The two classic black and white films with a long pedigree on the world market is Kodak Tri-x and Ilford's HP5, both are traditional emulsion 400 ISO films that have tons of latitude. Photographers everywhere will stick by one or the other to the death. The top two were taken with my Nikkormat with Tri-x up at Belfountain and the bottom two were taken with HP5 with my Olympus OM-1. For purposes of comparison, I shot with both films and processed in ID-11 (Ilford's clone of Kodak D76) at a 1+1 dilution. I printed on Kentmere RC Fine lustre paper with a Devere 504 Enlarger with a Nikkor 50/2.8 enlarging lens.

Ok, if I was really going to be anal and do a proper blind comparison I should have shot with the same camera. I think though you get a good idea the personalities of HP5 and Tri-x. To be honest both have a home in my film pile as go-to 400 ISO black and white films, I am very comfortable processing with both to a point I can make a really good negative to print from. So Tri-x or HP5? They are both good and you can't lose.




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