Kodak paranoia is over

[Howard Tanger]

It's interesting to know in this forum how many Americans do not really know Ilford films.
Ilford has more expertise in black and white products than Kodak, and always had better papers. Except for TriX, that is unique, Ilford's B&W films have the edge.

You are joking arn't you or just playing the fool? Howard Tanger

[MWitmann]

It's interesting to know in this forum how many Americans do not really know Ilford films.

it's intresting to read how many photographers praise their self and their possibility to invest k of $ in all kind of stashes of film.

It sounds like "you know, i'm feeling safe because i have the money to buy 1000 boxes of film".

For a student like me, and probably also for others, sounds a bit.... you know

[Drew Wiley]

I doubt there's anyone on this forum who doesn't know about Ilford film. Some of us
have tested every single film they make at one time or another. And buying certain films in volume is just common sense in certain cases. It's only going to get more
expensive, some types might not be available at all later on, and there's always a
learning curve to substitutions. So this has nothing to do with being snobby. Most of
us were starving students at one time in life too and had to watch expenses carefully.
I personally have a very high opinion of Iford products, but there are certain niches
which Kodak films fill better. And Ilford (Harman) offers no color products whatsoever.
In the long run, the right film for the application is generally the best bargain. It will
save wasted printing paper, which ain't getting any cheaper either.

[MWitmann]

I doubt there's anyone on this forum who doesn't know about Ilford film. Some of us
have tested every single film they make at one time or another. And buying certain films in volume is just common sense in certain cases. It's only going to get more
expensive, some types might not be available at all later on, and there's always a
learning curve to substitutions. So this has nothing to do with being snobby. Most of
us were starving students at one time in life too and had to watch expenses carefully.
I personally have a very high opinion of Iford products, but there are certain niches
which Kodak films fill better. And Ilford (Harman) offers no color products whatsoever.
In the long run, the right film for the application is generally the best bargain. It will
save wasted printing paper, which ain't getting any cheaper either.

agree with you, but probably when you were starving (or not) students the 4x5 film or the super 8 cassettes were available on any store's shelf, at any moment of the year, in my case i start to feel that i've decided to start my LF adventure too late...

[Roger Cole]

agree with you, but probably when you were starving (or not) students the 4x5 film or the super 8 cassettes were available on any store's shelf, at any moment of the year, in my case i start to feel that i've decided to start my LF adventure too late...

True, and I sympathize. I well remember my high school and college days when a consumer grade SLR was a luxury to save up for and I made test strips on the narrowest strip I thought would work to save paper (which probably cost more paper in the long run, but never mind.) Now I can afford all the film and paper I have time to use, which isn't that much because time is so much more precious and limited.

OTOH, back when we were scrounging students we didn't have eBay and the web forums to find deals on cold stored film, either. Most such I've bought have shot fine. I did get some supposedly frozen Elitechrome 400 that sucks. After two rolls of wasted results I'm tossing the rest, or maybe tying to cross process it and see what happens.

[John Conway]

Hey MWitmann, I would like to share my feelings about the future of film and what is happening now on the large format photography scene. There will be constant change on the horizon. The film business will get smaller and we will have much less choices when it comes to products available to us. We must deal with it. My recent return to large format photography, after about three years, has been a pleasure but I was shocked to see how fast things have changed. So, I said to myself, either I'm going to dwell on the negative, or not give a hoot and have fun enjoying my large format photography, I decided to not give a hoot and be positive. Many great photographers used one film and the same system their entire career. Have fun, there will always be film.

[Drew Wiley]

I grew up where exactly one type of film was available - outdated 35mm Kodachrome, and it would take weeks to get the slides back. It was just as much a financial hardship for me to shoot 35mm back then as 8x10 is now. I had the good fortune that my older brother became a Pentax and Linhof salesman to put himself thru Photog School, and my high school graduation present was an early Pentax SLR. Sheet film was probably no more common in urban camera stores back then than it is now. In fact, the selection is probably even bigger at the moment, at least in terms of shelf inventory. So excuse me if I'm not moved to tears by a few bumps in the road. There's
plenty of wonderful film and papers on the market right now, and the bigger dilemma is
figuring out which is the best for your personal needs. No sense wasting more time.
Start shooting and join the fun!

[John Conway]

I had to stop before in order to fix my old pick up truck while I still had daylight. I just wanted to add a few more things here.Like I said, I'm just going to enjoy my large format photography, try many of the great films available from Freestyle, and let the whole digital tidal wave wash itself away. Let all the goo goo byte, mega bit, pixel this and pixel that bunch keep spending their way toward the ultimate ultra-awesome latest super cameras. When they are all finished and we have a cheap sensor that slides into the back of my view camera, well, I'll give it a try.

[ImSoNegative]

Today's order was 30 propacks of tmy2 120, which should last me about three years at a roll per week.

I've got tmax400 in 4x5, 8x10, 120, 35mm, and tri-x in 8x10 (an old style with top quality). Nothing is quite like Tmax 400 though.

I've even got a little arista edu foma 100 , but the last sheet of that I developed had a fingerprint on it that wasn't mine. I feel it's good to evaluate film options from time to time; I'm not a film fanboy or brand bigot.

Ilford is good and I use their paper, but I can not handle too many types of film at once.

i have had problems with fingerprints on foma film, also wasnt mine,

[path_rider]

It's interesting to know in this forum how many Americans do not really know Ilford films.
Ilford has more expertise in black and white products than Kodak, and always had better papers. Except for TriX, that is unique, Ilford's B&W films have the edge.

on which? "t-grain" - delta? ...fuji & kodak have the edge clearly there.
and papers? apart from warmtone... everything else - Ilford... I ' affraid that it does not do the job for me

and these are of course personal opinions....

edit> Just to put a Brand on the game... I would me worthwile for fellow LF photographers to check ADOX films and papers ..and Foma papers as well. ADOX does really old fashioned emulsions that are very interesting