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In general, the ISO capabilities of modern digital (especially larger sensor cameras but even good phone cameras) is a remarkable advance over film even relativ
by ghaff 2y ago
In general, the ISO capabilities of modern digital (especially larger sensor cameras but even good phone cameras) is a remarkable advance over film even relatively latterly.
With digital, ISO of 3200 or 6400 is nothing (probably better today with full frame). B&W film really topped out at about 400 in normal use and couldn't really be pushed past 1600 and even that required chemistry tricks and resulted in noticeably lower quality.
- actionfromafar 2y agoNitpick, no (edit: chemical) tricks needed, just double the developing time.
- ghaff 2y agoI did this for years. I tended to use different chemistries for pushing Tri-X or HP5 to 1600+. Don't remember the details, but didn't tend to use D-76 for pushed film as I recall.
- hypercube33 2y agoI love shooting BW film but Tri-X looks so newspapery or silver to me - I tend to prefer the newer Kentmere films. I've found you can still push them pretty far and not pay a large price. The film is just so forgiving compared to digital (at least to the best of 2014 sensors)
- i_am_proteus 2y agoI get pretty decent, if high-contrast results pushing 320TX and 400TX to 3200. Pushing does increase grain; but using a larger format (6x7 or 4x5) reduces the apparent grain in resultant prints. I can't say enough good things about HC-110 as a developer: pushes well just by increasing development time, shelf-stable for years as a concentrate, and not particularly toxic compared to other developers.
- ghaff 2y agoApproximately never used anything larger than 35mm. I don't remember all the developers I used over the years (though I used D-76 for a lot of standard Kodak Tri-X ISO 400 stuff). May have used some HC-110 (forget when that came in), definitely Diafine/Acufine, probably something from Ilford after I largely switched to HP-5 film, some homebrewed stuff... But it's been decades since I have done film processing. After I graduated, did a brief stint using an apartment half bathroom and drove me crazy after good school darkrooms. [ADDED: I've never used B&W film emulsions from the past 40 years or so; they're presumably at least a bit faster than what I used. 1600 was pretty much the practical limit when I was shooting B&W on film.]