Fomapan, arista: popular among beginners?

[EinstStein]

My understanding these are basically old Agfa BNW films.
Judging by the posted pictures, are they mainly popular among the amatures?

I guess professinal works are still Kodak and Ilford?

[faberryman]

Arista is Freestyle's trade name for rebranded products. The products themselves come from various manufacturers and change over time. Arista 400 ISO film at one time was Tri-X. I believe it is currently Foma. Who knows what it will be tomorrow.

[Kirk_C]

My understanding these are basically old Agfa BNW films.
Judging by the posted pictures, are they mainly popular among the amatures?

I guess professinal works are still Kodak and Ilford?

Foma is Foma.

Arista is whatever they can buy cheap so they can sell it cheap. Every manufacturer has film that doesn't meet QC and they can choose to sell it or recycle it. It's a fair bet that's the source for a lot of Arista branded film.

Agfa stopped making consumer film in 2005 so I doubt there's any old film still available. The brand has been licensed and you'll still find new film in some parts of the world but it's not made by them.

I'd say it's a safe bet that a 'Pro' who chooses to shoot film will use Ilford or Kodak if for no other reason than consistency.

[JoeKitchen]

Are you asking what is good to get started on or what many beginners use? 

If the former, I learned off of Tri-X and always found it quite forgiving, not to mention you could shoot it ISO 25 to 6400 and get great results.  Processing would have to be different, but I always thought it the most versatile film.