[Leica] Recommendations re: Kodak 3200 ASA

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

There are two types of photographers: one recommends finding the film's 
true speed, only shoot low speed ("NEVER shoot Tri X  TX400 at higher than 
ASA320," they cry) to get the full tonal range and minimize grains, blah 
blah blah.

There are the other type who shoots at whatever speed they need to, to get 
the images. Grain, bokeh, tonal range be damned. OK, not quite right, they 
shoot the fastest, cleanest, nicest looking images, for whatever lighting 
situation is given to them. Light, Eyes, Action.

It's the former camp that says, ASA3200 film is more like 1000-1200 film 
and you are pushing when you develop which exaggerates grains and lose 
tonal range etc. The latter camp says screws that, I need ASA3200 for the 
scenes and that be the end of it. Of course you will still need to develop 
to get whatever tones you most interested in.

I just shot 6 rolls in the last couple days in kids play rehearsals. I shot 
Tri X at 400 and 800. Both souped in XTOL at either 1+2, or 1+3, depending 
on whether I can get the minimum 80-100ml of Xtol per roll. Certainly the 
400 shots have better tonal ranges, but the 800 shots are not bad at all. I 
can use higher aperture to get more characters in focus, which is a good 
thing. They hold up quite nicely. I will make some enlargements soon to see 
how they hold up on wet prints.

At 12:27 PM 2/5/2006, Didier Ludwig wrote:

>What do you ecaxtly mean with "not a true 3200-speed film"?  Just curious.
>Didier

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)