B&W film for wrecks w/ nikV + 15mm

[Undertow 31]

I've decided to dust off my nik V & put down my D200 rig to do some ambient light B&W shots of my favorite wrecks. Can anyone recommend a good film? I saw an Agfa B&W slide film mentioned in another forum, which is intruiging, but B&H are out of stock and who knows when it'll be back.

 

Do people tend to use higher speed B&W films - I usually hear 400 & 800 ratings. Is this purely out of necessity or does the grain add more character than a 100 speed film??

 

I'm assuming, of course, that my D200 could never to justice to a good b&w film. Please tell me if you think otherwise. Cheers,

 

Chris

[Lndr 0]

I used Agfa Scala B&W slide film on the Coolige with some nice results, it was ISO 200 from memory. pretty grainy atmospheric from the ambient light at depth

[Lndr 0]

AGFASCALA.COM

INDUSTRY NOTE: AGFAPHOTO is out of business. None of AGFAPHOTO'S films are being manufactured. The scala film left in the market place is all that there is. There are no official Agfa-scala labs remaining, simply put, there is no company left to support the Agfa-scala-chemistry or the machines they produced.

 

oops

[elbuzo 8]

I've decided to dust off my nik V & put down my D200 rig to do some ambient light B&W shots of my favorite wrecks. Can anyone recommend a good film? I saw an Agfa B&W slide film mentioned in another forum, which is intruiging, but B&H are out of stock and who knows when it'll be back.

 

Do people tend to use higher speed B&W films - I usually hear 400 & 800 ratings. Is this purely out of necessity or does the grain add more character than a 100 speed film??

 

I'm assuming, of course, that my D200 could never to justice to a good b&w film. Please tell me if you think otherwise. Cheers,

 

Chris

 

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Some years ago i started a collection of wrecks in B&W , I chose Ilford 3200 that is very grained indeed but i love the mood it give to wrecks and also print beautifully on matte paper. With such high speed you can shoot almost in complete dark

 

I used my Nikonos V with the 15 mm for most of my b&w wreck shoots and some few with the N90S with the 16mm . An orange filter is important to add more contrast .

 

Is great to have such a compact camera with probably the best optic ever made for u/w , a huge viewfinder and no need to worry about strobes , cables arms , etc. ; but you will need a separate light meter ( Ikelite is perfect ) .

 

I still have some rolls in my refrigerator, so a long time i don't buy this film but i think B&H must have it in stock .

 

Here you can take a look to some examples , but i feel the computer screen don't make justice to this kind of film

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/gp/82829856@N00/qvB6rJ

 

 

Good luck

[ouigiman 0]

I've shot a number of wrecks in the great lakes over the past few years using the Ilford 3200 film and absolutely love the results. Like elbuzo said - the grain gives it a very moody picture. If you are not after that type of mood - I would try the Ilford Delta 400.

 

Luigi

[Undertow 31]

I've shot a number of wrecks in the great lakes over the past few years using the Ilford 3200 film and absolutely love the results. Like elbuzo said - the grain gives it a very moody picture. If you are not after that type of mood - I would try the Ilford Delta 400.

 

Luigi

 

Thanks for the tips guys. The Agafa slide film actually sounds quite delicious, but I doubt I'll find it now that it's out of production.

 

The Ilford 3200's 'mood' looks interesting (indeed the comp screen doens't do it justice) but I'm hoping to use the pics in a book printed at 350dpi. I think the high end printing would crush that 'mood'. I'll try the Ilford Delta 400 then. Cheers,

 

Chris

[Johnny Christensen 0]

Another good BW film for wreck photography is Kodak BW 400CN. I have used Agfa Scala a lot under challenging conditions, but moved over to Kodak even before they stopped making the Scala.

 

www.johnnychristensen.com has a selection of B/W results

[Guest Dan Schwartz]

Yes, Agfa stopped making Scala.

 

But!

 

You can turn most any B&W negative film into a reversal film!

 

Kodak makes the T-Max 100 Direct Positive Developing Kit, and it works pretty well.

 

Better yet, instead of reinventing the wheel, a guy by the name of David Wood has come up with the DR5-chrome process for B&W film reversal. I use it, and I can heartily endorse the results. Take a moment to go through the film review page, and the FAQ page.

 

When shooting B&W film for DR5 processing, note that the "shooting ISO" changes drastically! For many films (like Ilford Delta 3200), it drops; while for a few (notably HP5+) it increases.

 

One of the big advantages of B&W reversal processing is that it's a lot easier to scan: Digital ICE fails for B&W negative film because the retained silver reflects the IR channel; while for DR5 (and for C-41 chromagenic (B&W)) films, the silver is bleached out.

 

DR5-Chrome is a unique process only done by the one lab in Denver... And, David Wood has quite a "personality" but the results are well worth the cost.

 

Good luck!

 

I used Agfa Scala B&W slide film on the Coolige with some nice results, it was ISO 200 from memory. pretty grainy atmospheric from the ambient light at depth

[Cerianthus 55]

have a look at Leigh Bishops work for deep wrecks:

 

http://www.deepimage.co.uk/photography/dan...g_withlight.htm

[Guest Dan Schwartz]

Bishops would have an orgasm shooting HP5+ @EI 3200 & sending it to DR5 for their neutral Developer 1!

 

have a look at Leigh Bishops work for deep wrecks:

 

http://www.deepimage.co.uk/photography/dan...g_withlight.htm

 

UPDATE: Since Bishops shoots (well, used to shoot!) Agfa Scala, I emailed him with the info on DR5-Chrome.

 

ALSO: The page on David Woods' website I was looking for is the all-important Speed-Cost page.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Dan Schwartz