My hunt for an “everyday” black and white film continued…for the third successive week, I shot blindly around town with a different roll of film not knowing what to expect.  This week, Nikki (my Nikon F90x) and I had some fun chewing through a roll of Fujifilm’s Neopan Acros. I had gotten used to handling the AF50/1.8 D lens and decided to use it again – it has become my choice lens for Nikki.

This Acros film was introduced to me by Ken at Downtown Camera (“DC”).  Even though I have shot many rolls of film in the past, my knowledge of the brands of film were limited to colour – consumer colour film for that matter.  I can recall Agfa, Fujifilm and Kodak, but I never really cared what gave the best result.  Well, OK – I did favour Fuji over Kodak in my dad’s Olympus Trip when I was a kid (although my dad stuck with Kodak), later using it in my cheap plastic Hanimex camera (because dad couldn’t stand the thought of me losing his camera during a trip), and many years later I turned to loading Agfa in my Nikon point and shoot because it was cheap.  If I ever did shoot a roll of pro film, I can’t recall – all I remember was checking the speed on the roll before loading (100 for outdoor, 400 for indoor, 800 or faster is too expensive – buy/use only if really needed) setting the speed on my camera (if any speed dial existed on the camera), then heading out to “rock and roll”.

Fast forward to today, or rather back when I had dropped off my Delta 100 film for processing. When I looked at the selection of black and white film available at DC,  I felt like a kid in a candy store!  Reading off what was on the shelf: Varieties of Ilford, Kentmere (more on that in a later post), Kodak and wait – what’s this “Acros” stuff in a green box?  Ken noticed the look of curiousity on my face and gestured to grab my attention. “That’s made by Fujifilm – You’ll LOVE this stuff!”  Fuji, eh?  I grabbed a roll without hesitation.

Acros is an ISO 100 film and if you read my post about Ilford’s Delta 100 film, you can probably deduce that I really enjoy ISO 100 film.  Even back when I first learned to shoot an SLR in high school, this speed was my first choice for most outdoor shooting. I found the Acros film to be quite forgiving as well, though not quite as forgiving as the Delta.  Below is a shot which I thought I had blown out.  Reflecting back, I really felt I blew out this shot.  Anyways, click to take a look at the full size scan (watermarked, otherwise untouched.) You should still see the detail in the window frames of the glass building (known as the Cadillac Fairview Tower) behind the Old Toronto City Hall clock tower.  Nail your exposure – you’ll find lots of dynamic range in this black and white film!

I really enjoyed strolling around Toronto and taking photos with this film. The jury’s still out on whether this is my everyday film, but this is a really good candidate. I bought a second roll last week just to make sure, but I still have about 4 more rolls of film to try out (more on that later as well).  Anyways, feel free to enjoy the other shots I have included below and leave a comment if you wish!