ISO 100 B&W film advice (advice)

[markbarendt]

FP4 is beautiful in tone and grain, easy to use and develop, and forgiving of foibles.

I hand load it too, in short rolls, as I do with all my hand loading.

[Leigh B]

Why not Fuji Acros?

Looks great in Rodinal 1:50. It's my standard 100-speed film in 35mm through 4x5. Wish I could get it in 8x10.

It's almost unique in that you can't blow the highlights. There's no shoulder on the curve; it just keeps going up.

- Leigh

[rich815]

Acros is phenomenal. Otherwise I agree you might try TMY.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

What I do when I want to shoot at different apertures (wider in this case) I use a two stop neutral density filter.
TMY-2 (TMax400) has similar grain, resolution, and curve to FP4+.
Two films in one. Always know what to expect, and it prints/scans beautifully. Win-Win!

[Andre Noble]

I had a latent image of sheet film Ilford FP4+ once (a matter of one or two years) and it still turned out fine. That surprised me.

[Michael R 1974]

Why not Fuji Acros?

Looks great in Rodinal 1:50. It's my standard 100-speed film in 35mm through 4x5. Wish I could get it in 8x10.

It's almost unique in that you can't blow the highlights. There's no shoulder on the curve; it just keeps going up.

- Leigh

Quite right. This very high highlight contrast is a rather unique characteristic of Acros (along with reciprocity) in comparison to its TMX and Delta 100 comparables. Contrast actually increases around zone IX and remains at that maximum until around zone XIII with a fairly abrupt shoulder thereafter. TMX and Delta (as well as TMY, FP4 etc etc) exhibit more gradual shouldering and develop to significantly lower densities in extreme highlights (above zone X).

[Tony-S]

Acros for me, too. I also shoot Pan F+ at ISO 25 to get the shadows and process on Perceptol to tame the contrast.

[msbarnes]

I ordered a can of fp4+ and a few rolls of panf+. Those interests me the most because they're traditional and the most readily available (now and in the future). You can't buy APX100 (I don't think?) nor can you buy Acros in 100' rolls. I'd prefer to bulk load to economize. Truthfully, I don't like bulk loading, but it's something that I feel I should do for the sake of economy.

fp4+ sounds like a safer bet but panf+ still interests me. I'll see how it goes.

[markbarendt]

FP4 is my current fave, but I see a hundred feet of Pan F in my future.

[Leigh B]

FP4+ is my backup for Acros, and it's the film I shoot in 8x10 since Acros is not available in that size here in the US.

- Leigh