Photo films I've used
This page is about the different films that I've used, my opinions of them, and how I think that you can achieve the best results with them. These are only my opinions. Your mileage may vary. Also, at the moment I only deal in 35MM film, and so don't list things like the cost for 120 rolls.

Ilford Pan-F Plus

Iso speedShots/RollCost
50 (25 - 400 possible)20, 36, bulk reelFrom Freestyle Photo:
36/Ilford can: $3.59
36/Bulk can: $2.49
20/Bulk can: $1.69
100 Foot roll: $27.99

Ilford's Pan-F Plus film is a wonder to have and rewards you beautifully when you're willing to work to it's limitations. The beautiful reward is negatives that can be enlarged almost without limit. The caveat is the requirement of either a tripod or Death Valley at noon illumination levels. To get an idea of exposure times, a lens at F/2.8 at high noon will be about 1/250 or 1/125. Exposures taken during daylight hours inside will be around 1/4 second. Pictures taken at night are the most challenging, because exposure times balloon as light gets fainter. Taking a picture of a self-illuminated digital LCD clock, for example, took approximatly two and a half minutes. Time exposures of the night sky or city are around ten minutes. One little tidbit I've found that will prove useful is that, for long exposures, you can get the correct exposure by raising the computed exposure to the 1.48 power (Link)

Thus, you won't find Pan-F very rewarding if your main interest is photographing moving subjects or action scenes because the slow speed will cause too much motion blur. You can use a flash, but even with a lens at F/2.8, the maximum range is likely to be maybe 2 meters for an acceptably dense negative.

For photographing static subjects, such as a landscape, you will see Pan F's true strength: Incredibly detailed and sharp negatives. With a shot taken with a rock-steady tripod, and developed in ID-11 diluted 1:3 (Ilford's stated mix for finest grain), you will be able to explode the negatives almost without limit before you encounter grain. I've made 5x7 cropped prints from negatives enlarged to 24, 36, even 50 or 60 inches once. The print from the 50 inch enlargement was starting to show it's grain, but IIRC that roll was developed in ID-11 1:1. Pan-F+ probably records about 32 megapixels, or on the order of 6000+ DPI

There are a few articles of faith you have to accept if you want this film to work, though. If you do a search for other reviews of Pan-F, or look up the datasheet at Ilford.com, you'll learn that Pan-F is naturally a rather high-contrast film. So unless you're going for that, use a low-contrast developer! Also note that according to Ilford, you can pull Pan-F to ISO 25, or push it all the way to 400. However, doing so gives up the super-fine grain and kinda makes the whole point of using it moot. One more thing: If you use ID-11 diluted 1:3, go very light on the agitation (Probably 1 or 2 seconds each minute) - otherwise the negatives will have an almost unholy contrast (literally ranging from completely transparent to almost-sun-filter opaque in one frame). When you're dealing with a film this fine-grained, you'll have to start worrying about diffraction. Without getting into the physics, just know that diffraction limits the sharpness of any lens regardless of quality, and that smaller aperatures make it worse. Since Pan-F records an incredibly sharp image (~120-150 lp/mm at normal contrast, 200+ at high contrast), you'll want to stay with wide aperatures (larger than F/8) or diffraction will kill it. Article two: Use wide aperatures.

One other thing about Pan-F. Before you stick the negatives in your enlarger, make sure than the lens is as clean as humanly possible. If you've got bits of lint and dust on it, they will degrade a highly enlarged picture.

To explain it's resolution and grain in a pictoral way, I scanned three pictures I found laying around that came from the same negative. Click Here to see them.

Update 10/31: I've encountered some new situations with Pan-F and thought I might share them. First, I've bought a new developer on a trial basis: Clayton F-76 Plus. It's "an extremely fine-grained phenidone-based developer" that has so far done all right on Fuji Neopan 1600 and Ilford Pan-F+. It did indeed render the Neopan 1600 fairly fine-grained as far as 1600 film goes. If nothing else, it's worth buying a 1-liter bottle of concentrate to try out for $10.

That brings up the second point, which is a roll of Pan-F+ I accidently underexposed (Loading the film on the I-5 North, I got everything right except resetting the camera ISO meter). I was in a quandry because I couldn't find any instructions on the 'Net for dealing with a roll that was 2 stops underexposed that I could use. I don't have Microphen, so I stuck it in Clayton F-76 and guessed 9 minutes. And it appears to have worked - the negatives look like they are at least usable. So, try Clayton F-76+ and Pan-F exposed @ 200 can be salvaged by Clayton F-76 @ 9min.

Summary
Strengths:
  1. Extremely sharp negatives, suited for considerable enlargements.
  2. Suprisingly economical (see above)
  3. Photos of static scenes
Weaknesses:
  1. Slow speed requires bright light or tripod. Therefore,
  2. Not suited for action photography
  3. Non-existant nature of grain makes grain focuser extremely difficult to use... I'm only half joking.
Last thought: Your camera better have a 'B' setting and you better have a cable release.

Ilford Delta 3200

Iso Speed Shots/Roll Cost
400-25000 36 From Freestyle Photo:
36 shot roll/$5.19

As if two more opposite films could be compared, here is one of the fastest films available right next to one of the slowest. The number one thing about this film is that is is FAST. Exposures are so short it'd have a snowball in hell saying "Damn that was fast!". We aren't talking run-of-the-mill fast, we're talking "Action photos at night" fast. We're talking 1/1000 at F/22 in daylight fast. Okay, now that I've finished drawing you a mental image of just how fast this film is, you know there has to be a caveat: The grain. I've used several rolls of Delta 3200 in two developers and a couple different dilutions and it doesn't seem to make much difference. If you look closely at the negative itself, you can almost see the grain. Use one of those little 8X neg viewers and it's clearly vsible. I'd guess that the film is good to record a little over 1 megapixel in digital terms, or about 1000-1200 DPI. Thus, don't expect to enlarge it past 8x10.

However, the grain is the tradeoff for taking photos in situations where nothing else can. My Second photo gallery was all shot with Delta 3200, and some other pictures were also. At the 720 pixel crop, you can not quite see the grain. During the day, it's almost too fast - Stop down to F/22 or 32, and exposure could still easily be faster than 1/1000. It really shines at night: You can get 1/4-1/8 second exposures in full moonlight. Take pictures in your room... when the only illumination is LEDs and your LCD clock.

One of the interesting things about Delta 3200 is that it has such an incredible tolerance to being pushed and pulled. Ilford offers developing instructions for speeds from 400 to 12800, and some people have pushed it to ISO 25400. The film actually reacts around iso 1000-1200, but takes being pushed to 3200 very well. The disadvantage is that, as you push it faster and faster, you will see the manifestations of an ever-narrowing dynamic range: Extreme contrast, increasing drop of shadow and highlight detail, and ever larger grain.

Because I'm a sharp freak, and don't usually do action shots, I haven't used much Delta 3200. At $5.19 a can, it's a tad expensive to casually play with. I've gone through 4 rolls, 3 at 3200 and one at 1600, so I can't vouch for what it actually looks like at high warp speeds. However, when I needed it for my second semester photo final, it really came through! One thing to remember: The developing times Ilford gives are way short. Other websites suggest adding 25% to their times. I'd probably add about 30-35% (Being of the opinion that a little too much silver is better than too little).

Summary:
Strengths:
  1. Extremely high speed
  2. Night / Action shots
  3. The only ISO 3200 film available in 120 (???)
Weaknesses:
  1. Very grainy
  2. 35MM is not suited for enlargement past 8x10
  3. Marginal tolerance to over/under exposure

Arista Halftone Supreme

Iso speedSheet countsCost
1225/50/100 sheets
rolls		From Freestyle Photo:
25 sheets of 8x10: $15.99

This is a large-format sheet film that's meant for printing presses, copy negatives, and other high-contrast things. I was searching my school photo lab and found a box with 100 sheets of it.

I've tried it in the school's 4x5 large-format camera, but I haven't used it enough to say much yet.

If you want to use it for normal photography, ie continuous tone, put it in your paper developer for 1:30. Although it seems like noone wants to just tell me what the ISO speed is, it renders a decent image when exposed at ISO 12.

My only complaint is that it's maddenly hard to cut accurately enough the first time to get it into the camera's film holders! But it is certainly fine-grained.

Tintypes

Iso speedSourcesCost
~2Purchase kit from Freestyle photo, or parts directly from Rockland Colloid
Freestyle kit is $27 for 5 4x5 sheets

This isn't a modern film but rather a historical curiosity. There is plenty of information about tintypes, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes out there on the net. Suffice it to say that a thin negative viewed against a dark background appears to be positive and that the process was popular from the mid 1800's to the early-to-mid 1900's.

To be able to take an original picture of viewable size, you will need to have either a hideously expensive large format camera or access to one. You will also need either intense sunlight or enough studio lights to give your subject a tan.

The key to getting the kit to work is coating the plates right. Too thick and you waste the (insanely expensive) colloid; Too thin and there's nothing to record an image. It might take some time to get your groove with the collodion. Here are my suggestions for coating the plates.

Once you manage to jam it into the film holder (which is designed for thin, flexible film and not metal plates), put it in the large-format camera and you're ready to rumble. Rockland says the exposure is .5 seconds @ F/16 in bright sun, implying ISO 2. The catch is that it only responds to blue light, which means that 90% of the light coming off of studio lights is useless. If you hit ~100 square feet with 3000 watts of studio lighting, the exposure at F/5.6 is about 5 to 10 seconds (reciprocity failure accounted for).

The most obvious thing about a tintype versus a normal B&W print is that the tones are completely different, very warm. They can capture details at least as well as any paper I've used, and don't seem to show any grain visible to the naked eye.

Summary:
Strengths:

Weaknesses: