Positive news for BW and slide film shooters

[Lauffray]

Awesome ! You make me want to try this. Do you expose your film any differently if you know it's intended for reversal process ?

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm bw film photog. Like printing few times per month.

But this is how I feel here: Chinese speaking about something in the middle of Australian continent.
I don't know their language and their location is completely irrelevant to me.

But international service, which was mentioned, makes me feel what we are at the same planet, at least 🙂

 

[HHPhoto]

Awesome ! You make me want to try this. Do you expose your film any differently if you know it's intended for reversal process ?

No.

For some films a pull 1 or push 1 development option is possible, if you like or need that.
Just look at the pdf, there the films are listed. You don't need to understand German, because films names and ISO numbers and push / pull are all the same in German and English (and French, Italian, Spanish and so on.....).

Cheers, Jan

 

[HHPhoto]

I'm bw film photog. Like printing few times per month.

But this is how I feel here: Chinese speaking about something in the middle of Australian continent.
I don't know their language and their location is completely irrelevant to me.

But international service, which was mentioned, makes me feel what we are at the same planet, at least 🙂

No, not at all.

Even if you don't speak any German word you can deal with them.

In the German pdf you have all the films offered, and the ISO numbers and push / pull options available. Simple to understand because all the same in English.

Choose your films, go out shooting and just send the films to the lab with a short note that you want the Scala process for development (or write that you want BW slides).
You can write the note in English, they understand it.
Then you will get the details for payment from them, you pay and will get your films back.
That's it.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Spanik]

1. Tonality:
BW slides have a much different tonalilty than BW film prints or digital BW. It is not a question of better or worse, it is a matter of differentiation. You can add more tones to your photography.

Ok, but you only have it when you project, not when you print/scan because then it gets lost.

2. Contrast:
Prints (silver-halide and inkjet) have a physical limit concerning their contrast range: 5 - 5,5 stops. More is not possible.
Not so with reversal film / slides (both colour and BW): Here you have a much bigger contrast range of 8-10 stops (depending on film and process).
Resulting in a much much better brillance of the picture. The slides have more brillant highlights and more deeper blacks than the print in comparison, and a wider tonal scale in between the highlights and deep blacks.

With slide film and projection maybe. But these are not slide films (Scala is) but normal b&w films with reversal development. So I doubt the same applies because the range is determined by photosensitivity of the chemistry and that was selected in function of a negative-print proces.

3. Projection:
Slide projection is unsurpassed concerning resolution, sharpness, brillance and tonality. Digital projection cannot compete at all in this regard, because the resolution of digital projectors is extremely low. The imaging chain in digital projection is very weak, the sensor resolution is destroyed by the much much lower resolution of the digital projector. And all digital projectors have also the general design flaw that in vertical direction the resolution is even about 40% less than in horizontal direction.
And they are extremely expensive.
Slide projectors, even new ones, are very cheap in comparison.

Ok, again I do like colour slide projection, don't use any other film. But I do not see any reason to project b&w. But that could be attributed to taste.

4. Costs:
For those without an own darkroom or scanner, or those on a tight budget with not enough money for good lab prints or scans, BW slides are an excellent alternative because of their lower overall costs (same here as with colour slides).
Highest quality at lowest costs.

Cheers, Jan

Cost of film+print or slide is similar. I pay the same for a develloped b&w as for a devellped slide. Same for b&w as for colour, slide or negative: one devellopment = one price. Now slide film is more expensive but if I just get a standard print it comes out at the same (taking 6x4.5 as I use most)

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

Well, similar, more or less.....
I used dr5 in the past and was only partly satiesfied. Overdeveloped one film and a very unfriendly reaction from the owner. And problems with the customs because he had given wrong data on the package.

Yah. Me too. The dr5 owner was a psychotic douche in email conversations even before I sent him anything to work with.

 

[HHPhoto]

Ok, but you only have it when you project, not when you print/scan because then it gets lost.

You also have it on the lighttable.
And when you print on direct positive paper (Harman or Imago), you also get a very different tonality compared to a print from BW negative film.

With slide film and projection maybe. But these are not slide films (Scala is) but normal b&w films with reversal development. So I doubt the same applies because the range is determined by photosensitivity of the chemistry and that was selected in function of a negative-print proces.

Completely wrong.
All BW films, which are suitable for reversal development, deliver a unique tonality.
They are often even better as films like Scala 200X or Fomapan R.
I know what I am talking about, I've tested all of them.

Ok, again I do like colour slide projection, don't use any other film. But I do not see any reason to project b&w. But that could be attributed to taste.

Just try it and you will see that it is worth it.

Cost of film+print or slide is similar. I pay the same for a develloped b&w as for a devellped slide. Same for b&w as for colour, slide or negative: one devellopment = one price. Now slide film is more expensive but if I just get a standard print it comes out at the same (taking 6x4.5 as I use most)

Depends on the labs and country. Here in Germany using slides is mostly cheaper than negative film + quality prints.
But slide film is definitely cheaper than negative film + scans. And with slide film you don't need scans, because you already have the finished picture.

Cheers, Jan

 

[J enea]

I have a home recipe that I use to do B&W slides. I gotta say, they are verry addictive. I liked them much more than I ever thought I would. Rollei retro 80s and 400s are a thing of beuty projected. and forget MF RR80s. I projected one slide 10 feet by 10 feet, taken on a mamiya 6 and projected on a hasselblad 80pcp. WOW! WOW! is all I could and can say. I hate to admit it, but it puts velvia 50 to shame and I LOVE velvia 50

 

[Sumolux]

B/W slides are amazing to work with...

B/W slides are amazing to work with...

"......If you ever had seen BW slides on a light table or projected on a screen you would have not asked.....😉.

I have to agree 1,000% !
People don't know what they are missing.
I am still using up old supply of Agfa Scala, and have not gotten Fomapan R yet, but the gradations of gray tones are so subtle and varied that that you don't miss color. Sometimes when I am looking at those slides, for a microsecond here and there I forget it is not color. It is really worth giving it a try.

Furthermore, I prefer to work in slide film because the development is cheaper and it takes up less space.
All in all there are usually only a few shots that I would go to the trouble of printing, so it saves a lot of time and money too.
Slides should make a comeback !