Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]D Khong wrote: >....<CUT>.... > B&W is in no danger of becoming a gimmick. I wonder what the market share > would be like if neighbourhood labs offered B&W processing at the same > price as colour. I would not be surprised if the whole scenario comes > round one full circle. i agree with 2 objective reasons in favour of b&w: freedom awarded by private darkroom management and longevity of prints. For the rest, the choice is open and based on subjective preferences. In belgium XP2 and 400CN are developed and printed by neighbourhood labs at the same price as colour. This is one of the signs of the current renewed interest in b&w. My argument is that the choice for b&w is often made because of the "wrong" reasons: b&w advertisements are everywhere (posters, magazines), b&w reappears in motion images (video clips, etc), b&w is used again in photojournalism. This is what I call a "gimmick", a trick to attract attention from an audience saturated with high quality colour images and all too willing to like prefab nostalgia. Friendly regards Alan.