Greetings from Walles

[Amatieris]

I am a digital shooter first of all, but last year I decided I wanted to learn film photography. After a long search I have acquired myself a used Mamiya medium format camera and hopefully will soon get a contax G1 rangefinder as well. My experience with film is negligible, thus I welcome any suggestions. My main interest in photography are portraits and from initial search I think I like the look of fujifilm neopan 400 and ilford xp5. Are there better films for portraits. I mainly prefer pictures of people in enviroment, not closeups or studio type portraits.

[Dave miller]

Welcome Amatieris, pleased that you found us and even more pleased to read that you are interested in using film.

[Amatieris]

Thank you, this site was recomended to me by Brianrbird. Now I just have to start using my film cameras!

[Trevor Crone]

Welcome to the Forum Amatieris.

I think your film choice for portraits is good. Similar films are Ilford's HP5 and my personal favourite Delta 400.

[Richard Gould]

Hi Amatiris and welcome to the forum,Richard

[B&W Neil]

Hello Amatiris and welcome to FADU.

Neil.

[NoelKingsley]

HI Amatiris,
Welcome to FADU and film photography. Your obvious enthusiasm will carry you a long way. Looking forward to seeing some of your work. Best wishes, Noel

[Amatieris]

Thank you!

[Mike O'Pray]

Hi and welcome Amatieris. You've made a good start in MF already

As far as films are concerned I have been impressed with Fuji Neopan 400 in 35mm. I haven't shot it in 120 yet.

HP5+ will probably give you a slightly different look and may be a little more grainy but in MF this will hardly matter.

If you want the smallest grain and this may only matter at prints sizes greater than 8x10 in MF then I have had success with Fuji at box speed in Perceptol which is a very fine grain developer whereas Ilford down rate its HP5+ with Perceptol to a max of 320.

This is only a slight loss of speed and may not matter. In terms of using two films there are 2 philosophies. The first says choose a film and then stick with it until you know it well and then and only then consider changing. The second says that even at box speed and manufacturers' recommended dev times you will know enough from the look of the negs and attempts to make prints from them to know which you prefer. Then you can refine such things as your personal film speed and development times.

I think there is a lot to be said for the second philosophy but that is just an opinion which may be shared by some and not others.

Mike

[Alan Clark]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray

Hi The second says that even at box speed and manufacturers' recommended dev times you will know enough from the look of the negs and attempts to make prints from them to know which you prefer. Then you can refine such things as your personal film speed and development times.

I think there is a lot to be said for the second philosophy but that is just an opinion which may be shared by some and not others.

Mike

I would agree with this. In fact, I tried a roll of Neopan 400 once and knew straight away that I didn't like it! I much prefer HP5+, but this is largely a matter of personal taste. This is one of the great things about film. Different choices in film type, film format and developer type have a big effect on how your prints will look, giving you lots of interesting options.
Welcome to the forum!

Alan