Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Phong, I will try to answer your questions. Most scanners scan E-6 film better than color negative film. Silver based B&W is hard to scan with the anti scratch turned on. If you scan your B&W traditional film, you will soon become very meticulous in your processing. With some work on your part, converting color negative film to B&W can be very satisfactory as you can vary the tonality in Channel Mixer to your hearts desire. An additional benefit is you can have color any time you want. Down sides would include less acutance, possible difficulties getting black blacks without fun in curves, a mushy look compared to traditional B&W in a dilute developer. The Kodak C-41 B&W films are easy to scan, have long curves, but I have difficulty getting dark shadows leading into inky blacks. For that I have had more luck with Ilford's XP-2. You just have to rate it about 200 for it to really perform. I use the C-41 films when I need images and have a very short turn around time. I can get my negatives in 9 minutes in a jam. I don't especially like the tonality. YMMV. My recommendations? I find that Neopan 400 has a great look, good tight grain, and a very nice tonality. Also, the Fuji 100, and 1600, versions have a similar tonality (not Acros). I also rather like the new Tri-X especially in dilute developers. This is one area you will have to experiment with yourself as there is no right answer. Surprisingly, I haven't found much affinity for the T-grain films. The Neopan 400 is available in 120 Don dorysrus@mindspring.com Phong wrote in part I am seeking recommendations for 400 ISO. the final product is B&W digital prints (i.e. the film will be scanned), mostly portraits. Things that I am looking for in the final prints, in more or less decreasing importance: - - great tonality - black blacks, white whites and everything in between Shadow details are important to me. Having white whites is less important - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html