BW 400CN 120 Discontinued

chris00nj said:
In my town of 2.4 million people, there is one lab that processes 120 film. All other places send the film off to some other part of the country.
Click to expand...

There are at least three places in Houston that can process 120 C41: AZPhoto, ThePhotoLab, and Houston Camera Exchange's minilab.
 
JRG said:
I thought that C-41 BW was popular among [designed for?] professional wedding photographers, especially in the 120 size. In which case, Kodak's decision may be more a matter of professional photographers, many using MF, having switched to digital than 'those that don't want to deal with pro labs and enjoy the convenience of chain store one hour processing'.
Click to expand...

It was used years ago as it gave a more pastel-like B&W for delicate scenes like a bride's dress session, for example... But as desaturating digital color shots was close, it was replaced. People who didn't handle traditional B&W well or who didn't want to develop, used C-41 B&W first, and now digital... Personally I find the punch and grain of classic B&W very attractive and romantic for brides and weddings.

Cheers,

Juan
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
It was used years ago as it gave a more pastel-like B&W for delicate scenes like a bride's dress session, for example... But as desaturating digital color shots was close, it was replaced. People who didn't handle traditional B&W well or who didn't want to develop, used C-41 B&W first, and now digital... Personally I find the punch and grain of classic B&W very attractive and romantic for brides and weddings.

Cheers,

Juan
Click to expand...


I was going to say that it reminds me of desaturated digital but I didn't want to offend anyone!

Thanks Juan! 😀
 
I can see why some people like it but it was never for me. Really fine grain stuff, even compared to other color films. I think it has the grain of ISO 100 color film. I could see it being popular for weddings, but if you are shooting MF, grain is less of an issue anyway... so why not shoot color and desaturate?

Shame though when any film goes away.
 
batterytypehah! said:
But that's of course not what it means...

For Kodak to stop confectioning BW400CN in 120 means one thing only: fewer people are shooting 120. They make the emulsion, they have the choice into which formats to cut it, they decide to axe 120. Read: Not even worth our trouble to package and distribute this product.

How that can be good news is beyond me, whether you shoot 120 or 135, silver or chromogenic. It's bad news for all of us in the long run when choices dry up. Whether it's your own preferred choice that goes first is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

I agree. I shoot almost exclusively Portra NC which is probably the C-41 emulsion most used by pros and serious photographers alike so personally I couldn't care less about BW400CN being discontinued. Still I can't be happy about this. Both Kodak and Fuji have been discontinuing a lot of emulsions recently and that's not a good film. Add to that the fact that a lot of pros who have held out for a long time as they have built their career on film are slowly coming to terms with digital (or so it seems).

Personally, I'm hoping for another 10 years of film at current price levels. After that I'll probably switch to a digital mf back on a manual camera. I'm liking what I see from mf digital and given a few more years of development it should get fairly close to the aesthetic of film.
 
batterytypehah! said:
But that's of course not what it means...

For Kodak to stop confectioning BW400CN in 120 means one thing only: fewer people are shooting 120. They make the emulsion, they have the choice into which formats to cut it, they decide to axe 120. Read: Not even worth our trouble to package and distribute this product.
Click to expand...


How do you know this? do you work for Kodak or have enough insider knowledge to postulate this?

The more correct assumption would be: less people are shooting *BW400CN* in 120 format.

Can we still buy TriX in 120 format? yes, how about Plus-X, yes, how about TMX, TMY, TMZ? sure. So why is the sky falling just because they stop BW400CN in one format?

batterytypehah! said:
How that can be good news is beyond me, whether you shoot 120 or 135, silver or chromogenic. It's bad news for all of us in the long run when choices dry up. Whether it's your own preferred choice that goes first is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

It's not a good news, but it's what has happened. Now, go buy the remaining choices. And get other people to do so. Now that would be useful. Yes?
 
shadowfox said:
How do you know this? do you work for Kodak or have enough insider knowledge to postulate this?

The more correct assumption would be: less people are shooting *BW400CN* in 120 format.

Can we still buy TriX in 120 format? yes, how about Plus-X, yes, how about TMX, TMY, TMZ? sure. So why is the sky falling just because they stop BW400CN in one format?



It's not a good news, but it's what has happened. Now, go buy the remaining choices. And get other people to do so. Now that would be useful. Yes?
Click to expand...

What's with this aggressive tone? I refuse to engage with you on this level.
 
battery, standard response. Still another film is discontinued and the film defenders immediately post, "doesn't matter, still plenty of film left." Like there will always be "plenty of film left." 😉
 
Pickett Wilson said:
battery, standard response. Still another film is discontinued and the film defenders immediately post, "doesn't matter, still plenty of film left." Like there will always be "plenty of film left." 😉
Click to expand...

Almost no film left in the world... 😛

Maybe more than 10 brands and more than 100 different films in lots of sizes... 😀

As good as always!

Best news is lately I don't take you as seriously as when I heard you saying the same a year ago... Funny guy!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Juan ... you can't deny that slowly but surely our options are being reduced ... and that's ineviteable behaviour by any manufaturer selling into a shrinking market!

How far our options will be reduced is unknown at this stage ... Pickett, bless his soul, is just trying to toughen us up for the final hammer blow ... if it comes! 😀
 
Slide is gone completly. 3 emulsions from Fuji, Velvia beginning to dissapear also (no 4x5"). The rythm film dissapearing is accelerating.
Funny thing, it seems that 135 format shooters have to pay more than 120 format photographers. Did you notice that? I see 35mm film being almost double in price than rollfilm lately. They were at the same price per roll only a year before.

Back ontopic: What is the last batch of BW400CN-120 produced? I was offered this film in 120 format with expiratin date 8/2014.

I used this film in 35 mm and was impressed. I would like to use it in 120 when travelling. (Easy to drop it for developing, no need to wait until I go home and can develop myself.)
 
That's strange, I thought BW400CN was only available in 35mm for the past few years. It is a shame, I really like BW400CN. I seem to have had better results from it than Ilford XP2, but with consideration, it's almost the same. Shame, but XP2 is still here...
 
chris00nj said:
The discontinuation makes sense, because there is no convenience of 120 C-41. It is only convenient in 35mm due to the number of one hour photo labs.

How many places process 120? Any local labs that will process 120, will do both traditional B&W and C-41 B&W. If you take it to Walmart or Ritz Camera, they will ship it out for development which will take the same time as if they shipped out E-6 or B&W.
Click to expand...

Well I hope they don't extend that same logic and get rid of Portra 400 in 120mm as well.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
battery, standard response. Still another film is discontinued and the film defenders immediately post, "doesn't matter, still plenty of film left." Like there will always be "plenty of film left." 😉
Click to expand...

It's a standard response only if you're a standard "film will be gone soon" perspective-holders 🙂

It's two years since the above post. There are still plenty of film left.
Are you still here to keep your view current ?
 
Eugen Mezei said:
Slide is gone completly. 3 emulsions from Fuji, Velvia beginning to dissapear also (no 4x5"). The rythm film dissapearing is accelerating.
Click to expand...

Slide is gone completely?
Film types that disappear are lacking buyers. Just like some types/models of cars that disappear.
Also, Ilford has not dropped any of their films, why don't people mention that?

More importantly, please tell me one type of film that you regularly use but couldn't get anymore, I'll tell you an alternative that does the same thing. Still available.

Eugen Mezei said:
Funny thing, it seems that 135 format shooters have to pay more than 120 format photographers. Did you notice that? I see 35mm film being almost double in price than rollfilm lately. They were at the same price per roll only a year before.
Click to expand...

Film used to be a commodity, now it has become a niche product. A niche product cannot sustain the commodity pricing. You will pay more for film now, that's a given, not a surprise.

Eugen Mezei said:
I used this film in 35 mm and was impressed. I would like to use it in 120 when travelling. (Easy to drop it for developing, no need to wait until I go home and can develop myself.)
Click to expand...

Use Ilford XP2.
Same results, you can even print the negative in a darkroom, you can't easily get the same good results with BW400CN.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom