I used to be a B&W hobbyist, but have been out of it for years (work, kids etc.). Now I am getting back into photography, encouraged by the digital age. I want to do some digital B&W work - getting back into my own darkroom processing is not viable time-wise.

For ease of evaluation for purposes of selecting best shots for scanning, I am contemplating trying T-Max with the reversal processing. Is it viable for the production of images with as good quality as in negative mode? - resolution, contrast etc?

Also, can Ilford's Delta 100 be reversal processed?

Grateful for any insights.

-- Brendan Sullivan (sullivan@tenthfloor.org), May 05, 2000

Answers

Any film can be reverse processed, but I don't believe you will ever get the same quality you can get out of conventional negatives.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), May 05, 2000.

Why do you want to produce B&W slides? It's far easier to reverse the image digitally, in fact most scanner software will do it automatically.

I must agree with Ed though. Digital is still a way behind for Black and White. But it's getting better with each new generation of printer that comes out. Soon, people, soon.

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

The reason for wanting to reverse the image lies in ease of evaluation of what is worth scanning/printing. If I shoot 3 rolls of 36 shots, I have 100 negatives. How do I determine what the good shots are without doing a proof sheet? And if I am going to scan 100 shots 1 by 1, it will take me a damn long time.

-- Brendan Sullivan (sullivan@tenthfloor.org), May 07, 2000.