120 film stock

I was born in the digital age so I know very little about different film stocks. I'm hoping some people here with years of experience can tell me a bit about their favorite brands and models. I really want to try shooting on efke 25 since it supposedly has almost no grain.

Pretty much most 120 films will have very little grain compared to 35mm or digital files. Ektrachrome 64 was a favourite of mine for outdoors, or anything Fuji for studio stuff. I miss Bronny ETRs.

briancmo wrote in post #5604519
I was born in the digital age so I know very little about different film stocks. I'm hoping some people here with years of experience can tell me a bit about their favorite brands and models. I really want to try shooting on efke 25 since it supposedly has almost no grain.

Remember that the type of developer used also effects grain.

bildeb0rg wrote in post #5605142
Pretty much most 120 films will have very little grain compared to 35mm or digital files. Ektrachrome 64 was a favourite of mine for outdoors, or anything Fuji for studio stuff. I miss Bronny ETRs.

I shot allot of Kodachrone 64 when they offered it in the 1980s. Incredible film. I also used to shoot ektar 25 120...

I shoot Kodak Tri-X 400, mostly for street photography. I like tri-x because it is very versatile film, you almost have to intentionally mess up the exposure for something to go wrong. You can also push it to 1600 very nicely, 3200 is alright but lots of grain.

The latitude of the film is important to me because my camera, a Yashica 635 TLR, doesn't have a light meter and I don't really want to carry one around so I just base my exposure off sunny 16 and very rarely have a exposure problem.

Tri-X also scans very well, which is important for me because I don't have an enlarger and scan all my film.

For some silly reason I really want to play with the finest grain free images.. will I be blown away by efke 25 and kodachrome 64?

I have shot allot of Kodachrome 25 the standard as far as transparency film goes. (no longer made) but with B&W things like developer, agitation, and temp all can have a drastic impact on grain.

There are fine grain developers, acutance developers (for sharpness) and middle of road developers. Adams shoot allot of professional tri-x 360 and had a special dilution of hc110 developer which gave him an amazing tonal range. Sometimes fine grain and sharpness are at odds with each other when it comes to developers. Fine grain developers soften the silver halide crystals thus making the grain less noticeable but also reducing sharpness.

Get Velvia if you can, if your landscape.

i only have a yashica-A but would love to find a hasselblad or a camera with a high quality lens that can resolve a lot of fine detail and do some shooting. my yashica looks great at 5x5 but scanned and zoomed in your can really see it breaks up

www.brianmosoff.com/12​0scan.jpg
keep in mind i shot on a 1953 yashica and scanned it on my canon scanner and have no idea what the heck I'm doing here haha

Dust is the bane of film photography.
Otherwise, pretty cool. I miss the big film.

briancmo wrote in post #5607389
i only have a yashica-A but would love to find a hasselblad or a camera with a high quality lens that can resolve a lot of fine detail and do some shooting. my yashica looks great at 5x5 but scanned and zoomed in your can really see it breaks up

What kind of scanner are you using? Most likely your negatives are quite a bit sharper, assuming proper focus and all that stuff. A basic flatbed scanner will do quite a poor job on scanning negatives. If it is a film flatbed scanner it will produce decent quality, but still far from the full potential of a medium format negative.

The best way would be to use a drum scanner, or even better make prints the old fashion way with an enlarger and all that. Now a drum scanner/darkroom is probably beyond your budget, so the best way to deal with this is to scan at home like you are now, and get only the negatives you really want large prints of professionally scanned and printed.


Its also a good idea to use some canned air or something to clean the scanner & negatives to prevent the major dust and lint your image has.

DAMphyne wrote in post #5607963
Dust is the bane of film photography.
Otherwise, pretty cool. I miss the big film.

If you scan color negs with a higher end scanner, dust and scratches are not a problem at all. Digital ICE software takes care of it perfectly.

B&W unfortunately is a different story.

Right now I have a canon 8800F which is a flatbed that has a film slot...it seems to be ok but not ideal. I scrapped using the canon software and downloaded vuescan. After much tinkering with all the fine color settings it looks not so terrible...could be shaper though. Instead of using the film adapter I'm laying the negative right on the scanner with a piece of clear plastic on top of it making sure the neg sits flat against the scanning glass.

Why does this all have to be so damn expensive!

Brian,
The clear plastic could have something to do with the dust looking artifacts.
Also it may be preventing your scanner from focusing on the film.
See if you can find a film holder that has glass or nothing at all covering the film.
Keeping the neg flat is important, but you don't want to add to the deterioration of the image to get it.

Sorry I think I described this wrong... The plastic CD case sit on top of the negative...not on the same side as the CCD so the CCD doesn't see the plastic holding the neg flat. It's only purpose is to keep the negative flat (rather then a piece of glass). I used something clear so the backlight wouldn't be obstructed.