New Leica M7 and "fuzzy" negatives...

Tony S

I use the original Minolta 5400 scanner and scan C41 films.

StuartR

I will only be scanning any C41 B&W that I may in the future try and develope at home. Thanks for the tips.

Doug

There has only been one mini lab in my town that has given me C41 B&W prints without colour casts. I have no colour cast issues printing at home with an HP 7960.

Bob
 
StuartR said:
Neopan 400 is a regular B&W film as far as I know...at least 400 Presto is, as I used it in Japan...
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Hi Stuart -- Confusingly similar in name but different in technology, Neopan 400CN is a chromogenic B&W using Process C-41. It has an uncanny resemblance to Ilford XP2 Super ... as a result of Fuji licensing some technology from Ilford. Indeed, Ilford might make it for Fuji labeling. Here's a shot I made for other purposes, but which shows a Neopan 400CN box...
 
Doug -- very weird. I have never seen it. If I have not seen it in Japan, I am assuming they don't market it there. One of those, "I thought I'd seen everything" things I guess. Is it any better or worse than XP2?
 
My first idea is, if you are going to test a camera use slide film, get it developed at a first class pro lab, and the evaluate the results with a good quality lupe and lightbox. There are too many variables in your examples to be able to give any kind of meaningful insight into the performance of your camera
 
Stuart, I agree it's very weird. There was a public announcement that Fuji had licensed some XP film technology from Ilford, then this film showed up... In England! The last place I'd expect a licensed yet directly competitive product to be found. I could not find a US source for it, so ordered in a brick from RFF sponsor Robert White in the UK.

RFF member Russ has more experience with this film than I. To me, it is indistinguishable from XP2 Super. I strongly suspect it IS XP2 Super and that the licensing arrangement was more marketing than technology. And this at a time when Ilford's future looked very shaky. It may have been a way to keep the film in the market and generate some revenue from Fuji.
 
Russ and I have shot Fuji Neopan 400CN side by side with Ilford XP2 Super, and we think Neopan shows a bit more contrast and a bit more true speed than XP2. Sharpness seems to be about the same, based on studying both through an 8X loupe.
The two films may well have the same roots -- I don't have any right now to see what the box says about country of manufacture. My understanding was that Ilford did the work to develop the film for Fuji, but Fuji is certainly capable of manufacturing a C-41 film on their own.
 
Joe Brugger said:
...The two films may well have the same roots -- I don't have any right now to see what the box says about country of manufacture. My understanding was that Ilford did the work to develop the film for Fuji, but Fuji is certainly capable of manufacturing a C-41 film on their own.
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Good point about the country of manufacture labeling, Joe... Near the box's barcode and expiry date, in small black letters on green, it says:
Made in EU
for Fuji Photo Film (UK) LTD
LONDON NW3 6HY
 
Hi again and thanks indeed for all your kind replies...

I have been away for a few days and was shocked when I saw the amount of posts!!!

After reading some of your answers and opinions I was anxious to try a few things
so off I went to the same place (to keep things familiar..)same camera and same film. Leica M7, summicron 35 ASPH, Kodak C-41 BW film and this time took my hand held meter...processed the film in the same lab to avoid any more variables.

Set my tripod and focus (pretty normal so far..).
Meter WITH HANDHELD METER (this time I mean it... :D ).Overcast day, late afternoon, sun in my back. Incident reading as the contrast in the image was not dramatic...
My Sekonic gives very accurate readings in thirds of stops, so I did 1 esposure rating the film at 400 ISO and then repeated the Photo adding 1/3 of a stop each time to rate it at 350,320 and 200 ISO. I finally added the meduim yellow filter and dialed a full stop compensation for a picture rated at 200 ISO with M/Y filter.

Scanning:

16 Bit Greyscale; sharpening: Low; Grain reduction: Low ; Dust removal : Low.

As suggested in some posts previously I did set the black and white point in the extremes of the histogram in the scanner´s software and that really helps to improve the image.

I attach the images in the exact same sequence just in case you may want to have a look.(ISO 400,350,320,200 and 200 with Y filter).
This is only one of the photos I did that afternoon but I dont see the point of bothering you with more boring images when this one pretty much tells the story..
I will be very interested in your comments but I believe it´s very obvious the negs. look better the more exposure they receive.Rating at 200 ISO gives a neg. which is much more contrasty and strong, though you might need to be a bit more carefull with strong highlights...
No further post-processing has been applied to the photos and I understand that the images could look better with some work, but this images far from being of any interest or artistic value :cool: have just been shot to ilustrate this post..

Thanks again for all your kind/warm responses.

All the best, Erik.
 
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