Printing BW400CN negs

[AlanO]

I have some old BW400CN negs I would like to print. Will they print up like true bw film or is it a waste of time and materials? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Rick58]

I'm very interested in the replies to this thread. I have ten rolls in my fridge I've been Hee-Hawin' over for the past year. I bought them on clearance at a local shop and began kicking myself as I was leaving the driveway.

 

[AlanO]

I'm very interested in the replies to this thread. I have ten rolls in my fridge I've been Hee-Hawin' over for the past year. I bought them on clearance at a local shop and began kicking myself as I was leaving the driveway.

I know standard bw processing for the negs is different than for true bw (correct me if I am wrong). I actually have the developed negs and would just like to print them.

 

[Rick58]

Yeah, It's actually standard C-41 color development for the neg's

 

[vimwiz]

I have developed ilford XP2 (A black a white C-41 process film) using a basic b&w process at home , they provide then numbers for this, found it gave chunkier grain, and less contrast, but the negs were overall ok.

I think printing will be OK. (I usually scan, and mine scanned OK, I chose B&W rather than colour for the scanner settings)

 

[vintagesnaps]

I thought that negatives from that film weren't intended to be used with B&W photo paper and chemistry, but I think I only tried that film maybe once and never tried it in the darkroom.

However, (and I don't know if I can make this long story short!) I found in my stash some Panalure paper, and tried a sheet of it when doing lumen prints (sun prints using vintage B&W photo paper) - it turned out quite bizarre. So I looked it up to see what it was, and it was designed to be used with tungsten or fluorescent light. I think the purpose was to make B&W prints from color negs.

I've made lumen prints/photograms with the Panalure under the fluorescent light in my kitchen and it's worked nicely, so this week I could try a quick contact print using a strip of color C41 developed negs with it and see what I get (which I've been meaning to try). Not sure how that would compare to the BW400CN negs but might be comparable enough to give some idea if it might work to make prints from it using fluorescent light. I don't know offhand if Panalure or something comparable is still made.

 

[dxqcanada]

Kodak BW400CN is designed specifically for colour C-41 processing AND for printing on colour paper.
It has the same orange/brown base as most C-41 colour negs.

IF you want to print it on B&W paper your times will be longer and you will need to up the grade.
or as Sharon mentioned ... Kodak Panalure paper.

 

[Rick58]

Dennis, How well do the neg's scan?

 

[dxqcanada]

Don't know, never scanned that film yet.
The last time I shot with that film was B(efore)D(igital) ... I am not sure where those negs are.

but I do remember the prints coming out ok at my colour mini-lab (our printers knew how to print it as monochrome as possible)

 

[AlanO]

The little research I did, the consensus was standard bw printing did not provide a good result. Sharon, I keep me updated on how the experiment turns out.

 

[dxqcanada]

As Panalure is no longer produced you can try ILFORD GALERIE DIGITAL SILVER paper

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/producttype.asp?n=4&t=Photographic+Papers+Digital

 

[ann]

My students do this all the time, and yes it is tricky, but can be done.

 

[gsgary]

This is T400CN, negs were developed in Rodinal (instead of C41) and they scanned great

 

[AlanO]

I track down some old PANALURE and see how it works, thanks for the suggestions

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'm waiting for the next snowy cloudy day - today I have sun!! - which is just a couple of days down the road. I'm going to try it just to see...