I was just wondering if any medium format film shooters would be willing to post some large samples of these two films. I've fallen madly in lust with the idea of shooting 617 with those two films, but I'd like to see some samples--both full frames and 100% crops from scans--before I make a decision. I'm especially interested in the films' grain, how well the grain is resolved by a high quality scan (preferably a drum scan), and how the grain looks in images resized to ~1200px on the 56mm side.
Google hasn't been too helpful in this quest (especially Portra 800)--I'm hoping that Alt-land can help.
Portra 800 I've shot on 6x6 at 1600 for about two rolls...in my experience it's not bad but unless you've exposed it precisely, pushing the curves shows lots of grain.
I have shot Ilford D3200 on 6x9, thinking along the same lines as you have. This shot is a bit grainy and I have no doubt that if one were more fastidious about their choice of developers, it would be a better image for it. What I've seen lately (online, mind you) with Ilford DD-X was more impressive than the results I've gotten. Also, the lab I bring it to isn't the most consistent with regards to D3200 development.
This is from a Fuji GSW, shot at 3200 and devo'd at 1600. The size isn't quite what you asked for, but it's still fairly large.
Second is 35 mm (sorry, it't not MF), but, if you click through to flickr and select the original size, you can get a sense of what the grain looks like on a 4000 dpi scan. A drum scan should be better than what I got too on my Coolscan.
I find delta 3200 in 35mm to be expensive. I stocked up in HP5 when it was buy one get one free, so maybe I'm warped in my pricing views. I have a fridge full of expired ilford 120 film, and have never had to buy B&W 120 for retail (only color).
