Should I go lower Iso films? Which films are your favourite?

[Hood]

This is a kind of a follow on from a discussion I was having in The Addiction Continues thread in Photographers cafe here:
http://forum.mflenses.com/the-addiction-continues-t48883.html
About how I had noticed some washing out of colour and blowing out of highlights using 400iso film over here in full sun, and as to whether switching to some nice lower iso film would help to correct for this?

Ok, so finally got around to uploading all my film shots from the w/e.
here are all the shots and my thoughts:
http://protas.metalforfishes.com/?p=668

But I just wanted to share a few with you here to get your opinion as to these shots and whether you guys think they are a bit washed out from the 400iso film and whether you think switching to nicer lower iso films will help me with grain and colour rendition under this harsh Aussie sun.
Or whether I am just being overly picky?
The 400iso did perform quite well in the lower-light scenarios...

(I have done basic levels on these)
From the 1st roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 from Sunday:











From the 2nd roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 from Sunday:











From the roll of Agfa Vista Plus 400 from Sunday:










From the roll of Fuji Superia Xtra 400 from Sunday. Maybe not the best comparison because this is from in town after the river foreshore, but still:










It was a great day out shooting on Sunday regardless.
I do however welcome your suggestions for other great films to try?

[skida]

The colour films I have used recently and really liked are Kodak Gold 200 and Ektar 100. I have also had some good results (and some mediocre ones) from Fuji C200

In B&W, I really liked the Kodak BW400CN and quite liked Ilford HP5. The grain is quite fine on the Kodak for a 400.

[kyonthinh]

I still have more than 100 rolls of centuria 200, for potrait I like it best, skintone is very good. A few days ago I have one of the big mistake of my life, I sold 90 rolls of it to buy vertical grip. I wish I didnt do that.
But if you are looking for something more available, I think superia 200 is very good. Or for landscape Kodak ektar 100.

[Nesster]

Speaking generically, there are a couple of variables when looking at color film: 1) the original exposure and 2) the scanner's exposure. Again, in general, auto exposure in both will tend to start over exposing highlights (e.g. flowers in the sun).

It is my hunch that consumer 200 film and 'pro' 160 film are really similar speed - the consumer is rated 1/3 stop faster, thus giving 1/3 stop more headroom against over exposure. This would tend to counteract 1 and 2 above and partly why this type of film may give an advantage.

I'm thinking that even with 400 speed film, once we see the results, we can adjust exposure a bit - say 1/3 or 1/2 stop less exposure if things start to tend towards the washed out. And if we don't control the scan - the lab is doing them - often, I find I have to dup the image and blend the new layer at some % in 'multiply', which brings back color and over-bright details very nicely.

[Excalibur]

Very good shots of the motorbike and others that were not long distance, but I'm thinking maybe the Kodak 400 film is not so good for distant shots as the buildings are blue (could be the scan though?).

[LucisPictor]

For slide films: ISO 100

For colour negatives: ISO 100 or 200

For B/W: ISO 400

[peterqd]

[Hood]

[Orio]

Most of my favourite films are gone.
Agfa Optima for colour negative, Kodachrome 25 for positive, Agfapan for B&W.

Amongst what is left, I like best Provia 100 and 400 for slides, Ferraniacolor for colour negative,
and Kodak TMax 100 for B&W.

[Hood]

Have you tried Kentmere b&w Orio?
From reviews I've read it is supposed to be very similar to the old agfa stuff. I havn't had my first roll developed yet, so can't comfirm that.

I have never come across Ferriana color before. Although I have come across references on the net that claim that the new agfa stuff comes from 1 of 2 factories the Ferriana factory or the Lucky film factory. I have heard the lucky stuff is quite similar to the old kodak gold from the '80s, not quite sure where my agfa film came from. I wonder who is producing thier precisa slide film? That will be interesting to see how it performs against kodak elite chrom and fuji provia & velvia...

[Orio]

Thanks for the tip! Kentmere is not available here in shops. I should look on the bay.
Actually, I was wrong before. Ferrania is gone too. Don't really know what I would choose
for colour film now. Probably only Fuji is left, and I always hated Fuji colour negatives.
So most likely I'll dump colour negative completely (not a big sacrifice, I never really liked colour negative.
I've always been the slides type).

[Hood]

Yeah, I ordered my Kentmere off the evil-bay.

The only reason I am investing in color neg. film is because I have a local fuji booth that luckily still does developing, they only do c-41, but it only costs $12 for develop and scan to disc.
Whereas I have to travel 100km to get non c-41 films developed (slide, b&w) and it costs me $30-$50 for develop and scan to disc!

So, you can see why I'm interested in finding the best performing c-42 films. I'm really looking forward to trying these oht...especially ektar, I hear good things.

[Hood]

Just wondering...
Realistically how hard is it to develop your own film?
It's just that this seems to be the largest cost factor of shooting film where I am. Besides c-41 that is, that feveloping is still a bearable price, but b&w and slide film are unimaginably highly priced for developing.

[Excalibur]

[Lloydy]

I've never had a darkroom, but years ago I processed my own slides from EKtachrome and Fujichrome ( I think ) in the laundry room without blacking it out.

I used a lightproof film handling bag to load the film into the developing container, which I practiced a lot using an old useless film.
For temperature control I used an old laboratory water bath that holds about a gallon of water and maintains temperature with a thermostat. Mine was being thrown out when a lab ( not a film lab ) was upgrading their equipment, so they might be available at industrial surplus shops ? But maintaining the temp' of a water bath isn't that hard with some ingenuity.
I used plastic bottles with glass marbles in to make them sink so they would stay in the bath and be at temp' ready for use.
For washing I rigged up a water supply from the clothes washing machine hot and cold supply into a Y piece and a hose with a tap on the end, once I had regulated the temp' from the hot and cold valves the temp' stayed remarkable constant.

My biggest problem was remembering the process and getting the timings right, my learning difficulties make this kind of thing extremely difficult.
I tried writing the instructions out in big writing on a large bit of card. That worked, but it was still very difficult for me.
Then I hit on the idea of recording the instructions onto a cassette tape ( remember them ? ) in a clear and simple way, and obviously in real time. I even recorded instructions such as "the next step will be washing in 2 minutes - check water temperature now"
This way I didn't have to worry about looking at a clock, forgetting what came next, or anything. I didn't even have a clock / timer in the room.

I had about 3 tapes for different films and used them a lot, I was so confident that even after returning from 5 week trips in the USA and Canada ( those were the days when we were spending my wife's severence money ! ) with a bagfull of slide film I processed them all myself.

A guy down the road has a darkroom setup he wants to get rid of, so I'm going to build a new shed out the back.

[Hood]

That is a great story mate!
Do you have any scans of those slides?
....oh Lloydy... Why don't you live down the road from me mate?

[Lloydy]

Yes, I have some scanned. I'll root them out and post some.

It's good to have 'someone down the road' to share our hobby, I'm lucky to live in such a beautiful and popular area so the local photographers tend to wander down here on sunny days. It ends up as some kind of old retired guys day out some days - it's like 'Last of the Summer Wine' with cameras but we sit outside the pubs and cafe's bragging about our gear and sharing stories and information. Four of us were asked to "clear our stuff off the tables and let other customers use them" one day, so we packed 11 cameras and over 20 lenses into our bags and left, never to return!

[Hood]

That sounds great!

I have a guy I go to who service my cameras and lenses.
He is 100kms away, but I often go see him once a week.
Quite often I don't even have work for him now, I just go to sit and talk cameras, lenses and film for a few hours...he would have to be twice my age, but we have a common passion for vintage manual lenses on the front of great modern sensors and for vintage cameras....

It would be great to find some locals like me to go shooting with, but I seem to be the only one around me who just goes shooting, street shooting or whatever. Everyone else around me seems to be canon, nikon and zooms...how often do I hear, 'what's a prime? Fixed focal length?why would you want that? I just bought this massive fast auto zoom....'

My girl says I have an old soul. Hahaha