[Leica] Kodak TMax-400

[alex at zabrovsky.com (alex@zabrovsky.com)]

Quoting "J. Newell" <john.o.newell@comcast.net>:

> I will probably have people hurling things at me...but I've stopped   
> using silver-based B&W film.  I migrated to the C41 emulsions   
> because they scan more easily...but I'm on the verge of deciding I'm  
>  not going to replace the Kodak and Ilford C41 B&W film when the   
> fridge is empty, but go with color emulsions instead.  Reason:   
> shooting color I can process either way, but you can't "up-process"   
> a B&W exposure to make it color, on the off chance that would be a   
> better choice.  This means I don't have to make choices when I load   
> the camera whether it's going to be B&W or color.  It also means,   
> potentially, bringing less film (don't have to cover both bases)   
> and/or one less cameras (don't need an extra "extra" body loaded   
> with the other film).
> YMMV and many readers' probably will...
> John Newell
>
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>

Well, John, I certainly see a thoughtful point of view in your  
reasoning, I was also at the same fence some time ago (even though I'm  
still quite new to B&W realm). Just like you the crazy thoughts of  
abandoning silver B&W in favor of color C41 were bouncing in my mind  
bearing in mind scanning is one mandatory step in my flow anyway and  
easy matter of grayscale conversion in software.
However, I managed to stay strong :) and resisted the urge which was  
backed up by a good reasoning of myself: I found a great joy of manual  
B&W processing at my home convenience (I only do development). I do at  
the time that is convenient for me, no need to drive to lab which  
turns to be quite annoying taking into acount working hours, family  
matters, etc...
Second: I found B&W is really fascinating for street stuff - color one  
somehow looses its magic, kind of dropping documentary mood. It seems  
to me street in B&W allows for kind of timeless appearance which I  
really like.
Besides, home B&W development turns to be considerably cheaper (at  
least for me) then lab C41 processing per roll, probably because I  
used to use a commonly available commercial developers, nothing exotic.
Of course, there is the price that needs to be paid - in my case,  
manual cleanup after high-rez scanning. Granted, that can be annoying  
and at time even frustrating experience, but I learned to be tolerable  
to a moderate dirt on the scans which doesn't steal from overall image  
appearance and only invest my time in thorough cleaning of the scans  
that are going to get printed (and I do not print a lot, only the fine  
selections which are quite few in my more then modest hit rate...).
Of course, I kep shooting color also, but mostly the stuff that is  
more family-related such as events or kids happenings - those things  
are under my wife's "supervision"...

Alex