I'm a complete idiot when it comes to the techie stuff, so I really don't know much about other b/w films. I've only used Kodak T-Max for b/w (because it's the most popular brand here; others are hard to come by) and it works fine for me. Alpha is right, I guess, because I only process it with Kodak chemicals (which are premixed for me by the lab tech hehehe-- but I do all the rolling and the agit and the timing and shyte). And in rare cases when I have b/w processed by someone else, I take it to Kodak processing centers. The really sucky Kodak film I've used is Panchromatic (good thing I don't see them anymore) which gives you grain, specially with large format printing.