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Tri-X: Best film ever?

JNB

JNB

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 7, 2004
6,872
9
In a Hell predominately of my own making
Of the tens of thousands of shots I've taken, film or digital (of which at least 30 or 40 are worth a damn), my belief is that Tri-X has saved my bacon more often than not. It's taken the most mundane setups and made them worth looking at, and my good ones great.

400 was my favorite, and I used it for everything, from photojournalism to portraiture to art shots. Darn near the perfect film.

What was your favorite?
 
1

103734

Guest
Apr 10, 2007
723
0
photographic paper here, only because pinhole cameras are so fun :p.

and its the last type of film I used, I was kinda born into the digital era (18 y/o).
 
M@lew

M@lew

macrumors 68000
Nov 18, 2006
1,582
0
Melbourne, Australia
B&W - Love HP5, especially pushed to 1600. Neopan 1600 is awesome too.

Colour Neg - Portra 400NC/VC

Slide - Provia 400X - Just really nice and pushes really well.
 
Doylem

Doylem

macrumors 68040
Dec 30, 2006
3,858
3,642
Wherever I hang my hat...
For landscapes I settled on Fuji's Velvia transparency film. When Fuji stopped making it, I gave up photography for a while... until I took the plunge and went digital...
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
I liked Ilford's XP2 for convenience of being able to get the film processed anywhere.

But when I had the time and facilities to process my own films then I used Delta 400 and pushed it fair bit.
 
compuwar

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
For B&W, the Ilford Delta films in Hutchings PMK followed by HP5+ in PMK followed by FP4 in PMK. Despite being T-grain films, the Deltas worked well in PMK.

For color Provia 100F at EI 160 (+1) in the Kodak 6-bath kit followed by Velvia at EI 80 (+1) in the Kodak 6-bath kit.
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
Tech pan, Tri-x, and believe it or not this Fuji Neopan developed in pyro developer.

Man I miss film. I'm going to get some after I move.
 
compuwar

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
jessica. said:
Tech pan, Tri-x, and believe it or not this Fuji Neopan developed in pyro developer.

Man I miss film. I'm going to get some after I move.
Click to expand...

I don't miss having UPS totally destroy two out of every three PMK deliveries- I always wondered if they just handed other people their pyro-soaked packages (*shudder*) when they destroyed one enough that it leaked.

The Photographer's Formulary now has Pyrocat-HD in liquid form, almost- but not quite worth going back to film for.
 
B

Baron58

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2004
450
3
marioman38 said:
Always liked the grain on Ilford Delta 100
Click to expand...

It's been so long I can't recall whether I tried Ilford film (I did like Ilford paper, though)... did you have to develop it in Rodinal, or was D-76 OK? Rodinal always scared me.
 
C

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,834
2,039
Redondo Beach, California
JohnNotBeatle said:
Of the tens of thousands of shots I've taken, film or digital (of which at least 30 or 40 are worth a damn), my belief is that Tri-X has saved my bacon more often than not. It's taken the most mundane setups and made them worth looking at, and my good ones great.

400 was my favorite, and I used it for everything, from photojournalism to portraiture to art shots. Darn near the perfect film.

What was your favorite?
Click to expand...

I liked tri-X early on, and then my later shots where on Kodak t-max. I also shot Kodachrome and then moved to Velvia

I'm currently scanning a lot of old film. It's going slowly as I have a file cabinet full of it. The project is forcing me to look at the film for technical quality (and content too.) and I'm noticing the lower contrast films are best. I shot a some of Agfa Portrait-160 and this stuff scans real well. It's ideal for landscapes, makes for some real nice scanned files. Now I whish more of my work had been done with Agfa Portrait-160, even the landscapes

I think it also depends on the format. tri-x was a bit to grainy for 35mm format but different on medium format.

I really want to get back into shooting film but I think it's not worth it to shoot 35mm film. It is so close to using a DSLR. I think 4x5 is it. Large format can do different things than SLRs
 
bassproguy07

bassproguy07

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2008
704
0
Katy, TX
I like T-max 100/400. Basically all I shoot and develop as of now. Don't really shot any color film, black and white is just easier to print.
 
W

wittegijt

macrumors member
Feb 18, 2007
31
0
Eindhoven
Mainly Tri-x (35mm & 120) and some Plus-x (120). Tri-x is developed in Rodinal and the Plus-x usually in D76.
I don't like T-grain films, Tmax being worse than Ilford Delta.

Wittegijt
 
monokakata

monokakata

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,055
596
Ithaca, NY
I'm having an old days attack. Back in the 60s and early 70s I shot thousands of frames on TX (used to buy it by the 100' and roll my own) but my favorite developer was Acufine, which as I remember meant you could shoot at either 800 or 1200 and have low grain, good range, etc. etc.

TX was also very resistant to all kinds of environmental insults. I took it with me into the humid tropics, no protection except factory packaging (the 100' rolls were in big metal cans) and it just never failed me in any way at all. I even developed there, using rainwater, couldn't hit that 68 degree temp but again, it always gave me a good neg.

At the other end -- Panatomic with Microdol(?) 1:3. Took forever to develop but it was just about grainless at any reasonable magnification.

Once I tried Xray film -- talk about no grain. Amazing. I can't remember any more than that, though.

Agfa Brovira. I loved that paper more than any other.
 
seenew

seenew

macrumors 68000
Dec 1, 2005
1,569
1
Brooklyn
JohnNotBeatle said:
400 was my favorite, and I used it for everything, from photojournalism to portraiture to art shots. Darn near the perfect film.
Click to expand...

^ditto. :)

I never shot film until three years ago when I started school, but after trying all brands and speeds available to me, I now have a large stock of Tri-X 400 in my fridge.
Not that it gets too much use now that I've got my 5D. :eek:
Still holds a place in my heart, though.
 
PCMacUser

PCMacUser

macrumors 68000
Jan 13, 2005
1,704
23
My favourite film is Fuji Velvia ISO50. In black and white, I'm still experimenting - worked with Ilford HP5+ and have now got PanF ISO 50 in my camera.
 
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