Best Film To Use

[Don Simon]

For a 'beginner' film I strongly recommend Ilford Pan 100 or Pan 400 - not to be confused with Pan F. It's not particularly easy to find since it's only really sold here as a student film but if you can get some it should be cheap and good value for the money. Apparently it's not the best for 'critical applications' but then are you really going to be printing huge enlargements for professional purposes? It's easy to develop yourself and produces high-contrast negatives (in my experience; it was the first film I used when I started developing my own film).

 

[jophassa]

Is Pan F the film that produces really high contrasts? If so, then that's cool.

I never liked being a beginner so i always jump in with the pro stuff.

What film is good if enlarging is your thing?

PS. I dont intend on developing my own as of yet.

 

[Don Simon]

I was recommending Pan 100 and Pan 400, not Pan F. As PopPicker and Stingray explained, Pan F does not produce really high contrast - not unless you develop it the right way. And since you're not developing it yourself, it's not going to get developed the right way for high contrast, unless you take it to professional labs and pay them a lot of money to do so.

Going for pro stuff is obviously your choice but I wouldn't recommend it, because you're not developing it yourself, someone else is doing it for you in a standardised way without taking your desired results (like high contrast) into account, therefore you're not getting the most out of those films, thus arguably wasting your money. You said you don't want "impeccable quality and accuracy", which is usually what people are looking for when they buy pro film; if high contrast is what you're looking for then a "beginner" film might actually be more suitable.