The High Quality of B&W Photographs with 35mm these days

[Keith Tapscott.]

I saw a B&W print exhibition this morning at the Dartmoor Visitors Centre at Princetown, South-west England, showing photographs of `Farm Life`by local documentary photographer, Chris Chapman.
The prints appear to be printed on 16"x12" or possibly 16"x20" paper with a black key-line around the image to show the entire area of the film image. Looking at the prints from up close, you can see some signs of grain, but the images remain sharp and crisp with excellent tonality.This with ISO 400 film too.
With the often asked questions of which film and developer yields the best sharpness and resolution, I was wondering how many people have tried and use ISO 400 as their regular film choice?
www.chrischapmanphotography.com

http://www.warmwell.com/silenceramsbooklaunch.html

[Jay DeFehr]

Hi Keith.

TMY (Tmax 400) is my first choice of film in any format. I develop most often in 510-Pyro, but if I want grainless prints larger than 11x14, from 35mm negs, I use a superfine-grain developer called Halcyon.

Jay

[Keith Tapscott.]

Hi Keith.

TMY (Tmax 400) is my first choice of film in any format. I develop most often in 510-Pyro, but if I want grainless prints larger than 11x14, from 35mm negs, I use a superfine-grain developer called Halcyon.

Jay

Hello Jay,
An interesting choice, although probably each individual will have their own favourites. I mostly use 35mm although I also use 6x7 MF for studio portraiture and I recently bought an old MPP 5x4.
My main point was just how good the quality of B&W prints can be with the 35mm format, even with the range of ISO 400 films and with a fairly high enlargement size too.
Although I like looking at some landscape and still life photographs, it is a refreshing change to see an exhibition of reportage, social documentary or what ever they like to call it these days.
The sheet film camera is capable of stunning enlargement quality, but I wouldn`t want to use it to photograph a soccer match.
Sorry, but I don`t know of a developer called `Halcyon`.
Cheers.

[Ornello]

I saw a B&W print exhibition this morning at the Dartmoor Visitors Centre at Princetown, South-west England, showing photographs of `Farm Life`by local documentary photographer, Chris Chapman.
The prints appear to be printed on 16"x12" or possibly 16"x20" paper with a black key-line around the image to show the entire area of the film image. Looking at the prints from up close, you can see some signs of grain, but the images remain sharp and crisp with excellent tonality.This with ISO 400 film too.
With the often asked questions of which film and developer yields the best sharpness and resolution, I was wondering how many people have tried and use ISO 400 as their regular film choice?
www.chrischapmanphotography.com

http://www.warmwell.com/silenceramsbooklaunch.html

With proper technique, 35mm B&W films of today are capable of excellent results. Fuji, Kodak, and Ilford all produce splendid films. I am not fond of T-Max 400 at all for outdoor work, but some people like it. I much prefer Neopan 400 or Tri-X or HP5.

[Keith Tapscott.]

Yes, all these films from the main film manufacturers are very capable products. The ISO 400 speed group is a good choice for general use.

[Jay DeFehr]

Hi Keith.

I agree. I shoot formats ranging from 35mm through 8x10, and a cold, hard look at my prints from various formats shows that 35mm is a very capable format, and holds its own against larger formats much better than I had previously imagined. A bigger neg is a bigger neg, and there's no getting around physics, but there's much more to a photograph than the math, and 35mm enjoys some very real advantages over larger formats in some applications. My photographer friends know the formats I shoot, so when they see my prints they have to guess the format, and they often guess wrong.

Everyone is likely to have their favorite film, and equally likely to have their favorite developer, and I have mine, but any film made by Kodak, Fuji, or Ilford is an excellent film, as are some films made by lower tier manufacturers, and just about any developer made, or formula published is capable of excellent results when handled appropriately.

Halcyon is my own, unpublished, superfine-grain developer formula. I'm tired of arguing over and defending my formulae, so I've decided to just keep them to myself from now on. There are plenty of existing formulae to argue over, and I'd rather spend my time photographing.

Jay