Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/02/25

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Subject: [Leica] Film Developing
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:32:13 -0500

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.
>>> 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
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 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/




Replies: Reply from sonc.hegr at gmail.com (Sonny Carter) ([Leica] Film Developing)
In reply to: Message from kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney) ([Leica] Film Developing)