Topic: chromogenic film in B+W chemicals?

[choppert]

Hello,

Can I develop Kodak 400CN film in normal B+W developer rather than the C41 chemicals it was designed for?

Will it still retain its wide latitude?

Thanks,



Chops

[LT]

You can indeed. I understand roger hicks often devs XP2 in standard chems. I don't know how it turns out though. Why not give it a go and let us know how you get on.

[Pete_R]

XP-2 in Aculux (15 mins) is my standard these days and I would have thought the same would work for the Kodak. XP-2 seems to retain it's latitude. I rate it at 200 but do go up or down a stop depending on conditions with no change in processing. If you want to try FX-39 then use 12 mins.

Why the Kodak? I've never used it but, as far as I know, it's much more like a colour film than the Ilford or Fuji and has a tinted base. Whether that makes a difference though I don't know. In one of those B&W mags there's a review of all three films by Julien Busselle who, I think, said he preferred the Kodak but they were being processed in C41 so may not be applicable if deve'd in b&w chemicals.

[Pete_R]

Just so happens I deve'd a couple of films today (XP-2) and one has a few frames with a wide range of exposures. But I was able to get fairly decent scans from all of them, though I did have to change the gain of the scanner to achieve it. But it shows the film still has a wide tolerance even deve'd in b&w chemicals. I suspect the Kodak would be similar but not confirmed of course. Here's the negs. The finished pics are in this weekend's thread.