BW400CN - nice but still not sure

Hi Everyone. My wife's 1971 Spotmatic came back from repair, so I did a test to check the shutter and the meter. I used a roll of the BW400CN C-41 type of film. I scanned the frames on a Plustek 7600i film scanner. Sometimes, the BW400 works really well; sometimes it seems a bit dull, or at least does not jump out at me the way a well-processed traditional film would. I suppose the BW400 has limited appeal now because you no longer have 1-hour labs in every strip mall, so the convenience factor is gone. Anyway, here are some examples. Frame 1 is in Glendora, Mississippi, 35mm Super-Takumar. Frame 2 is in Webb, Mississippi, taken with the 135mm f/3.5 SMC Takumar. Frame 3 is near Webb, with the 135 and a orange filter. This is typical of the Mississippi Delta in spring. Frame 4 is in Webb, 35mm f/3.5.

The good news: the Spotmatic is great. The finder is a bit dim and the CDS meter rather slow to respond, but its fun to use trusty old equipment. I still have plenty of the mercury batteries, so the built-in meter was not recalibrated for a different voltage. Super-Takumar.

Kodachromeguy said:

I suppose the BW400 has limited appeal now because you no longer have 1-hour labs in every strip mall, so the convenience factor is gone.

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It has even less appeal now that it is no longer manufactured.
(discontinued by Kodak towards the end of 2014)

You can use Ilford XP2, it is equally good. Kodak CN400 has a very small grain, and it prints nicely in a traditional darkroom.

Where are you finding BW400CN? I thought Kodak discontinued it a couple years ago.

Well, in case no one else says so - your shots are terrific!

pdeeh said:

It has even less appeal now that it is no longer manufactured.
(discontinued by Kodak towards the end of 2014)

Click to expand...

I always preferred IlfordC41 over it's Kodak cousin.

I always liked the stuff. Good shots.

I agree with wamateur (#5), your shots are excellent, kodachromeguy. Especially the rendering of fine details in the first two images. Good one!

True, BW400CN is now discontinued, but oddly there seems to be a lot of it still around, at least in Singapore and Malaysia. when I was last in Singapore a few months ago, a shop in Bencoolen Road still had stocks of it in its window and refrigerated. I intended to buy some (not from the window supplies!) but didn't get back to the shop. I will be visiting again later this month and will drop in then.

Obviously, it's old stock. The same shop does (or it did) C41 processing, so I may test shoot a roll during one of my freewheeling strolls around the city, and see how good it is.

This may be just me, but I've used BW400CN before in 120, and found it didn't scan easily or well for me if overexposed beyond half a stop. For scanning, I've had my best results with slight underexposure, about a third stop does it best for me. As darkosaric (#3) commented, it seems a tad sharper than Ilford XP2. I dislike the heavy orange cast in the (Kodak) film, but again as darkosaric said, it prints very well in the darkroom.

All in all, BW400CN was a good film, and I will miss it when the last of my stash is used up (+/-20 rolls left). Yes, we still have Ilford XP2, which in general does what I want it to in my Rolleiflex with yellow or orange filters, so all is not (quite) lost.