Back to Film

Well, this one is super easy.  Back in my film days I only shot with Kodak black and white films.  I dabbled with Pan-X and Plus-X, but my staple film was Tri-X.  In fact, I would buy Tri-X by the 100’ roll and ‘roll my own’ cartridges.  Of course, I developed and printed the images myself so reusing the cartridges made sense.  I’m not ready for 100’ rolls of film yet, but…

So, I immediately ordered a bunch of Tri-X film.  I realize that shooting a new rangefinder camera is going to take a lot of practice and I can’t imagine starting with a different film.  At first, I bought some 24 exposure rolls so that I could get through the rolls quicker, develop them and check out the results.  But for an extra $.40 I can get the 36 exposure roll.  With the 36 exposures roll I have extra frames, 12, but I can rewind the film anytime I want.  So, I’m buying 36 exposure rolls.

One thing I mentioned when looking for a lens is the speed of the lens and being able to shoot in low light situations.  Slower lenses need longer shutter speeds in low light situations so the risk of moving the camera when making the image increases.  But the lens is not the only factor when it comes to available light.  Film comes in various speeds as well.  This is known as ASA (or ISO).  A film like Tri-X has an ASA of 400, which is relatively fast.  Whereas a film like Pan-X (no longer made) had an ASA of just 32.  You need a ton of light to expose Pan-X whereas the same amount of light might be much too strong for Tri-X.

This time around I’m interested in using a wider variety of films.  Kodak has the TMax film at ASA 3200, 3 stops faster than Tri-X.  If I knew I would struggle with available light, that would be the film to go with.  But this film won’t work on a sunny day, without neutral density filters which I won’t carry.  There are other manufacturers of B&W film, Fuji and Ilford to name just two.  Their films come in a variety of ASA as well.  And every film has its own characteristics, grain, contrast, etc.  There is pushing and pulling film, shooting at a different ASA than the film is made for, but that is a topic for another day.

Once you put a roll of film in the camera you are stuck with the ASA of the film until you replace the roll.  So, it becomes important to know what the lighting conditions will be when selecting the roll you want to use.  Just like people pick a ‘walk-around’ lens I choose Tri-X as my ‘walk around film.  It’s fast enough to work in limited light but is slow enough to handle most outside, even sunny, environments.

As with everything in photography there are trade-offs and film just add to the list.