certainly need a lower ASA film??

I'm using a Canon A1, fastest shutter speed 1/1000

Nod I am in Essex so thanks for the offer but this wont work for me.
 
With Kodak TRI-X 400, if it is very sunny during the day and I can't get a shutter speed quick enough to correctly expose the image could I change the ISO on the camera and expose at 200 ASA to avoid overexposure, effectively underexposing a stop to compensate?
 
Just take a suitable ND filter to knock about 3-5 stops of light out, that should sort the really bright days.
 
Or as I said above, put a medium yellow or orange filter on the camera which will cut out a stop or two of light and also increase the image contrast a bit, making them a bit less 'flat'.
 
I've never used an ND filter, I'm starting to think it might be easier to take two bodies, one loaded with a 100ASA film for during the day and one with a 400ASA film for low light
 
film picker and a sharpie? just rewind the film tail out or use the film picker to retrieve it and and write on the canister with the sharpie how many frames you have taken. swap films and just shoot up to where you left off with the lens cap on :)
 
Puggie,

Thanks for the reply and sorry to sound like a total idiot. So say I use 100asa during the day and take 15 shots and want to change to 400ASA come the evening, rewind the film back to the start noting on the counter what number I'm on, take the film out and put my other film in and then when I reload the 1ooASA film just shoot up to 15 with the lens cap on starting again from 16?

Are then any hidden dangers with doing this?
 
Yep that is it, the only hidden danger IMHO is dragging the film through multiple times may increase the chance of scratching the emulsion but I've never experienced it and I have done this a fair bit with B&W and slide film.
 
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