Kodak BW 400CN film question

[colyn]

I broke down today and bought a roll.
Any experience with this film?? Is it good or a waste?
My past experience with C-41 B&W film has been with purple prints from it.

 

[thelovecollect]

i'm curious try this film as well..
i hear it's contrasty..

 

[flashover]

I use it often and have never got a purple tint to the prints.
http://static.flickr.com/33/216366941_7af06113d1.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/62/216366939_73240b4819.jpg
both shot with BW400CN and Contax IIIa -50mm Tessar

 

[kaiyen]

All of the c41 films are, in my opinion, not very contrast at all. if you're getting contrasty prints, it's the lab, not the film.

The Kodak film should produce slightly to significantly more neutral prints because it has the orange base which minilabs are expecting. but I've had tinted prints from them before, too.

allan

 

[OldNick]

If you have a computer and printer, why get lab prints at all? I get lab development and a CD, along with a thumbnail index print. I then load the images on my computer, select those worth saving, and print what I like.

Jim N.

 

[chris91387]

colyn, funny you should ask that question. i shot it for the first time last week and just picked up the negs this morning.

normally i can read b&w negs very well but i'm sort of at a loss with these as the purple-cast is throwing me off. they also look dense.

if they were to have a purple cast to them i would assume any purple you'd see on a print would be due to using color paper?

i'll scan them this weekend, which will obviously pick up the purple cast, then convert to b&w and see how they look.

the dumb thing i did was shoot this film on a new camera as a test. probably should have shot a film stock that i know better. oh well.

i'll post samples next week.

- chris

 

[anaanda]

I broke down today and bought a roll.
Any experience with this film?? Is it good or a waste?
My past experience with C-41 B&W film has been with purple prints from it.

I use this film a lot and happen to like it..as well as the XP2. I do mine own prints at home and am very happy with them. There is a slight cast but it depends on the paper. If you use nice rag paper which isn't stark white and has more of a creme off white color the prints look like wet fiber prints. I suggest using a warm paper. If you use a cold matte paper you get a little bit of a cast, but it again it has to do more with the paper than the film in my opinion...

 

[Bryce]

Stuff works dandy as long as you won't try to print on traditional B+W materials. The orange mask interferes with contrast control with V.C. papers and the paper's ability to actually resolve grain shows something like tapioca. Dye clouds rather than grain. Scanning in my limited experience is comparable in overall quality to the very slowest traditional B+W films; this is where this film really excels imho.

 

[jan normandale]

here are 2 of mine.. no purple etc. I like the film

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=42744&cat=5486

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=42742&cat=6247

 

[JoeFriday]

I've been using the stuff for over a year, and think it's great

some of my examples:
http://static.flickr.com/71/173875310_1a48be3db0_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/20/70355175_336b3b5216_o.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/47/114463420_c2ac7894c2_o.jpg

 

[colyn]

I use it often and have never got a purple tint to the prints.
http://static.flickr.com/33/216366941_7af06113d1.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/62/216366939_73240b4819.jpg
both shot with BW400CN and Contax IIIa -50mm Tessar

Several years ago I tried some I think Ilford film. Each time I had it printed I got purple tinted prints and was told by more than one lab that that was the way it worked. I quit using it and on a whim bought a roll today which I plan to try tomorrow.
I'll see how it works...

 

[colyn]

Thanks for the samples. They all look good so I'm giving it a try.
I want to get prints then pick the best and scan those negs.

 

[phototone]

The reason some people get "purple" prints with this type of C-41 processed b/w film, is that they have the lab make "lab" prints. All mini-labs print on color paper, and they scan the b/w film just like they do the color negative film. If they do not have a "channel" in their printer optimized for this film, there will be a color cast to the final print, as all the prints are on color paper. If you scan the film yourself, you need to either scan as a greyscale, or convert your scan to a greyscale file, and then you will get as neutral a prints as your printer/ink/paper combination is capable of printing.

 

[raftman]

I've used two rolls of the stuff so far with very satisfactory results. One set did come back with a bit of a slightly cyan tinge, but I thought it looked quite alright that way.

 

[rogue_designer]

I've been using this film almost exclusively since I went back to rangefinders about 5 months ago - just about everything in my gallery here is shot on it.

No problem with labs or color cast - tho I rarely get prints made - just processing, and a photo cd for quick proofing/web uploads. Then I scan winners in high res myself.

I do find myself doing a quick desaturation to kill any cast (if you significantly underexpose, the lab scanner, and I assume printer, will show some color fluxuation) but otherwise, it performs admirably.

For those of us without the time to consistently do our own processing, it's a godsend. Now if only they made it in 100asa.

 

[colyn]

How well does this film handle B&W filters such as yellow, red, or green.
Do these filters give this film the same results as on conventional film?

 

[rogue_designer]

How well does this film handle B&W filters such as yellow, red, or green.
Do these filters give this film the same results as on conventional film?

A few in my gallery are taken with a red filter on the camera. As far as I can tell, it behaves very much as expected - tho perhaps is too much contrast for this film in some circumstances (tho I have not taken a close look at the negatives to those that made me feel that way, so I could be mistaken).

 

[matt fury]

The big difference between the Ilford and the Kodak films are that XP is meant to be printed on B&W paper, while 400CN is meant to be printed on color paper. I've only ever used the Kodak however, and while I can get pretty good results out of it, it doesn't "feel" like b&w enough to me. But I'm a noob, so...

 

[Bill58]

If you have a computer and printer, why get lab prints at all? I get lab development and a CD, along with a thumbnail index print. I then load the images on my computer, select those worth saving, and print what I like.

Jim N.

Myself included-quick, painless and cheap!

 

[colyn]

A few in my gallery are taken with a red filter on the camera. As far as I can tell, it behaves very much as expected - tho perhaps is too much contrast for this film in some circumstances (tho I have not taken a close look at the negatives to those that made me feel that way, so I could be mistaken).

The red filter gives extreme contrast even in conventional film. I use a yellow filter for most situations where I need more contrast.