B&W Films Compared!

2828 by Julia Silber and Peter Kolonia B&W FILMS COMPARED!

f color photography is “gaudy,” RiteAid, Target, Walgreens, etc.) ac- as the famous photographer cept conventional black-and-white Walker Evans is said to have pro- If you haven’t films for processing and printing; it claimed, what does that make tried classic takes about a week, and costs approxi- Iblack-and-white? Elegant, refined, un- mately $5 for developing and $.39 for derstated, cerebral, cool, straightfor- black-and-white each print. Call 1-800-345-6973 for ward, graphic, yet subtle. These and yet, here are the location of a Qualex lab near you. many other qualities could help make 28 compelling Conventional films like Ilford HP5 your next vacation album or portrait Plus or Kodak Tri-X aren’t your only sitting something special. And for our reasons why entrée to the magic of black-and-white. money, if you want to learn photogra- you should! Chromogenic (C-41 process) films phy’s ropes, there’s still no better, less such as Kodak T400 CN and Ilford expensive, or more satisfying way than XP2 Super let you shoot and drop off developing and printing black-and-white film in your black-and-white at any minilab where it can be processed very own darkroom. and printed in regular color chemistry, usually inexpen- Now more than ever, film manufacturers are making it sively and quickly. Still other options include a black-and- easy to shoot, process, and print monochrome films. As white slide film (Agfa’s Scala), and the distinctively differ- our chart shows, traditional black-and-white emulsions ent look of black-and-white infrared films. are plentiful. Kodak recently demonstrated its commit- Our advice? Explore several different paths to black- ment to black-and-white by building a state-of-the-art, and-white, and by the time you’re finished, you may just computerized, and highly automated film-coating facil- find yourself agreeing with Mr. Evans! ity in Rochester exclusively for its T-Max, Tri-X, Plus-X, Except for street prices, all data presented in the fol- and other monochrome emulsions. As for processing, lowing charts came from the film manufacturers, and most Qualex-affiliated photofinishing sites (CVS, are valid at press time, but subject to change. p Kodak NA NA FP4 125 FP4Plus Ilford lodH5Pu 0 P ANA NA T HP5 Kodak 400 HP5Plus NA Ilford NA PAN F NA 50 NA PAN F DELTA Ilford 3200 Delta Ilford gaAfpn10AX109 150 APX Agfapan 100 Agfa oa T Kodak NA NA DELTA 400 $3.89 NA Delta NA B A, $3.59 Ilford DELTA 2 $3.49 stops B 100 10 A, sec B A, 16 Ilford 2 100 $2.99 Neopan1600 10 NR stops NEOPAN sec D B, A, 120sec 10 Fuji $2.99 1.5stops 125 Neopan400 7 D B, A, NEOPAN NA $2.95 200 Fuji 100NEOPAN B A, Neopan NA NR 70 Fuji NA FP400L NR 400 Fortepan NA Forte NA 80 FP200L NA 200 1- Fortepan 90 Forte 14 FP100L 100 110 Fortepan Forte APX Agfapan 400 Agfa

Rneo hte pesfrwihn xouecmesto srqie.**for 36-exposure 35mmroll *Range ofshutter speeds for whichnoexposure compensation is required. ANUFACTURER omt:A=3m;B=10Rlfim 2 oll;D=SetFl ie.N o vial;NR =NotRecommended NA= Not Available; D=SheetFilm sizes. C= 220Rollfilm; B=120Rollfilm; A=35mm; Formats: M 100 Acros 100 and faster and 100 100 Acros et r sec Delta Pro 20Posec 3200 Pro P 0 sec sec APX 400 APX 100 0 r sec 400 Pro cncl2 P3051- 5 320 TP 25 echnical lsX15P 2 10 125 PX Plus-X 125 6010 andfaster 1600 1600 0 sec 100 lssec Plus Mx1010M 0 8 200 100TMX -Max 100 2 sec 125 andfaster 400 400 400 200 100 Pan sec FILM NAME

ISO RATING

LETTER CODE

RESOLUTION (LINES /MM )

RMS (GRANULARITY ) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ 2- 2- 2- 2- 2- 10- 10- 2- 2- 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 sec sec ⁄ ⁄ 1 1 ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000

⁄ ⁄ RECIPROCITY 1,000 1,000 RANGE * tp ,B$3.09 B A, $2.99 2 stops D B, A, NR tp ,B $4.49 D B, A, 3 stops $4.59 C B, A, $8.79 3 stops D B, A, NR $2.74 D C, B, A, 3 stops $2.59 D C, B, A, 1 stop $3.09 $4.49 B NR A, B A, $3.59 1 stop B A, $3.89 3 stops D B, A, 1 stop

PUSHABILITY

FORMATS

PRICE ** excellent shadow detail. andtoexhibit high- andlow-contrast situations, Claimedtoperform well in accepts retouching dyes. Antihalation backingofroll- andsheet-filmformats for subjectswithuniform tonality. Excellent smoothnessclaimed low-contrast subjects. Relatively well-suited steepcharacteristiccurve to processed inblack-and-whitereversal chemistry. May produce full-tone black-and-whiteslideswhen failure withexposures than1/1000sec. shorter extraexposure) duetoreciprocity compensation (i.e. Plus-Xrequires exposure pleasenote: Strobe users, cial developer (Technidol) for bestresults. It’s butrequires suitable for generalphotography, spe- Kodak’s slowest andfinest-grainblack-and-whitefilm. or maximum sharpness(Ilfosol-S 1:9). optimized for finegrainandspeed(Ilfotec HC1:15) HP5PlusmayDepending onthefilmdeveloper, be by two andstillproduce aprintableimage. May beoverexposed by sixstopsorunderexposed Claimed tohave unusually broad exposure latitude. rectly exposedandprocessed. iffilmiscor- suitable for “mural-size” enlargements, Ilford claimsthat thefinegrainofthisfilmmakes it may beratedashighISO25,000. Delta3200 surveillance), For specialpurposes(e.g. eral-purpose black-and-whitefilm. Delta400Pro may beIlford’ssure bestgen- latitude, andwideexpo- excellentsharpness, With finegrain, processed inblack-and-whitereversal chemistry. Neopan1600SuperPresto.) (a.k.a. sothatfilmsmay beprocessed together.Neopan 400, May beprocessed usingsamedeveloping timesas C ure characteristics. Extremely favorable reciprocity fail- and-white films. Said tohave thefinestgrainofallnonspecialtyblack- pronounced grainmay result. pushed toISO1000, When tungsten lightduetoextendedred sensitivity. well-suitedClaimed tobeparticularly for useunder opers are recommended. finegraindevel- For bestresolution, retouching dyes. Rollfilm format’s antihalationbackingaccepts developer. Agfa’s black-and-whitefilm century-old of Rodinal, dilutions Wide rangeofcontrastspossibleby varying ak,andistherefore climates. well-suited todry marks, Claimed tobehighly resistant tostaticelectricity Will produce full-toneblack-and-whiteslideswhen OMMENTS ) ) * MM / ** RATING ANUFACTURER USHABILITY ESOLUTION ETTER CODE ECIPROCITY ANGE ORMATS RICE ILM NAME LINES GRANULARITY COMMENTS P ISO L R ( F R R RMS ( P M F

Kodak T-Max 400 400TMY 125 10 1⁄10-1⁄10,000 3 stops A,B, D $4.59 With wide exposure latitude, ﬁne grain, and excellent 400 sec sharpness, this is one of Kodak’s best general-purpose black-and-white ﬁlms.

Kodak T-Max 800 P3200 125 18 1⁄10-1⁄10,000 3 stop A $5.69 For special applications (e.g. surveillance), may be P3200 TMZ sec rated up to ISO 25,000.

This ﬁlm is especially made for retouching, and will Kodak Tri-X 320 320 320TXP 100 16 1⁄10-1⁄1,000 2 stops B, C, D $2.97 accept liquid retouching dyes on either backing or sec emulsion sides.

Kodak Tri-X 400 400 400TX 100 17 1⁄10-1⁄1,000 3 stops A,B $4.25 Prized by many photographers for its distinctive tonal sec rendition and grain pattern. Note compensation is required for exposures shorter than 1/1000 sec.

Kodak T400 CN 400 T400 CN NA 9 120- 3 stops A, B $3.49 Kodak’s C-41 monochromatic ﬁlm best suited for 1⁄10,000 sec printing on conventional black-and-white papers. Kodak’s C-41 monochrome ﬁlm best suited for print- Kodak Black& 400 BWC NA NA 120- 3 stops A $2.99*** ing on a wide range of minilab RA-4 color enlarging White+400 1⁄10,000 sec papers (i.e. Royal Edge).

Kodak Portra 400 PORTRA NA 9 120- NR A, B, C $6.39 Kodak’s C-41 monochrome ﬁlm best suited for OMOGENIC Kodak’s line of pro-oriented enlarging papers (Porta, 400BW 1⁄10,000 sec Ultra, and Supra III). CHR Ilford XP2 super 400 XP2 NA NA 1⁄2-1⁄10,000 1 stop A,B $2.89 Claimed to have extremely wide exposure latitude, sec and to be optimized for printing on conventional black-and-white enlarging papers.

Ilford SFX 200 200 SFX NA NA NA NR A,B $6.49 Most dramatic infrared results are obtained with Infrared Ilford’s SFX 200 red ﬁlter,which requires a four-stop increase in exposure.

Kodak High Speed NA HIE 80 18 1-1⁄10,000 NR A $10.99 Speed varies with color temperature of light source. Infrared sec Daylight: approximately ISO 50 (with No. 25 Wratten INFRARED ﬁlter); tungsten: approximately ISO 125 (with ﬁlter).

Agfa Agfa Scala 200 SCALA 120 11 1⁄2 - 1⁄10,000 3 stops A, B, D $7.49 The sole b&w ﬁlm for slides only. It’s processed at 200x sec just three labs in the United States. Check Agfa’s web site (www.agfa.com) for lab locations. SLIDE

*Range of shutter speeds for which no exposure compensation is required. **for 36-exp. 35mm roll ***for 24-exp. NR = Not Recommended Formats: A = 35mm; B = 120 Rollﬁlm; C = 220 Rollﬁlm; D = Sheet Film sizes. NA = Not Available. Digital B&W: A May-to-December romance?

espite the age difference, veteran black-and-white film and newcomer digital im- aging are quite compatible. All the monochrome shooter needs is a good film Dscanner to enjoy image enhancement, cool collages, and superb inkjet prints. Black-and-white may even be preferable to color, digitally speaking. Its files are usually smaller, so your computer will run faster, and file storage fades as an issue. Moreover, black-and-white inkjet prints use primarily black ink (duh), which, if your printer takes separate cartridges for black and color inks, can save you some bucks. (Black cartridges are often less expensive than color.) For our money, though, the sweetest reasons to go digital with black-and-white are the plug-ins made for Adobe Photoshop. Most are designed for color use, true, but many will OLONIA create eye-popping effects when applied to black-and-white originals, too. The Nik Color K

Efex Pro plug-ins (www.nikmultimedia.com), for example, successfully “antiqued” the ETER