Kodak Alaris discontinues BW400CN film

[pdeeh]

To be clear, Simon, I am not implying that I consider any remarks of yours I have ever read to be sententious nonsense ... however I have read a few by others here at APUG that were ...

I'm not at all sure I get what you're saying about Tolkien and Kindles though. I never liked Tolkien and don't have any interest in owning a Kindle.

 

[miha]

I guess people don't print (or only print 5%) because they feel they need to print big, at least 12x16; 8x10 is just a working print I often read. And to print big one needs to shoot work of art, outstanding images, something stunning, etc. Wrong! I shoot a lot and print small, albums size prints, 4x5, 5x7, even smaller on some ancient Agfa paper. Printing small is a lot less demanding, much cheaper but very rewarding nonetheless!

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear Pdeeh,

I must be getting over sensitive in my old age !

I do not like Tolkien either.... it can be Hobbit forming....

( an old joke.... but one I always enjoyed ! )

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

 

[Ektagraphic]

The long post that you just made Simon was a great one! I second your sentiments!!

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

I'm not at all sure I get what you're saying about Tolkien and Kindles though. I never liked Tolkien and don't have any interest in owning a Kindle.

The reply was not intended to be all about you...

Ken

 

[Pioneer]

Hear, hear Simon. Good post.

Another reason why I am sure I will enjoy working with XP2. Although I work hybrid, and enjoy it, I also print the old-fashioned way as well. I always had trouble getting BW400 to print the way I wanted. This is where I expect XP2 to have the edge.

Though it may be a touch off topic I will throw this out. Three of my grandchildren enjoy analogue photography with me. But it definitely isn't scanning and printing on the printer that they like. The absolutely love being able to go into the darkroom with their negatives and make and develop analogue prints. The magic of seeing the print begin to appear on the paper under the red light is what captured every one of them. If they want to take a picture and send it to a friend, or print it on a printer, they just use their phone. Everyone can do that. But not everyone can bring their very own black and white print to school to show off.

EDIT - In fact, one of them has already moved to a 6x6 folder because they like the prints better. And Ilford's paper is terrific.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Three of my grandchildren enjoy analogue photography with me. But it definitely isn't scanning and printing on the printer that they like. The absolutely love being able to go into the darkroom with their negatives and make and develop analogue prints. The magic of seeing the print begin to appear on the paper under the red light is what captured every one of them. If they want to take a picture and send it to a friend, or print it on a printer, they just use their phone. Everyone can do that. But not everyone can bring their very own black and white print to school to show off.

EDIT - In fact, one of them has already moved to a 6x6 folder because they like the prints better. And Ilford's paper is terrific.

I've told this story before, but when my son was in the 8th grade I was approached by the faculty at his school about teaching a little photo class to a few of the students as a consolation gift. They were the ones who hadn't made it into the annual school play.

So we made pinhole cameras from unused one-gallon paint cans. We used Ilford paper for the negatives and Ilford paper for the contact positives. I turned the women's faculty restroom into a red-light darkroom with a hanging white bulb, set out trays and washer and timer, the whole nine yards. Had a sturdy DIY paint can tripod adapter, exposure charts, and a stopwatch for the black electrical tape shutters.

The kids loved it. And mind you these were 7th and 8th grade kids who had just begun learning that all adults must always be avoided at all costs.

About a week later I was at the school for some reason and one of the faculty members pulled me aside and told me she had watched as one of the girls from the class had spent that entire week walking around the playground and shoving her hands in the other kids faces.

A little additional investigation had determined that the girl was actually asking the other kids to smell her hands. I had told her after the class ended that the smell of fixer on her hands meant that she had taken her rightful place in a very long line of traditional darkroom photographers stretching back 178 years.

Apparently she hadn't washed her hands during the entire following week...



Ken

[Edit: I just looked and the very simple webpage I made for this class is still available here. It shows the student's final photographs from two sessions. Kirsten was the young lady with the fixer hands. Wow, has it already been almost ten years?]

 

[Stephen Frizza]

The Last big batch of Kodak BW400cn I will process and print. I enjoyed working with you!

 

[Roger Cole]

Wow, that's 200 rolls if I counted rows and columns correctly.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Wow, that's 200 rolls if I counted rows and columns correctly.

Sadly its only 4 weeks worth of stock :-(

 

[ME Super]

I shoot 98% B&W film but scan with my Nikon 4000, 9000 and Leafscan 45. 95% of my images I display only online and maybe only 5% I print.

I shoot probably 75% color, 25% B&W. It all gets scanned by the lab. I print way more B&W than I do color. Maybe that's because the color I do shoot is slides, where the slide IS the print.

 

[Xmas]

The only reason prints even exist is because there was not the ability to scan negs, nor was there computer monitors and smart phones at a time in photography's past to display one's work. If there were I sincerely doubt printing would have become that popular and certainly would never have evolved or expanded the way it did. It would likely still exist though as a tiny fraction of the end result of photography, as it is now. I know this is APUG but I will admit I'm a hybrid photographer, I shoot 98% B&W film but scan with my Nikon 4000, 9000 and Leafscan 45. 95% of my images I display only online and maybe only 5% I print. Of the ones I print though I have sold for some for $500+ and have had some in charity auctions go for as much as $900. Nobody would pay that for one of my online scans!

I think you have quaint ideas about prints... and history.
I have an oil on canvas above my fire place :In arciada, portable & has tangible existence; like
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel
people do not value images on screens they are like ghosts or computer files.
Only there until any of lightening strike, power outage, head crash, or software fault.

 

[Ektagraphic]

Steve- was there a reason in particular to use that film over another, ore even a true black and white?

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Steve- was there a reason in particular to use that film over another, ore even a true black and white?

This material was best suited to one of my clients applications however they will in the future switch to Ilford XP2. In terms of the quantity of film 200 rolls of this material is only a small percent of the film I work with each month. I process far more true black and white film than I do BW400CN.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I finished single roll of 120 film in vermeer in 14 months.

 

[Roger Cole]

Well that's a pro versus a hobbyist, and a hobbyist without enough time to shoot or print at that. I couldn't use 200 rolls of 36x film in two years, probably. Maybe, if that was the only kind of film I shot.

That's 7200 exposures. Over two years that would come to 9.86 shots per day, day in and day out, every day, or the averaged equivalent.

Of course I'm also the guy who likes 120 because, aside from bigger negatives, 36 is just too darned many and the roll stays in my camera for weeks.

 

[madgardener]

Agreeing with Roger about how long that would take me as well. I'm having trouble shooting a roll of 36 every 2 weeks, and I thought I was doing pretty good at that. I am going toi miss BW400CN a lot. It was my favorite film. I just ordered a couple rolls of XP2, hoping it's close enough that I won't have a completely new learning curve.