ISO 400 at night..

[marciofs]

Without doing the pulling and pushing stuff, and using only local lights, do you manage to take street photographs at night with film ISO 400???

[jp498]

f1.4 lenses are a big help, but it depends on light levels as to what you can get away with. Nothing wrong with pushing things. Tmax400 and Tri-X push quite well to 1600.

[Roger Cole]

Depends, how bright are your streets?

No, because Tri-X looks so good in Diafine at 1250-1600 I don't bother. I stock Tri-X as my standard 35mm 400 film. I also keep TMZ on hand and for street photography at night, something I don't do much but do occasionally, I'll use that at 3200 or even 6400. But I shot photos at a street arts festival recently when I was out of TMZ and I used the Tri-X/Diafine combo and got some good shots. In some cases shutter speeds were really straining the limits of hand holding with my f/1.7 50mm lens, but I do have some good ones.

I've also seen good results from others pushing HP5+ to 1600.

[marciofs]

I don't want do pushing because I will mix night shots and day shots on the same film.

[keithwms]

Without doing the pulling and pushing stuff, and using only local lights, do you manage to take street photographs at night with film ISO 400???

Sure.

I expect that many of Brassaï's famous shots were done on slower film...

You don't have to push, you can just expose for the most compositionally important light and let the shadows go to heck. Also, longer exposures might be easier with a monopod. I also really like RFs for available light work, even though my fastest lens, a Nikon 50/1.2, is an SLR lens.

[Newt_on_Swings]

Its easy in urban city areas. There is always spill light from store fronts, or right under street lights. A steady hand, and good timing is all you need, but fast lenses do help (f1.2, f1.4, f2). Ive even shot with 200 iso films.

If all else fails, get a flash, and learn how to use it.

[marcmarc]

I've been in the same spot and decided I'd rather shoot delta 3200 at 1600 then push a 400 two stops.

[ColdEye]

My iso 400 film is always what is in my camera. I use it a bit a streets in the night too. As for aversion to pushing, I manage by using stand dev with rodinal, the results might not be to your liking but it works for me. (film is triX rated at 200 to 1600 and in between)

[Ryuji]

I don't know what body you plan to use, but getting a second body is useful if you do night photography a lot.

If you want to capture moving objects like passers by, there is nothing better than TMZ (35mm) or Delta 3200 (120). I’d use these films at EI 1600. These films are not very useful if your shutter speed is longer than a couple of seconds.

If you are mostly concerned about stationary scene, I’d use Fujifilm Acros 100. This film has very little reciprocity failure so that if you use long exposure this is the fastest film available. I often expose Acros for a couple of minutes in dark scenes.

[IloveTLRs]

I regularly shoot at night with an f3.5 lens and ISO 400 film. It depends on what you're taking pictures of.