The Luck of the Draw?

One factor which influences film choice is that some people seem to “get on” with some films, and other do not. The most extreme and inexplicable example, at least among commonly available films, must be Kodak T-Max 100. We know many photographers who swear that this is the finest film they have ever used, and the quality of their results bears this out: they produce prints with exquisite detail and gradation. We also know roughly equal numbers of photographers who damn it utterly, saying it is the worst film Kodak has ever produced, and that there is no excuse for its existence.

Why? Who knows? It does not seem to be anything to do with skill, or persistence, or the quality of the water used to make up the processing solutions, or anything else, quantifiable or unquantifiable. It is just that some people get on with it, and some don’t. We are actually fairly indifferent to it: it is all right, but we would far rather use Ilford’’s Delta 100. There are others who would say the exact opposite. What we have tried to do in this book, therefore, is to give guidelines which will help you to decide how to choose film, rather than telling you which film to choose – and once you have chosen it, we tell you how (in our experience) you can get the best out of any film, regardless of who made it. Maybe there is a degree of alchemy, or even real magic, in photography: how you feel about your film will influence the result you get from it. (Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz - The Film Book)