Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/08

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Film for B&W digital printing ?
From: "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 23:05:12 -0400

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



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