Best multi-purpose film

Speed, brand, range. For shots in daylight conditions, dusk and some
night photography. Also, how does stepping down ISO's from, say, 800
to 100 effect the shots?

 

daylight conditions clearer and less grain.

For dusk and night conditions, if you use a tripod and there is no movement
in the shot, such as people, cars or wind movement in the trees, then only
the grain size and exposure time will change.

Perrian

 

I only use Fuji colour negative film so that's all I can fairly comment on.
I would suggest their NPZ (800 ISO) or NPH (400 ISO) and I always overexpose
by about 1/2 stop to increase the colour saturation.

Fuji Velvia slide film (50 ISO, replaced by a new 100 ISO film) gives
fantastic colour saturation in daytime conditions, and when used at dawn or
dusk the reciprocity failure (due to long exposure times) produces beautiful
colour shifts suited to landscapes!

If you're going from one extreme to the other i.e. daylight to night
photography, have you thought about rewinding your film halfway through
usage? This is easy for me as I have a Nikon FM which is fully manual so I
can cease rewinding before the end of the film is fully retracted inside the
cassette. It's a case of advancing the film the said number of frames
already used (plus a couple extra for safety!) with the lens cap on at a
fast shutter speed, in a darkened area to carry on using the film again.

Best regards,

Craig.

 

Are there any repercussions tp slowing film down? I know the
ramifications of speeding up include increased grain. Although, the
other day I was shooting some 100 speed and it got really dark out
really quick, so I sped it up to 1000 and at 4x6 it was virtually
unnoticeable. I'm sure this would be different if it were a larger
print, but for snapshot purposes it made almost no difference.

Regards,

Ben

 

Different films will have slightly different behaviours. I think the best
thing you can do is to put "pull process" film into Google.
Ah, but that would affect the entire film...
Are you wanting to have your cake and eat it? So that you can use the same
film for bright stuff and dark stuff...? Colour negative film is VERY
tolerant to being buggered about with exposure-wise (2½ stops either way* I
believe) but it sounds like you really need a digital camera. And no I'm not
being facetious, it's a convenience thing - change the ISO sensitivity at
the press/flick/turn of a button/switch/dial.

*This means you would be able to "get away with" using a 400ISO film between
100 and 1600, but don't expect the images to be put on a calendar!

Best regards,

Craig.

 

I didn't take your comment as sarcasm at all. FWIW, I am in the
evaluatin stages on that as we type. Which brings me to a question I
was wondering about - in terms of digi cams and ISO, can you both
manually set it and have what is tantamount to apperture/shutter
priorities? Meaning the camera, when in the "ISO automatic" mode (if
it exists) determines the correct "speed" exposure?

Regards,

Ben

 

If it helps, I am leaning heavily towards the N80...

 

Lowering the actual film speed and under developing reduces contrast, which
can be useful if you have taken pictures in a high contract situation. You
can't change the speed mid roll, it has to be the whole film.

 

Wow. In effect, what you did was underexpose by 3+ full stops, and the
print processor automatically overexposed the print to compensate.
(Changing the ISO just adjusts the meter.) I'm surprised it wasn't
muddy looking (lack of contrast).

You can also ask the processor to "push" or "pull" the process to
over/under develop the negatives, but this affects the entire roll.

As comparison, digital lets you change the ISO frame-by-frame without
requiring special processing on the back-end. Potentially, letting you
set the shutter speed and aperture manually, and auto-adjusting the ISO
for proper exposure. Pretty powerful, really.

Richard

 

Yes. This is likely to vary by camera. So, there are 3 exposure
variables that can be set to automatic or manual - shutter speed,
aperture, sensitivity (ISO).

Huh??

Richard

 

LOL! I am leaning so much towards the N80 that I have had it for ten
years. I meant to say I am looking at the D70!

Ben