Cheap color film for b&w conversion...anyone doing it?

Frank,

Yeah...I used to. Decided was cheaper to do my own. If you develop as B&W, no conversion is necessary. And scanning becomes almost "free" except for my time..which it da.n sure aint :)

Can't find a page covering the sale of Cheap C-41 film...can you provide a discrete link?
 
CVS around here is apparently dropping their store brand 200 speed (made by Fuji). It's on clearance sale for $1.49/roll or $3.99/4 rolls. Time to stock up. The two boxes I've been able to find so far are dated 01-2013.
 
I have done this before as well, but you can't work in the darkroom very easily.
If you are having a hard time with processing lots of film after a trip, I suggest you learn how to stand develop. I did in order to chip away at my backlog and it's soooo easy.
 
This was developed and scanned at a drug store from cheapo 200, out of a Konica C35 automatic.

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Since I don't know how to develop black and white films "YET".. I use BW400CN and c41 Black and white films, but its getting expensive for me too.. so I use whatever color film and convert it to black and white...

here are some of them.. I used an expired Konica Centuria DNP 400 film and a Konica Auto S2.. and Lightroom using presets for the convertion

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This one was taken using Kodak Ultramax 400, Konica Auto S2..

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I've had better luck using the cheap C41 B&W film on the auction site, then letting Walgreens develop & scan it. If you buy at least 50 rolls it isn't much more than $1.20 a roll, and I can't tell the difference between it and name brand C41 B&W films.

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Here's one of mine, I forget if the film was Walgreens or CVS 200. Same difference. Epson 4490 + pitiful post processing in Picture It 10. Looks a little over-compressed in JPG.
 

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I made a huge blunder recently and shot a roll of Fuji Superia 400 colour film at 800iso. I thought I was shooting iLfords HP5+ Black and white film. The comedy of errors continued. As the fuji has a similar green coloured print on the film can I obliviously removed it without looking at the label and assumed I was holding Ilfords HP5+ then threw it in the dark bag for loading into the the tank. I then developed it in Black and white developer (LC29 ilfotech). Needless to say when I pulled it out out of the tank for photoflo wash I realized my immense stupidity and hung it to dry in shame. Eventually I scanned it using Silverfast and the ilford HP5+ profile in 8 bit greyscale. To my surprise although the Histogram sliders needed adjusting for a considerably shorter range it wasn't a total loss. BTW There was no alcohol involved in the ridiculous mistake I just mentioned. It was all me! LOL The look on the faces in the second pic below sums up my expression when I saw the negs for the first time.

Here's a couple of examples:.

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