Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/01/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Seth: I've used T400cn a fair amount. As you say, it has great latitude and scans well. It is also very fine-"grained" and has beautiful, smooth tonality. It can be processed by any lab that does C-41 color negs. Since it is a dye-cloud film, infrared-based dust reduction software like ICE or FARE works well. As you also have heard, T400cn is lower contrast than, say, Tri-X. That goes with the latitude. But, that can easily be remedied if you do a little work with curves. So you have a film that can capture an unusually wide brightness range, and what you do with that brightnesss range is up to you. It helps to scan in 16-bit mode, as that gives you more numbers to stretch in the curves without posterization. The pictures you get from T400cn in good light have beautiful gradation and smoothness, almost like medium format. Now the bad news. T400cn can tolerate much overexposure, but little underexposure--just like fast color neg film. The more you expose, the less apparent grain. Shadows can get muddy and grainy in available light situations. T400cn can get scratched if you even *look* at it sideways. Many labs that can process the negatives don't understand how to print B&W on color paper, so you get sepia, greenish or magenta-tinged prints. Like all color negs, T400cn is not archival. Depending on the processing, it might fade in a few years, or not. On the advice of a lab owner I know, I have been shooting T400cn (and Supra 400) at ISO 200 when there is plenty of light, and I crank it up to 400 when I need the extra stop's speed. This works well. Here are a few T400cn pictures from my ramblings. Outdoors at ISO 200, with orange filter. The blurring of the nearby trees is due to a 35 mph wind. But look at the tonality, and how sharp and beautifully textured the rocks are: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/california2003/JoshTree35.htm In dull available light, ISO 400: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/lhsa2002/13henning.htm http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/lhsa2002/14tuulikki.htm You can see the shadow muddiness in the dark clothing on this one: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/lhsa2002/36rabiner.htm And in Noctilux territory, but with a 50/1.5 wide open at 1/8 sec. I used Neat Image on this one, and placed the black point up a bit so the grainiest stuff would go completely black: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/lhsa2002/30ted.htm Finally, here are two shots taken at the same concert, under the same contrasty, glaring toplight. One with T400cn and the other with Tri-X in Xtol 1:3. You can do a side-by-side. T400cn: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/musicians/1-25AmosLoriErichWeb.jpg Tri-X: http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/musicians/2-09SchulhofBowsWeb.jpg Hope this helps. - --Peter Klein Seattle, WA Seth wrote: > Funny, literally 30 minutes ago I picked up two rolls of T400CN to use > on a business trip to San Francisco this Friday. I have limited > experience with this emulsion. I have heard that it can lack the crisp > contrast of silver films but that it is much easier to scan. Also very > forgiving latitude as I discovered this past fall when shooting a roll > exposed as for 800 and got very presentable images, though I did not > enlarge to any great extent. I'd be grateful for any experience you > would care to share. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html