New to B&W shooing. Have used velvia and provia for many years. I'm not into the developing and printing aspect of B&W (as of yet). Is this Kodak film any good, any recommendations on filter usage. I shoot candids and scenes. \\Thanks

-- Don M (maldos@earthlink.net), September 02, 2000

Answers

If you are planning on having prints made on real B&W paper, the Ilford XP2+ does a little better. It doesn't have the orange mask of the Kodak C-41 films.

If you are going to have the stuff printed on color paper at a minilab, the Kodak films do better, and Kodak B&W Select + is supposed to be a little easier for mini labs to print.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), September 03, 2000.

If you are talking about colour print films, C41 process, I think you will be disappointed with the results when printing on B&W paper. The effort required is also disproportionate to the results; the orange masking causes long exposure times. I do not know if C41 films scanned into a PC could give decent B&W prints. Has anyone out there tried this?

-- Paul Oosthoek (pauloosthoek@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000.

I think you might be referring to the new(ish) T400 CN film. A Black & White film for processing in C41. I've yet to use it myself, but it's supposed to be an improvement on XP2.
You'll never get the best out of B&W relying on someone else, especially a commercial lab, to do the processing and printing for you. The whole point really is the total control you get over the final image.
If you want to start doing your own processing and printing, then stick to a conventional B&W film like Ilford FP4plus. The chemicals are cheaper, and easier to use.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 05, 2000.

Don, both Kodak T400CN and Ilford XP2S are chromogenic films, that is they are processed (only) in standard C41 chemistry. They are both very good films, indeed, with an extended range over most films. I shoot conventional B&W primarily, but can get excellent prints from either of these films. They can be used for the subjects you suggest, and much more. As noted, it is optimal to print your own images.

-- Mike World (canuckguyinadarkroom@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000.

I have used the Kodak Select and scanned the images with satisfactory results. Depending on the exposure when taking the pictures with films of this type, it appears that the image may come out either as b/w or with a slight tone to it, similar to sepia tone. I have taken identical pictures but with a slightly different aperture, and one came out b/w while the other had the tone.

-- Toni Lankerd (a_snapshot@hotmail.com), September 08, 2000.

Use the T400CN, not the B&W+ the t400 stuff looks great on color paper compared to the b&w+; although the t400 stuff is harder to find and the sepia tone found on c41 b&w really depends on the minilab, I've gotten them back green, and sepia, and even blue. Then again, the t400cn does print pretty well on b&w paper (if you're doin' it yourself, "don't trust the labs!!!!!")

-- Jason Tuck (jtuck80@csi.com), October 07, 2000.

If you can get your B&W+ or T400CN negs printed on the Fuji Frontier lab system, you will be quite suprised at the outstanding results. Make sure the operator does not use the MONOTONE correction. It is a great advantage if you can work over the shoulder to choose density and contrast. The results from this system are vastly superior to any other minilab I have used. Frontier is hard to find, but worth the effort.

-- John W (jbwagner@go.com), December 10, 2000.