At 08:25 5/26/2002 -0400, frank theriault wrote: >I've only used C41 b&w once (it was Ilford, I can't remember the exact >type), and I hated the blue/purple cast from the minilab. Said I'd never >use the crap again.
Must be XP2, all the others are from Kodak (T400 CN, B&W+, Portra 400 B&W). I've used them all and am pressed to see any difference. The Portra seems to have somewhat finer grain, whereas the B&W+ has a reputation of being a "cheapo". >I'm wondering if the cast is inevitable from minilabs, but if you get it >printed >on B&W paper maybe it works? Anyone else out there know? The cast is 100% the fault of the minilab. My regular shop use color paper (Agfa Prestige Digital) and I've hardly ever noticed a cast on any of my copies. Mind you, they cost twice as much as the cheapest come-back-next-week alternatives. However, note that all the Kodak films use a brown/yellow base whereas Ilford XP2 looks purplish grey like other b&w film. This is supposedly to make it easier for minilabs to process (which may account for your experiences). The down side is that if you intend to make enlargements in a darkroom on vario-contrast paper, the brown base effectively acts as a Grade 2 filter which prevents you from making low-contrast prints. I use b&w with bounce flash a lot for party pix and outdoors at night. Minilabs invariably print these as white faces on black backgrounds. The grey tones are there, but fiddling with vario-contrast prints in the darkroom is the only way to bring them out. ______________________________________________________________________ Geir Aalberg http://www.aalberg.com/ http://www.fandom.no/ - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
