Black and White films for c-41 processing

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Hi, My wife, with good intention, bought me some of that kodak B&W film that you are supposed to have a color lab process with the rest of their one hour stuff. Does anyone know if you can develop this film in X-tol or D-76 yourself instead of having to take it to the lab? Thanks!

-- Justin Fullmer (provo.jfullmer@state.ut.us), July 11, 2001

Answers

No, they must be processed in C-41 chemicals like normal color film.

-- Dave Mueller (dmueller@bellatlantic.net), July 11, 2001.

With respect to Dave, that's not so. Both Ilford XP2+ and Kodak T400CN can be processed as normal B&W film, but don't ask me for development times and details. I'm not so sure about Kodak's latest chromogenic offering, Select.
In any case you'll lose the fineness of grain and exposure latitude if these films aren't processed in C41.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), July 12, 2001.

All things being equal, I'd suggest following Kodak's suggestion to have the film processed in a C-41 lab. Kodak TCN400 is the "professional" grade, and Kodak B&W+ Select is the "consumer" film. I believe the B&W+ is optimized for printing truer grey tones in a c-41 lab. It all depends on the color chnnel the lab uses. I kind of prefer Ilford XP-2Super for its grey tones, 36 exposure rolls, and slightly lower film cost. Try the c-41. You might like it.

-- Jeff Polaski (polaski@acm.org), July 12, 2001.

It is to my understanding that XP2 and T400CN can be printed in the one hour lab or via conventional B&W. Both are C-41 process for negatives. Kodak's newest offerings, Black and White+ (consumer grade) and PORTA B&W (pro grade) are meant for one hour lab processing and printing. The biggest problem with using one hour printing with T400CN is there is a sepia color cast (not sure about XP2). The lab has to make a lot of adjustments to balance that out. That is why Kodak came out with PORTA B&W and Black and White+. They are optimized to be one hour printed (no color cast). Unfortunately they are not meant for B&W printing.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), July 12, 2001.

I don't really know how the Kodak film performs, but ILFORD XP2 film can be processed in standard black and white chemistry. I would assume that the Kodak film would give similar results.

That said, you don't want to try it. Processing XP2 in standard developers yields very grainy negatives, with a loss of film speed. Go ahead and have it processed C-41 if you really want to use it.

David Carper ILFORD Technical Service

-- David Carper (david.carper@ilford.com), July 12, 2001.



Hi! I accidently hand processed this b&w c-41 film and it turned out just fine! I used the basic, D-76 film developer and followed the time chart. I just had to fix it longer than usual. The negs are fine and the prints are great. I wouldn't do it again but it will work. Good luck.

-- Cielo Roth (cielophoto@cs.com), July 24, 2001.

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