My Favorite B&W print film

For a longer more in-depth rant, see my review of Neopan 1600. I'll try to be a little more succinct here.

Neopan 400 rocks. It has a beautiful tight and smooth grain structure that produces smooth, even prints at smaller sizes and enlarges VERY well. It has excellent tonal range for a 400 speed film, although some may find it "too contrasty", these are probably the same people who will use Plus-X 125 or Ilford Pan-F 50 and shun all films with a speed rating over 200. However, I find it's results to be much more pleasing than Ilford Delta 400 or T-Max.

It's super fine grain yields very even total transitions (despite the tendancy to over-all high contrast), and I appreciate it's ability to produce a really good black on negative, making high-contrast prints easy. It's not quite as flexible as T-Max in over or under exposure conditions, but when you do it right it prints nearly perfectly (to my eye) the first try. Over exposure is more forgiving than under, but when shot right on, the results are EXTREMELY rewarding.

I Use this film for landscapes and cars to terrific success, and it can really punch up portraits, without making lighting look fake or over-bearing. All the Neopans, but especialy the 400, seem to be a little more (less?) sensitive to blue than other B&W print films and the results are dynamic intense sky and water, even without a polarizer.

It develops easily and is not too fussy about which developer you use. I think the results with Rodinal are fantastic, T-Max developer tends to make it look a little more gritty than it really can be, but still smoother than T-max.

This is a truly great all-around B&W and even though I still use other films, I always make sure I have a roll of Neopan 400 on me.