After giving up on consumer-level digital photography in low-light fast-action conditions, I went back to shooting basketball in the Shirk Center with my mom’s dad’s old Minolta XRTII manual SLR (no batteries needed!), and shot with a variety of film in order to choose the one I like best. All three of these films were developed by Cooper’s Imaging in CT. The summaries:
FOMAPAN action 400 black/white negative film
- Picks up detail well, but a little grainy.
- Needs slower shutter speeds (~250)
- Dark photos don’t have a lot of contrast
Excellent dark/light contrast
Out-of-focus shots really pull out the graininess
From the package: B/W negative film with good resolving power, low granularity and wide exposure latitude.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Black & White Film
scanner won’t read the photos – too dark. Think the stop-down communication between the lens and the camera body was not accurate. Too many photos too dark. Nonetheless…
- A very dull and dark negative switched into lab mode and then an auto-levels applied. Wow. Definitely can work with that, but it only works with some negatives.
Original Auto Levels Curves 
009-01 original
–>
009-01 lab mode auto levels
–> 
009-01 curves
- The negative edges curl, which makes it annoying to place in the negative holder for the scanner
Kentmere 400 Black & White Film
BH’s summary:
This is a fast black and white film geared for general use. It produces sharp images with fine grain. As a high speed film, it is suitable for normal and low light photography.
- Looks nice and bright until enlarged, and then not in focus. Humph. (But that’s my fault, not the films… unless it isn’t fast enough, but it’s bright enough to kick up the shutter speed one notch.)
- Sometimes bright, but not much contrast, which comes out when they aren’t too bright. BH says it has good contrast, but apparently not in low light conditions.
- I think this would be great for something other than Shirk photography.
- Then again, I kinda like it. There is no grain! It is a very sharp and clear film. This contrast puzzle bears a second look
Icky Nice 
Original: not much contrast
vs. 
Original: better contrast; too bright?
Decision?
By the time I decide, basketball season will be over! Oh well. At least IWU’s celebration of 100 years of men’s basketball is this weekend, and I have approximately seven rolls of film (mostly Ilford).