C41 BW

wyogirl · Jan 21, 2016

Ok, let's say I shot a roll of c41 black and white... Not true black and white film. Could I send the negatives to be developed in c41 and then use those negatives to print in my b/w darkroom at home?

I love printing and hate developing the film. I realize some people might find that silly.

SoulfulRecover · Jan 21, 2016

Ive done plenty of B&W prints from color negatives. No problem there. Much longer exposure times though. What film are you using? The Kodak bw400cn? If so it does get developed like normal C41 rolls, then print to your hearts content

cgw · Jan 21, 2016

If you haven't yet, try some Ilford XP2.

480sparky · Jan 21, 2016

It is b&w film. It just uses a different developing process that is shared with most color negative film. Just because it doesn't use Rodinol or DD-X or similar doesn't mean it's not b&w film. What would you call it if you developed it in coffee?

timor · Jan 21, 2016

wyogirl said:
I love printing and hate developing the film. I realize some people might find that silly.

Not silly. Or... maybe. Creating good b&w print needs good negative development. No one gonna do it better, than you. And why you "hate" it in the first place ?

MartinCrabtree · Jan 21, 2016

You'll like it. Sharp and takes pushing well.

wyogirl · Jan 22, 2016

timor said:
wyogirl said:

I love printing and hate developing the film. I realize some people might find that silly.

Click to expand...

Not silly. Or... maybe. Creating good b&w print needs good negative development. No one gonna do it better, than you. And why you "hate" it in the first place ?

Watching a print come up feels like magic. Timing chemicals in a canister feels like work. Plus I curse like a drunk sailor when I'm loading the reel.

480sparky · Jan 22, 2016

wyogirl said:
.......... Plus I curse like a drunk sailor when I'm loading the reel.

Sounds like a fun date! Let's get together! :586:

MartinCrabtree · Jan 22, 2016

wyogirl said:
Watching a print come up feels like magic. Timing chemicals in a canister feels like work. Plus I curse like a drunk sailor when I'm loading the reel.

You don't feel anticipation as you unroll the developed negatives and see if what you see is what you saw? I love that part.

vintagesnaps · Jan 22, 2016

I didn't care for the developing that much either, all that measuring and tapping and timing. Mostly I was using a darkroom at a local university (which since closed) and my time was limited because, I had to work for a living! lol That and trying to use it when those pesky students weren't around (end of the semester was the time to avoid!).

How long an exposure time does it take to make B&W prints from those C41 negs to do it yourself? I haven't used any of that film in ages and probably only tried it a couple of times, but I'm thinking the negs looked quite different.

I know you could make B&W prints from color negs if you used Panalure which isn't made anymore and tungsten/fluorescent light. So I'm just wondering how this film compares .

I just like to use standard B&W film to have good quality negs to work from, and that will be archival and last indefinitely. Color can shift so I'd wonder about the B&W C41.

Now I send film out, The Darkroom in San Clemente, or there's Blue Moon in Portland, or Dwayne's in Kansas.

timor · Jan 22, 2016

Sparky is right, sounds like fun, the drunken part. Maybe couple shots before "the work" would help ?
In any case unusual situation. The opposite is much, much more common.

Ornello · Jan 22, 2016

wyogirl said:
Ok, let's say I shot a roll of c41 black and white... Not true black and white film. Could I send the negatives to be developed in c41 and then use those negatives to print in my b/w darkroom at home?

I love printing and hate developing the film. I realize some people might find that silly.

Kodak's discontinued B&W C-41 process film (BW400CN) had an orange mask and was intended to be printed on color paper in 1-hour labs along with color films. Ilford's XP2 does not have the mask, and is intended to be printed on B&W paper.

gsgary · Jan 22, 2016

If you had done search and found Ilford's website you would know the answer is yes [emoji3]

wyogirl · Jan 22, 2016

I did search but didn't get to Illford... I got a bunch of Reddit and Yahoo Answers from seemingly not bright people. Maybe I should use a different search engine. But to be fair... I asked because there was some Kodak on clearance at Kmart.