[Leica] Film Developing

Thu Feb 26 19:53:53 PST 2015

The Kodak had the deep orange base to it that all the full color color neg
films has which made it easy to print color and for the one hour photo
machines to print black and white. But that orange base made it murder to
print with an enlarger because the orange base was like a safelight. The
enlarging times took forever.
The Ilford xp1 then xp2 though did not have that heavy orange base so could
be printed nicely in a normal darkroom with a normal enlarger.
So all the people I know went for the Ilford for that reason. Most of them
had darkrooms or when to our rental place. U Develop on Barbour Blvd. in
Portland Oregon.

On 2/26/15 7:29 PM, "Peter Dzwig" <pdzwig at summaventures.com> wrote:

> I had been told that BW400CN was unavailable too. In fact I bought a few rolls
> for old time's sake.
> 
> But you are right there are some on Amazon. Be careful though. I saw one at
> roughly the standard price, but the shipping (from Germany) doubled the price
> -
> and they only have one left.
> 
> Ilford XP2 is certainly a very plausible alternative. For a high contract
> comparison see:
> 
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/album230/album284/Camelot_1200510
> 10.jpg.html>
> 
> and
> 
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/album230/album284/Camelot_2XP2200
> 51010.jpg.html>
> 
> from a time I was comparing them.
> 
> Peter
> 
> On 26/02/2015 03:03, Sonny Carter wrote:
>> Kodak BW CN is still available.  You can buy it from B&H, or Amazon.
>> 
>> from my iPad
>> 
>> Sonny Carter
>> 
>>> On Feb 25, 2015, at 7:32 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Kodak stopped making their chromogenic black and white film (what this is
>>> called) a few years ago but Ilford still makes XP2 which I've used this
>>> decade to shoot film. It's embarrassingly good.  Its made of  dye instead of
>>> silver but how would you know? You can be all into darkroom chemistry and
>>> developing and be lucky to approach it with regular black and white films
>>> rated at 400. It seems to have the grain and sharpness of 100 films.
>>> As far as archivalness goes regular black and white film seems to last
>>> forever with a bit of care and luck but color neg always had a bad rep.
>>> The reason was when you brought it back into the darkroom again to make
>>> another print from a neg you'd printed before you count often not match the
>>> preceding print. The various color layers faded not at the same rate so
>>> you'd get color crossover. And there was no way to make a real good print.
>>> This did not take years to take place but months and even weeks and some
>>> color custom printers have told me days but I didn't see it with my own
>>> eyes.
>>> 
>>> XP2 only has one layer so if it fades a few percentage points you can just
>>> add some contrast and probably match a print you'd made with it was fresh.
>>> All my Xp2 I've shot for decades still looks good and I'd expect would print
>>> perfectly. Certainly scan perfectly.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 2/25/15 8:11 PM, "Ken Carney" <kcarney1 at cox.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I can second that.  Ilford and Kodak make b&w films for C41 processing
>>>> (WalMart, Walgreen etc.), and in my experience they scan better than
>>>> conventional negatives.  A downside is that they are shorter-lived, but
>>>> in theory at least they are forever once scanned.  Or, absent scanning,
>>>> as a long-time client of mine once said, at my age I don't buy green
>>>> bananas.
>>>> 
>>>> Ken
>>>> 
>>>>> On 2/25/2015 5:08 PM, Sonny Carter wrote:
>>>>> Have you checked Walgreen's?  Most of them still run C41, and you show
>>>>> three
>>>>> stores in town.  Check the one on Houston hwy, since it is close to UH.
>>>>> I
>>>>> don't love their scans (at least at mine) but they do a good job of
>>>>> processing, and I do lots of small prints up to 8x10 there.
>>>>> 
>>>>> from my iPad
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sonny Carter
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Feb 25, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Bill Clough <billclough042541 at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> USA
>>>>>> TEXAS
>>>>>> VICTORIA
>>>>>> 25 February 2015
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi there--
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Never occurred to me--until now--to look through the Leica M's
>>>>>> viewfinder after cataract surgery. To my surprise, I now can frame and
>>>>>> focus again.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   I have source for film but even the local drug stores no longer are
>>>>>> processing film.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   I still have the kinder man tanks but would like to avoid all that.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   I'm open to any suggestions about where 35mm film still is processed
>>>>>> professionally.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Reply here are offline--
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   Thanks--
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --Bill
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Leica Users Group.
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>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Leica Users Group.
>>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Leica Users Group.
>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Mark William Rabiner
>>> Photographer
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 

-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/