Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bob, Very simple. In most cases, the numbers printed on film boxes are, shall we say, optimistic. I find that with most B&W films, I get the best results when I expose them at a lower EI than the nominal speed. Thus, I shoot Delta 100 at EI=80, Delta 400 at EI=200, and Delta 3200 at EI=1200 or 1600. If you shoot HP5+ at 1200, you are underexposing the film by around 2 stops and compensating with longer development. On the other hand, when you shoot D3200 at 1200, then you are actually exposing the film at its true speed (see Erwin's recent report). Obviously, the latter will give you better results than the former. The 3200 speeds are in my view marketing hype. Of course you can expose at 3200 or 6400 or 12500 in a pinch, but your mileage may vary--considerably! Nathan Bob Keene/Karen Shehade wrote: > So I put it to discussion- if you're gonna shoot with 3200, why would you > shoot it at less than 3200? > Why not just shoot HP5+ at 1200??? - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium Photography page: http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html