Montréal: New City, New Film – Cinestill BWXX

Soon after our trip to Banff, AB (color and B&W), we went to Montréal, QC for my birthday. I shot through roll Ektar when I arrived and picked up a roll of Cinestill BWXX for myself for my birthday. Unfortunately the weather was not so favorable and you can tell. So much so that a long hike from the city center to the top of Mount Royal resulted in a beautiful view of grey fog. I shot through most of the roll in the poor weather only to see it clear up as I went through my last few shots. Nevertheless, the moody weather felt right for a cinematic film.

Acros and T-Max 400

As mentioned before, I shot through some other film and I honestly liked the results from them a bit more than the Cinestill. Still though… It’s good to try out some new stuff.

Banff (In Monochrome): New City, New Film – Acros & T-Max 100/400

This article shows off some of the black and white negative film I tried out on my vacation to Banff, CA in April2019. To see some of the color negative work, please follow this link. Several of this films in this article have exposure tested and compared to other B&W negative films – this article is located here.  

The Canadian Rockies were calling and we answered. In a moment of spontaneity and luck finding round-trip tickets for only 18k points, we got our tickets and booked a hotel within a couple hours and I immediately started thinking about what film I was going to take. For ease (and out of pure laziness) I needed to make sure everything was ASA 400 or slower so I didn’t have to have the film hand-checked.

For black and white negative film, I ended up taking a pro pack of T-Max 400 120 and 1 roll of 35mm. A few rolls of T-Max 100 120 and a couple rolls of Acros 120.

Acros

Of all the films I shot on this trip, I would say Acros was hands down the most interesting. I thought the clarity and the distinct transition from the darkest darks to the brightest brights combined to be such an interesting mix. I only ended up going through one of my two rolls I took and I honestly wish I shot more of it. I honestly wish they still made it…

T-Max 100

I liked this film but thought the shadows were not quite dark enough for my taste. I would have liked for a little more contrast. Nevertheless, I got this film in hopes of making some quality darkroom prints and I think they’ll do that splendidly.

T-Max 400

So this film – oddly enough – was only shot on my F100 (35mm format) even though I took an entire pro pack of it in 120. I just never got around to using it. The shots from it were fantastic and produced some of my favorites from the trip. Brittany was handling the F100 for half or so of the roll and despite typically disliking B&W film, I think she really enjoyed using the F100 and liked the results.