Three New Film Stocks on Deck

When I was in San Francisco on a quick getaway trip this past week, one stop I was sure to make was a visit to Glass Key Photo on Sutter Street. What a great little shop! Just like a kid in a candy store, I looked at everything they had on display.

Having recently posted a series of mini film stock reviews, I knew there were quite a few film types I hadn’t tried but wanted to. But there does reach a point where one needs to settle on one or two film stocks for regular use. With a supply of my go-to film, Ilford FP4 Plus, in decent shape, I managed to exercise extreme discipline and walk out of Glass Key Photo with but three rolls of film and nothing else.

In a recent post on his Fogdog Blog, film photographer J.R. Smith wrote about his experience with Ferrania P33. After seeing his sample images, I was intrigued with possibilities.

I had also never shot Kodak Tri-X 400, but I had read all about it, and I knew that I couldn’t really claim to love classic black and white photography without at least trying one roll even though I have been tending toward slower-speed films lately.

And after asking one of the shop owners what he might recommend for excellent midtone performance in a black and white film, I took him up on his suggestion and picked up a roll of Fujifilm Acros 100 II. Blue Moon Camera and Machine echoed his high regard for this film stock’s excellent tonality, so I picked up a roll of that, too.

This may be purely arbitrary, but I think I may shoot these three rolls in the order that they expire. Since my roll of Acros 100 II expires in June of this year, that’ll be the first one I’ll drop into my Nikon F. My roll of Tri-X expires in January 2026 and my roll of Perrania P33 one month later, so those will follow Acros 100 II.