Black and white film

How to choose your black and white film?

There is still a wide choice of black and white film from different brands such as Kodak, Ilford, Bergger, Rollei, Agfa, Cinestill...

How to choose the right film for the situation?

First of all the format: it must correspond to the format of your film camera:

The small format also called 24x36, 35mm or 135. This is the most common format. The films are presented in metal cartridges coded DX or not. These films contain 12 frames, 24 frames or 36 frames.

The medium format, or 120. The image is 6 centimeters wide. The length depends on the format of your medium format camera: 4,5x6 , 6x6 , 6x7 , 6x8 , 6x9 or 6x12. The number of frames depends on this format and varies from 4 to 16 frames.

The large format. From 4x5 inch, we speak of large format. The usual film formats are 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 inch.

Then, the sensitivity: depending on what you want to take a picture and the lighting conditions

In favorable lighting conditions, you will go for a so-called slow film: below ISO 200. There are few films in this category: Ilford Pan F 50, Ilford FP4 Plus, Ilford Delta 100, Kodak TMax 100, Rollei RPX 100, Superpan 200.

If, however, there is little light or you need to freeze a movement, you will have to turn to photo films of ISO 400 or more, like Ilford HP5 Plus, Kodak TriX, Kodak TMAX 400, Bergger Pancro400, Rollei RPX400.

Finally, in extreme conditions, two 3200 ISO films will allow you to shoot anyway: Kodak TMAX 3200 and Ilford DELTA 3200

Finally, the aesthetics is the most important criterion to choose your film:

Do you like the grain? What range of gray? What presence in the shadows? How does it behave in the highlights? Is it easy to develop?