Surprised when I found an old roll of Lucky SHD in a drawer, I shot it in 2011. Developed it last night. Was even more surprised that after 10 years I was able to develop out the latent image without losing any contrast, and without any discernible base fog. Printed it and well, it printed fine. Yes it's kind of soft and there's plenty of bloom on the highlights, but overall I'm impressed by how well it held up over time. I have several rolls of Fuji Neopan SS from the same time approximately and the first of those came out with really low contrast, which was pretty much what I was expecting when I started developing these old rolls.
Thank you, Steve! I think that's one of the most important lessons someone can learn with film photography. It can be fun to have unpredictable results with low-quality or long-expired film and sure sometimes the images will be great, but eventually when an artist matures they'll want consistency and predictability. It's a good discipline to have that from the start and skip the experimental results stage.
You are making a mighty convincing case with your photos for this film. While at the same time of course deriding it with your words. This *does* have a kind of retro, throwback look, like old cheap black and white film from the 50s. You continue to be the best film related channel on RU-vid, in your own pleasantly understated way. It might not win you a plethora of viewers, but it does win you loyal ones. The only kind of negative thing I could think of saying is that your camera reviews/manuals are perhaps a bit over the top on detail. But in that case perhaps a bit too much is better than too little. And there’s always the option of skipping ahead of course.
Thank you, Helge. My goal, as always, is to try and balance that needs of casual and detail-oriented viewers. And hearing that my work could make a case for this film stock is indeed high praise.
@@DavidHancock Oh good to know it was not only me who thought the same about the photos. You said "I don't have a first use for this film" and at the same time display the very good photo of 4:26 LOL. I love love the grain and tones here. This is not what I would want normally, but in this specific case it works so good!! But yeah, I understand what you wanted to say. This would not be a film I would use on a regular basis. For low dynamic range and a somewhat grainy look I like the Rollei Superpan 200. It has good tone transitions and very very high sharpness.
I always got ok images with Lucky pre-2014 with Rodinal. The main issue I had with it, at least in 120, was the film was incredibly curly and PITA to scan. Never tried it in anything but my old TLR so couldn't tell if the highlight bloom I got was the film or because of the lens.
Hi great film review, thanks. In life as with film you only get what you pay for. I'll stick with Kodak TMAX. That Kodak moment will never let you down. Cross your fingers and process properly. I would like you to do a test on TMAX if you ever have the time please. It would be a nice advisement.
Thank you and yes, TMax is great. So, TMax All About Film. For 100, I have 125 images so far. I estimate I'll need 150 and I like to have around 10% more than needed just in case. For 400, I'm at 26 photos and I think I'll also need 150. For Tri-X, I think 180 photos ended up in the video. 100 is in the next group. When I do my next film buy (after I run out of my current stock) I'll pick up some more TMax 100 in 120 and 4X5 to finish off the video. It's a great film. Processing it can be a pain because of how resilient the pink layer is, but the images from it are spectacular.
Hi thanks for your reply. I should have asked about your opinion on different Developers for 100 & 400 TMAX. The pink layer is the fixer time and the use of Hypo clear and wash, in my experience.
You mentioned Ultrafine, have I missed your review on Ultrafine film. I would really love to hear your opinion. I have been shooting 35mm Ultrafine Extreme 100 & 400. I would really like your thoughts on Cunestill DF96 monobath also. My main developer is Ilfotec DDX, but I tried Cinestill DF96. It's not as good, but I have a very small space so it sure is convenient.
I haven't reviewed Ultrafine yet. I'm going through all my film and once I'm out I'll sit down and see what videos I'll make next. (I'm down to my last few rolls of 110, 120, and about my last 100 pieces of sheet film; I'm out of 35mm.) Once I'm completely out of film I'll evaluate which of the videos in this series are almost done and complete them. I think I'll review an Ultrafine in the next round of All About Film videos, but I'm not 100% certain. So the Ultrafine guys are, firstly, really nice and really dedicated to making a good product that helps students and makes film as affordable as it can be. I believe pretty thoroughly in their mission and really support them. I don't know who makes their film (my guess is Kentmere based on image characteristics and development data) but Ultrafine Extreme is the same stock today as when it was released. And it's not off-costs or off-spec film; it's a stock produced for them. I've been pleased with it but I find that it works well with a yellow filter, especially the 100. For CineStill Monobath, I haven't tried it yet. I will when I run out of developer stock, but that's not going to be for about four or so months.
@@DavidHancock Thanks . I really appreciate your thoughts and opinion. Ill be looking forward to them. I love your videos. Many I watched several times Your are a wealth of information.
Hi, I just bought four rolls of Shanghai GP3 100 and heard you were happy with it. Could you do a video on it? I'm only starting with shooting film and I'd love to hear you thoughts on it as a starter, even if through a comment.
GP3 is on the list to do and it's one I want to do short-term, but it's a ways off. Currently, the GP3 video has 67 photos for it. I anticipate needing about 100 more to make the video. Best case, it's about a year away.
@@DavidHancock If possible, could you compare it to Fomapan? I've a set of Foma 200 coming in too and I'm curious to how they stand alongside each other.
Ouch, burnt. Over here I don't even see the point in this film, it costs about the same in Germany as the usual Ilfords (around 5 Euros), so not even the price argument works out. The only real "cheap" film here is really Fomapan, not my favourite but useable I guess. But as I said, for 5 Euros or less you get Ilford or Rollei, so no real need to get that low. Fuji is probably the most expensive of the well known brands, I can rarely afford those, and Kodak is somewhere in between Ilford and Fuji. Is it very different in the US?
It's a bit different, yes. So when I ordered this it was USD $4.50 per roll. Assuming it were the same price, today's prices for Ilford are $6-$11 per roll (HP5+ being the cheapest and Delta 3200 the highest), $7-$9 per roll for Kodak (TMax 100 being the cheapest and TMax 3200 the highest), and $12 per roll for Fuji Across II. Specialty films like Adox are around $14 per roll. Arista, Kentmere, Foma, and Astrum come in at the low-end around $4.80-$5. That's just checking Freestyle Photo in California (where I order almost all my film from) and they tend to have some of the best pricing (especially on Kodak) here in the U.S.
@@DavidHancock Interesting. The prices aren't that different after all then, when tax is factored in, with the exception that Ilford film seems to be that little bit cheaper (HP5) that buying Lucky etc. doesn't make much sense anymore. Adox is a LOT cheaper here though, prices range between 5 and 7 Euros. And Fuji, with 12.95 for a roll of Acros I don't know if the film will survive long....
Oh... ooooh! I just checked and Ilford has gone up a lot since I last bought some! Forget everything I said, looks like I'll be trying cheaper film now too. :)
Everyone: do ektachrome do portra do colorplus David: [playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac on bagpipes] I'll give you $100 if you've even heard of this film
LOL. I do find the obscure films. Ektachrome will almost certainly be the next one, though. That's the next film stock I'm finishing up this month and next.
