Are Film Price Differences Worth The Money?

[jp]

I am a newbie in LF photography as the content of this post will soon make evident. While I was writing another post regarding BTSZ I was looking at film prices and was wondering if the price difference between films is worth the money. I have not shot most of these films in LF so I would love to know why someone might spend significantly more money on one film than the other. I understand that some of it depends on the volume of film consumed. If I shoot 5 sheets a month paying 4 times the price for the more expensive film doesn't really make any difference.

Attached is the spreadsheet I made using Freestyle prices as of today 4/28/14

It's worth it to me to use what I want (within reason). It has taken me quite a number of sheets and outings and chemicals to get in a groove and get the results I envision from particular films. I like FP4+ and Tmax400 and have put in the effort such that I make negatives that produce the "look" I had in mind with a particular developer. (People typically build that relationship with tri-x rather than tmax; you'll hear it a lot.)

If you're new to film, you might be happy to just have a sharp image that's adequately exposed and developed and variations in tone, grain, spectral response won't matter much. I've been using tmax400 since it first came out, so at this point, I'm after smaller differences and rather than the basics. I've managed to make FP4+ work equally (interchangably) well in some circumstances but not all circumstances. It's grainier, less expensive, less yellow filtered, more reciprocity failure, slower but still a nice film. I need options in case TMY does get too expensive or Kodak makes some boneheaded move to kill a film. In addition to LF, I do shoot MF and probably do more MF right now. Kodak tmax400 is a very affordable film for 120 format in pro-packs, and if it's a little more in LF, it kinda averages out but I like the consistency between formats.

I have had quality issues with the arista stuff. Other people like it and have not experienced that. It's not a risk I want to deal with. For student / learning, it's a valid option despite that.