Help! Film / Classic Astrophotography - Rolls Question!

[c3po]

Here in the States we have Kodak Gold 200 (GB) that works well for astro, but for tripod shots faster film is better. I say this one caveat. Fast film is slower in very long exposures, but with shorter exposures (under 128 seconds) the faster film may win. Try the Superia X-tra 400. It may do fine. The 120 version did not do so well, but I was exposing much longer looking for that long exposure performance. As for the C200 by Fuji, I believe it is the same as Superia 200, which does rather well. Google "Superia 200 Astrophotography" to find bits of discussion on the web as I have done some work with this in the past.

Expired E200 may be fine if only a few years old. Look for film that has been frozen for storage as this stops the aging process. Yes, Fuichrome is expensive, but it has performance beyond typical films. Cut your teeth on cheaper films, then go for the 400X once you have mastered your methods.

once again Jim, an excellent reply - many thanks! With such experienced people like you here, it's no wonder that i keep returning to expand my AP knowledgebase, and what a pleasure it is in the process!!

[Nightfly]

Fuji Pro 800Z worked well, but did not reproduce colors correctly. It did record well otherwise. Perhaps Superia 800 is similar, or even better? Perhaps. This is a mosaic of two tracked frames shot with my old SMC Takumar 50mm @ f/2. Each frame was a 120 second exposure. This will give you an idea on how you can capture landscape astro images with film. It is very challenging and frames like this are ambitious examples. Finding a good lens that produces sharp images wide open or nearly wide open will be important for such work.

Oh yea, this is the view from my front yard.

Milky Way Panorama by Nightfly Photography, on Flickr