Le jeudi 22 Juin 2006 20:39, Bill Pearce a écrit :
> 1. You can carefully select a B&W film for it's unique character, and
> process it yourself with a specific developer selected for its character.
> If you don't process it yourself, it will likely get overdeveloped, as most
> commercial labs tend that direction. Most use either D76, or more likely
> Xtol. You should be familiar with the lab and film/developer combination
> for best results.
I totaly agree : most all traditional b&w films are excellent, but none is
general purpose. To add my 2 cents, as every one on this list will give you a
comprehensive review of his pet film, I would point you toward agfa APX (100
& 400), very cheap, very crisp, very nice ; as agfa ran out of business, you
may still be able to find some (I bought my latest rolls in a shop last week,
they expire in 07/2010), but otherwise you'll find them on Internet branded
as Rollei Retro, still cheap. Moreover, there is a Rollei retro 25, virtually
identical to the old APX 25 and missing in agfa catalogue for a couple of
years. Those films are loaded with micro-contrast, so much you could cut your
eyes on it, as the saying goes. Perfect match for razor sharp zuikos.
Avoid Rollei R³, pure marketing hype. Other alternatives include Mako films,
Lucky and others from former soviet russia satellites. Internet is a gold
mine to dig and find your fix. Those alternatives may be a bit more tricky to
use (mako's are notorious for the memory effect of their film base, for
instance, making you wish you could contact-glue your negative in the scanner
film holder), but they are better than you'd expect. No wonder, they followed
a parallel evolutionary track building up on old germans formulas seized
after ww2 in the rumbles of agfa-gevaert and others.
--
Manuel Viet
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