film recommendation for Mamiya 645 AFD, landscapes

Question

I've recently purchased a Mamiya 645 AFD with both 80mm ƒ/2.8 and 45mm ƒ/2.8 lenses and I'm looking forward to dipping my toes in the medium format (only the pinkies could fit in my current digital crop-sensor).

Are there any rules of thumb I should know when it comes to choosing film? I mostly shoot landscapes and am accustomed to the Fuji provia look from my X-T2 and Lightroom or Capture One editing workflow. The green tones always do give me a headache though.

I expect things will be very different with film. I intend to get them developed and scanned to high res Tiff by a professional lab (any tips on choosing a good one?). From editing videos I've seen online the colour rendition can be quite variable depending on the lab, so I expect to have to fiddle around and go through some iterations before being comfortable and confident with the output.

My main question at this stage is: what factors should I consider in choosing film? I see various brands on sale because they're expired; is this typically a risky hit-or-miss business best avoided for beginners like me? (the low price is attractive, but less so if one considers the development + scanning overhead, should the scans turn out awful).

Availability and price are definitely going to be an issue, but aside from this, are there well-known colour rendition factors that I can research? Any comparison site to show side-by-side colour rendition features/peculiarities of the various common brands?

As an aside, I converted an old Fuji X-pro1 to infra-red and am really enjoying the looks of black-and-white infrared photography. I expect it's also something that can be done with this new Mamiya and suitable film (black and white would be my preference) – any tips on this as well would be appreciated!

Answer 1

There's no two ways about it - film photography is an expensive hobby. I calculated that every time I press the shutter button on my Rolleiflex, it costs me about £2, considering film, development and scanning costs. You are going to have to bite the bullet to some extent. But I think film photography is a fun and rewarding hobby - it's worth keeping that in mind too.

(By the way, digital photography is an expensive hobby too - think how much film you can buy for the price of a Sony α7R IV!)

I would suggest avoiding expired film. Film is one of the most important factors in how your images turn out. Why would you want to risk introducing problems into your image making? Buy fresh film - you won't have to worry about how your film was stored or how it might be expected to perform, and you will be supporting the film industry and continued film manufacture.

By the way, I don't think it's correct to say that colour rendition can be quite variable depending on the lab. Developing film consistently, for an established lab, is not a difficult process. I would say that experimenting with expired film is going to be a much bigger variable in the colour rendition of your images.

As regards particular films, I would say just experiment! Well, as far as your budget allows. You won't really know what you like until you try it for yourself. I usually stick to the big two - Kodak or Fujifilm - but there are lots of options. Read the description from the manfacturer to see what kind of characteristics a film has - saturation, contrast, etc.

Also, if you use Instagram, I enjoy following images with a certain hashtag. If you're interested in some particular film, follow that hashtag on Instagram to see what kind of images others are making. It's great for inspiration too.

Answer 2

first of all, good call on going with a medium format film camera. you'll thank yourself later :)

expired film is primarily used for the creative effects it can yield (over-saturated colors, unexpected tones, weird streaks, etc.). it can be very fun and cool to shoot, but don't expect the level of consistency and sharpness you'll get from fresh film!

part of shooting film (to me anyways) is saving a buck while doing it.

to save tons of cash, learn to develop and scan your own film. it's soooo worth the gear investment, and you don't have to wait for your film to be processed! reading the forums around the web, you'd think it was like performing heart surgery, but it's really not. I can answer any questions you may have about doing this the cheapest you possibly can.

it's really cool to be able to go out and shoot a roll, come home, develop it, and see your photos all in the same day. plus it'll cost at least 1/10th less than using labs. using medium format is key here, as you'll be able to get much better home scans out of 120 film than 35mm unless you spend huge dollars on a barrel scanner.

sorry for ranting, here's my recommendations on film stocks:

Color

Color-positive film

for landscapes, you won't be able to beat Fuji Velvia. get a good tripod. it's slide film, which comes with a few very important considerations:

• it needs special E-6 chemicals to develop (and by "special", I mean non-C41; they'll be a little more expensive and a little harder to come by/dispose of)
• much less forgiving when it comes to exposure. color negative film can handle being overexposed extremely well, and even underexposed to a certain degree, but not slide film.

you'll be rewarded with exceptional sharpness and color.

Color-negative film

go with Kodak Ektar 100. it's very sharp, has fine grain and yields beautiful colors. I use this film in the mountains a lot.

for something faster with a more muted and realistic look, try Kodak Portra 400. I would recommend exposing it at 200 ISO.

Black and white

for landscapes, you'd want something sharp with fine grain, so I'd recommend Ilford FP4 Plus. this film handles being pushed very well (as do basically all B&W films). something more contrasty and edgy would be the timeless Tri-X. I like to shoot XP2 because I can develop it in C-41 chemicals instead of black and white chemicals.

as for film labs, when I first started out with an old Agfa folding camera, I sent my negatives to The Darkroom in the Bay Area. I found they had extremely good customer service and everything was done to perfection each time, plus their costs are affordable.