Fomapan black and white film from Foma Bohemia, made in Hradec Králové and still going after nearly a century. It is the sensible answer to the question of how to shoot a lot of black and white without remortgaging anything, and it rewards a bit of care in development with far more than the price suggests.

Fomapan Classic 100 is the fine grained one, best on a tripod in decent light where you want tonality over speed. Fomapan Creative 200 is the flexible middle ground, with genuine latitude to push or pull depending on what the day throws at you. Fomapan Action 400 is the handheld option, grainier and contrastier and perfectly suited to gloomy British weather.

Worth knowing that Fomapan runs a little slower than the box speed suggests, so metering at two thirds of the rating is a habit worth forming. If you would rather not think about any of that, send your exposed rolls back to us for developing and scanning.