Cheap. I can answere that.(posted 8371 days ago)Pick a film, and commit. They're all good, like people have been posting, but staying with one will help you. I suggest choosing one with the pretiest packaging.
Buy your film in a 100 foot roll - its a metal can, and pick up a bulk loader and some empty film containers. Like cigarettes, its much cheaper to roll your own.
Now you can make small rolls of 10 exposures or so, and process each differently. Reducing the cost of testing.
You can also mix a one gallon jug of Tmax developer and re-use the solution. Add 1 minute to development after 17 rolls of film... It can last up to 50 rolls, but the solution itself is only good for a couple of months. Refer to kodak for more details.
Developer goes bad with oxygen, and light, so don't spill the chemical, it will reduce the surface area at the top of the bottle, as well as maintaining a consistent concentration. Also, the chemistry will be at room temp, so you can have Stop and Fix prepared as well. Even temperature is important. You'll be hanging negatives in 30-40 minutes.
And my comment on filters... Everyone is correct, but I had to learn things the hard way. Use the extreme ones, this way you can really see a difference, a strong red is great for sky, landscape, snow, anything outdoors. Yellow may be too subtle because there are other factors you need to nail down that will overpower the effects of a filter like that.
Personally I ignored this advice at first but, shoot the same thing with all filters, and no filter while bracketing each exposure. It is tedious, but if you store it with lots of notes, you build yourself a refrence that will answere future questions and concerns.
As for Lab processing... Black and White can respond many ways. I strongly suggest developing your own negatives, use the lab for the contacts and prints. It will take less time to understand the relationship between your eye's perception, and the chemistry's rendition.
Enjoy ! Ted