This installment of Film on Film features four black & white films: Valca Grano Fino Positiva 6, Street Candy ATM 400, Ilford HP5 Plus 400, and the original Fuji Neopan Acros 100.

Valca Grano Fino Positiva 6 is a rare cinema film I picked up from Labeauratoire. Valca was a film manufacturer in Spain, but they no longer exist, having shut down long ago. I shot a roll of Valca as part of my Self Portrait Challenge. It was the first roll of low ISO film that I’ve ever shot and it was also the first roll of film that I’ve ever developed myself. I found it rather challenging to shoot at ISO 6^[1]I found that Valca Grano Fino Positiva 6 performs better at ISO 3. with my studio strobes, but I managed to figure it out^[2]You can’t simply open up the aperture to get more light when shooting with strobes. Instead, you have to increase the power/output of the strobes to get more light. and get some useable photos. I like this film despite the fact that it has not aged well. When I shoot and develop my next roll, I plan to add some benzotriazole to the developer. The ‘benzo’ should reduce the fog due to aging and give me better results.

Street Candy ATM 400 has performed well for me. I shot a roll at the night market in Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter and I’m quite pleased with the photos. The film is a little grainier than I expected, but that just may be the Darkroom’s scans.

I really like Ilford HP5 Plus 400, but it’s a toss up as to whether I like this film more or less than Kodak Tri-X 400.^[3]I suppose I should declare HP5+ as preferable to Tri-X. I have two framed photos on my wall that were shot on HP5+ and none that were shot with Tri-X. The thing is, I was gifted three 100ft bulk rolls of Tri-X a few years ago, and even though they are expired, they still give good results. So as much as I want to shoot more often with HP5+, I will be shooting mostly Tri-X for the foreseeable future.

The original version of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 is probably my favourite black & white film. It was a sad day when Fuji discontinued its manufacture, and even though there is a new version of Acros, I’ve heard that it’s close but not quite the same. Fortunately, I have at least a dozen rolls of the original left in my freezer!