Niall,
you really need to see the difference. The proof is in the pudding. To make a valid Vergleich zwischen verschiedenen Filmen you have to expose them for their real speed and develop them to the right contrast. Overdevelopment and underexposure is the easiest way to ruin any film.
As an aside with respect to one film being better than the other there is hardly a film more kontrovers als than Kodaks TMAX 400. Use it outdoors, soup it in a higher concentration of HC110 and you'll hate it too. At least I did. But use it indoors for portraits, developed in XTOL 1+1 or lowly D76 1+1 and you will ask yourself what this talk about plasticy midtones is about. Look here: [url="http://www.heylloyd.com/photos1/photos1.htm"]http://www.heylloyd.com/photos1/photos1.htm[/url]. Or use it with a staining/tanning developer like PMK, Moersch Tanol or Pyrocat-HD and TMY - to my own surprise - shines even under outdoor conditions. Its more a matter of "how" than of "what" which makes me optimistisch that we may still do fine in the not too far future when our choices of materials get more and more limited.
There is one difference, though, between "old" and "new" that hasn't been mentioned yet: spectral sensitivity. The sensitivity of most "old" emulsions ends earlier towards the red end of the spectrum and no kind of filtering will compensate for that. Such films inevitably look different and you may or may not like this kind of difference.
BTW. Mirko: can you name the source for the statement that Ilford has decided to shut down production of B&W products? I have yet to decide what to put on my next order!
best
Stefan
(This post was last modified: 27-08-2004, 07:59 AM by skahde.)
you really need to see the difference. The proof is in the pudding. To make a valid Vergleich zwischen verschiedenen Filmen you have to expose them for their real speed and develop them to the right contrast. Overdevelopment and underexposure is the easiest way to ruin any film.
As an aside with respect to one film being better than the other there is hardly a film more kontrovers als than Kodaks TMAX 400. Use it outdoors, soup it in a higher concentration of HC110 and you'll hate it too. At least I did. But use it indoors for portraits, developed in XTOL 1+1 or lowly D76 1+1 and you will ask yourself what this talk about plasticy midtones is about. Look here: [url="http://www.heylloyd.com/photos1/photos1.htm"]http://www.heylloyd.com/photos1/photos1.htm[/url]. Or use it with a staining/tanning developer like PMK, Moersch Tanol or Pyrocat-HD and TMY - to my own surprise - shines even under outdoor conditions. Its more a matter of "how" than of "what" which makes me optimistisch that we may still do fine in the not too far future when our choices of materials get more and more limited.
There is one difference, though, between "old" and "new" that hasn't been mentioned yet: spectral sensitivity. The sensitivity of most "old" emulsions ends earlier towards the red end of the spectrum and no kind of filtering will compensate for that. Such films inevitably look different and you may or may not like this kind of difference.
BTW. Mirko: can you name the source for the statement that Ilford has decided to shut down production of B&W products? I have yet to decide what to put on my next order!
best
Stefan
