I understand that certain brands of chromogenic B&W film lacks the orangey mask you find on most C-41 films. Which ones are they and can they be processed in an E-6 kit to make B&W slides? What EI would they be shot at?
What do the results look like?
XP2 is the only chromogenic I know of that gives you a black and white negative, intended for printing on black and white paper. I have no idea about cross processing.
I seem to recall seeing another thread here on APUG about in which cross-processing chromogenic B&W films was discussed. You might try doing a search on appropriate keywords to try to find it.
I have crossed Kodak's c41 B&w in E6. It needs to be rated at an EI of 12-25 and produces a beautifully smooth and grainless slide. The slide has a cyan tint. If you under expose it or over develope it the highlights can go pink.
If you shoot BW400CN at EI 12-25, and bring it to a E-6 lab, will they accept it? Wow this is super cool! JD...do you have an example to show? What other instructions do I need to tell the lab? I think this is super cool!
Call around for a lab to do this...
Most labs shy away from souping c41 films in e6 chems. As one very capable lab rat once told me, "E6 chemestry is very emotional."
As for technique and tips...
Test it and find out.
I have done this a few times and I always bracketed. The first time I did it I shot it as low as 50 or 32 and it began to come out at the low end. The next couple times I tried pushing (got pink) and bracketed down to ~6. From there I have only shot it at 12-25 and have had good results.
I would think that if you tried it with XP2 you wouldn't have to wory about the pink in the highlights and might beable to push it which would give you contrast when you wanted it.
I might have some slides, but I suspect that they are in storage back in Detroit.
The XP-2 Super (Ilford Film) cross processes in E-6. At EI 200, it results in greenish transparencies.
I've had great luck with exposing the film at 200, processing it in standard B&W chemicals, bleaching it and then sending it to a regular C-41 machine. The results are good slides with good color. The process needs a little tweaking. I find that developing it as if it's Tri-X @ EI 1600 works well.
I shot Kodak 400BW two to three stops overexposed, then had it processed as E-6 ISO 400 film. The results were mostly greenish toned, though interesting. A few samples are at:
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
The first two are two stops overexposed, and the last one three stops over exposed. All things considered, I would rather use the DR5 process for B/W slides.